Page 17 of At First Flight
Chapter Four – Lila
“Honey, I’m home,” I call out as I step foot in the small craftsman-style house Ashvi rents just on the outskirts of Coral Bell Cove, Virginia.
My bag drops to the floor at my feet with a thud as I slip off my tennis shoes by the front door. The new bag was a purchase in Scotland, along with my new wardrobe, courtesy of Dean’s card.
It was funny how I expected the card to decline the first time I used it at the bar across the street from the hotel. My hand shook like a leaf as I handed it over, but in the end, it was all clear.
Dean had been true to his word, and over the entire two weeks, I thought more about him than my ex, which was just plain annoying, considering how we ended things in the airport.
“You’re back!” my gorgeous friend shouts as she darts out of her room and nearly tackles me to the ground. Ashvi Basu is an energetic spitfire whose energy matches her height. And with her dark features and long black hair, she turns heads wherever we go. If only they knew how much true crime she watches or her obsession with plants, they’d think differently. She is my personal Seymour Krelborn, and I may have had a nightmare or two about a real man-eating plant.
Seriously, she has at least forty succulents lining her kitchen counter, and she’s named them all and has them on strict water diets.
But I love her just as much as my siblings and have since her family moved to our small coastal town in second grade. She asked to borrow my scissors to cut gum from her hair that ourclass bully, Ashley, put there during lunch. But instead of just cutting hers, she took the blades to the end of Ashley’s braid. Her tenacity amazed me, and we’ve been best friends since that day.
“Oomph,” I grunt as my back collides with the small table in the foyer, but instead of complaining, I wrap my arms around Ashvi and smile. Being here with her reminds me of how much I missed home over the past two years. Hell, if I’m being honest with myself, I’ve been missing home since I left for college ten years ago.
But I had my reasons for staying away then, just as I do now.
“Oh, how I’ve missed you,” I murmur into her hair. I may have seen her two weeks ago, but it feels like a lifetime.
“Tell me about it,” she says as she pulls back, holding me at arm’s length with her graceful fingers clutching my shoulders. “And I do mean tell me. Everything.”
While on my self-discovery trip, I’d spoken with Ashvi only a handful of times, just enough to keep her anxiety over my well-being at bay but clearly not enough to feed her curiosity. Especially once she learned that Prescott had canceled all my cards.
“I will…but I can’t right now, Vi.”
“That’s okay. I’ll get it all out of you with some red wine later.”
“From your brother’s winery?” Vi is the youngest of five, another reason we are so close, and her eldest brother owns an award-winning winery in the Napa Valley area of California. He frequently sends her boxes of his newest batches.
“You know it.”
She knows how much I love his Cabernet, and like she dangles a bone in front of a dog, I nod. One glass of that red deliciousness and I turn into an open book. A fault that she loves to exploit at her whim.
Once she releases me from her grasp, I reach down for my bag and start wandering toward the guest room. Until I can find a place in town to rent, Ashvi offered to let me stay with her. She knows moving back into my family's home is the last place I want to be. Not because I don’t love my parents or siblings, but because I am jobless, there are expectations to help out with my mother’s business—a local nanny service. Unlike my siblings, farming doesn’t come naturally to me, so on the bright side, I won’t be asked to help my dad. A green thumb is not something I possess.
Setting the leather duffel on the bed, I pull the few items out, placing them in the dresser drawers. Despite the no-limit card Dean had given me, I restrained myself and only purchased a few necessities. A few pants, shirts, and undergarments.
“Oh, this is pretty,” Vi says as she grabs the dark red lace lingerie I’d splurged on. When I saw it in the store, it immediately reminded me of the maroon color of Dean’s shirt. Before I could blink, the sales lady was grabbing my size and packaging it up for me.
“Mm-hmm.”
Holding it against her much thinner body, Ashvi twists one way, then the other, admiring the lace on her body.
“Please, for the love of all things tartan, tell me you picked this up for some sexy Scottish mystery man who helped you forget all about that prick of an ex.”
Yanking it from her grasp, she cackles as I shove it into the top dresser drawer. “I just thought it was pretty, okay?”
“Sure. Sure.”
Vi drapes her body dramatically on the bed as she watches me put the rest of my things away.
“So how long do you think it will take before your parents realize your home?”
“I give it two days max. The rental car isn’t going to throw them off long.” I sigh exasperatedly as I consider how they’re going to bombard me.
“You’re right. That family of yours is like fox hunters. So keen and always one step ahead of everyone. I’m pretty sure your dad knew whenever we planned to sneak out in high school before we even did.”
