Destiny and a Bottle of Merlot (2 page)

One by one, they went through the service door and gathered on the deck, each waiting like drooling dogs for Vic to share her news. Tina and Sasha ran into the house to grab a bottle of Merlot, the corkscrew and five glasses. Vic had to promise to keep her mouth shut until they were all sitting at the picnic table with a glass of wine in hand.

“Okay, are you vultures ready now?” Vic asked. She acted coy, but in reality, she was as excited to spill her guts, as the rest were to hear every sordid detail. “So after the party ended Friday night, Max asked me if I would have dinner with him Saturday night. I agreed, reluctantly.”

“Yeah, right,” Karen said, laughing.

Vic whipped out the shit eye and zeroed in on Karen. “Zip it.”

“Sorry.”

“Anyway, we met at Morey’s last night, but it was too noisy to talk in there.”

“Yeah, they’re crazy busy on the weekends.” Mia went on to begin her own version of a weekend dinner incident at Morey’s until she saw Vic eying her up too. “Oops, sorry.”

“Okay, the next person that interrupts me is going to get bitch slapped right across the face. Am I clear?” Vic wanted to tell her story in one sitting, and by the look of things, that was going to be difficult.

With the fear of God in their eyes, the four girls shut up and drank wine as they listened.

“Okay, like I was saying,” Vic shot each of them a threatening glare, “we met at Morey’s, but it was too loud. We walked to Amelia’s and talked. I just wanted some reassurance because Max is so gorgeous. I had no idea how much he really liked me. I felt guilty about his accident too, because he had it after leaving the party I hosted. Well… we walked over to the town square after that and kissed. It turns out Max is totally in love with me and we’re moving forward with a real relationship. Okay… we had sex for the first time too… twice.” Vic huffed, slapped her hands together and waited.

“That’s it? Where’s the beef?” Tina asked. “C’mon there has to be more than just a sweet Cinderella story. No juice?”

“No juice. It is, what it is, my dearies, and I’m absofrigginlutely on cloud nine. Max and I are the newest couple in this crazy clan. So who’s next?” She looked from Tina to Karen to Sasha. “I’m predicting Sasha.” Vic desperately wanted to get the conversation off herself and on to someone else. Sasha would be the patsy for today.

“Why the hell me?” Sasha squeaked. “What did I do?”

“We’ve all seen you eying up Josh Redmond.”

Sasha turned a shade of red that almost matched her nails. “I don’t have time for the likes of him.” She instinctively began chewing on her manicure.

“Leave your friggin nails alone,” they yelled out, simultaneously.

“Enough of our bs. We need to get busy and move this stuff,” Vic said.

Mia pulled Vic aside while everyone else was preoccupied. She gave her best friend an enormous hug. “Good job, sister. My lips are sealed, I swear. Nobody, but us, will ever know the back story about you, Max and me. I promise I’ll never bring it up unless there’s something you want to talk about. I love you, Vic, and I’m super happy for you guys. C’mon, let’s get this crap moved. Maybe we can have lunch somewhere when we’re done.” Mia grabbed a box and loaded it into the truck.

The truck bed overflowed with totes of Sasha’s clothing and accessories she took to Tina’s house. Most of the furniture from her apartment in Manhattan was sold months ago. Furnishing the Victorian would be a task all its own, but a fun one. Mia suggested browsing the antique stores in Beacon and Rhinebeck for period pieces.

Tina and Vic followed the red Tundra to the Victorian. “Can you believe how far Sasha’s come since we met her?” Tina laughed as she rode shotgun in Vic’s 2012 Ford Fusion. “First off, she never owned a car in her life, and had no idea how to drive one. Now, she’s behind the wheel of a friggin truck. Go figure. I give her a lot of credit. She’s been through hell and back between Jack and us. We didn’t make her life easy when we met her, but here we are months later, all best friends.”

“Yeah, she’s really stepped up, poor thing. We’re still hard on her, Tina. I guess I should speak for myself… and Mia. We’re the worst. Now that I’m not pissed off all the time, I should be nicer to her. Don’t you think so?” Vic asked, as she turned the music down.

“You’re right. We should all be nicer to her, it’s just that she’s so dingy, but in an innocent way. She doesn’t mean any harm.”

They pulled up to the Victorian on Sunrise Avenue. They got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk in awe. Their mouth’s gaped open and their eyes bulged. The house had been transformed into a masterpiece with the new roof and exterior paint job. Tina helped Sasha pick the colors and saw the primer coat being applied, but that was last week. Nobody had been there since. The colors were stunning on the picture of the Gingerbread Inn, but in real life, on the Victorian, they were overwhelming.

Sasha beamed like a new mother at their reaction. “What do you guys think? Isn’t she grand?”

“Oh my God, Sasha, I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.” Mia began to cry. They all began to cry, including Sasha.

“I knew you could do it, I really did. But this? This is more than I ever expected,” Karen said, proud as a peacock of the beautiful Sasha she took under her wing months ago.

The girls took turns hugging and praising Sasha for her accomplishments. Even the overgrown double lot looked perfect. The hedges, neatly trimmed, formed a natural border all the way around the property line. Wild, thorny rose bushes were nipped in the bud. Repairs to the broken down trellises were complete, and Sasha restrung the grape ivy through the latticework. The Victorian sprang back to life with Sasha’s hard work and vision.

“Let’s go inside and make a toast to the Victorian, and all her glory,” Sasha said, smiling with pride.

The interior still needed work, as large as the house was, but little by little, room by room, the restorations came about. The five of them sat at the card table in the dining room and clucked like chickens in a hen house. Sasha lit a fire to create a beautiful ambiance to the room they all helped paint. The burnt orange walls and ivory ceiling were the perfect color combinations for this stately, formal room. Crystals shimmered in the firelight from the chandelier Sasha and Mia bought together. It hung gracefully above them.

They held out their plastic cups as Sasha poured Merlot into each one. Mia happily stood to make a toast. “My dear, sweet Sasha, this toast is for you. Several months ago you fell in love, and fell hard.” They all smiled at Sasha and giggled, knowing exactly what Mia meant. “Nobody in their right mind was going to discourage, or dissuade you from your dream. You were, and are, a woman on a mission. As we sit here today and see for ourselves what your heart and soul is capable of, I want to tell you how proud we are of you. The Victorian is beautiful. Sasha, I toast you for your enduring stamina, and I toast the Victorian. She is gracefully and patiently allowing you to bring her back to the original glory she once had. Cheers!” Mia held up her cup as they all toasted Sasha and the Victorian. Not one of them had a dry eye.

Thankfully, the bed the girls brought in was twin sized. Sasha didn’t care. It would be fine for now, and Tina didn’t need it anyway. The sweeping staircase to the second floor was magnificent, unless you were five women heaving a mattress, box springs, a dresser and various totes up to the master bedroom. They hoped they wouldn’t break any fingernails.

“Remind me to hire movers when I start filling this house up,” Sasha said, out of breath.

“The hell with that. We have hunky men who can do that while we supervise with wine glasses in hand. Save your money Sasha for more stuff. This house is going to need a lot of furnishings,” Karen said.

Sasha wanted to surprise the girls with the balcony she had built in the master suite, facing the morning sun. She planned to keep a small coffee pot in her room so she could wake up to the morning bliss every day, on her balcony, while enjoying a delicious cup of the brew.

They entered the room and gasped again, simultaneously. The master bedroom was to die for. The walls had been painted a delicate shade of ice blue with rich cream accents. Double French doors in maple, matching the original woodwork of the house, led to an oversized balcony. Sasha had the balcony placed perfectly between huge oaks in the backyard. She’d watch the sun rise every morning without anything blocking her view. In time, when she added a deck, she’d have a staircase built, leading from her bedroom to the backyard deck below.

“Oh my God, I’m speechless,” Vic said, completely blown away. “I had no idea you were so… focused.”

Sasha smiled, knowing Vic was trying to give her a compliment. “There is something I never told any of you.”

The four sets of eyes locked with hers. The ‘deer in the headlights’ expression appeared on their faces, as they stood motionless in the master suite with bed parts scattered about.

“It’s true, I act pretty dingy now and then, but I’m not just another pretty face.”

Here was the Sasha they all knew and loved, back to true form. Somehow, she could get away with self-praise and it sounded sweet.

“When I was going to modeling school in France, my father insisted I take several college courses too. I studied architectural design for a year.” The look of shock on everyone’s face made her burst out laughing. “I’m really not one hundred percent clueless in life, maybe fifty-fifty, at most. Believe me, not only do I know what this house needs to be a wonderful home, but also how to make her a sturdy, structural masterpiece. Come on out on the balcony and take a look. It was my ah-ha moment, an epiphany, so to speak. This house is on Sunrise Avenue, after all. What better way to watch the sun come up every morning than to have a balcony facing east off my bedroom? Amazing idea, isn’t it? Tina, help me bring up the chairs and wine. Let’s sit out here for a few minutes and enjoy the view.”

Void of anything intelligent to say, the girls stood, shaking their heads, while Sasha and Tina dashed off to grab the necessities.

“That girl surprises me every day,” Mia said, when she had the ability to form a sentence again. “Knowing what we do now, this place is going to end up being a national treasure.”

It was almost noon as they sat on the balcony commenting about the distance they could see from that second story vantage point. The sun, directly overhead, warmed their bodies nicely. They looked down at the backyard and imagined the landscaping Sasha described. She would put the gazebo here, and the fountain there. There would be dozens of perennial gardens. She described every flower and bush. The lush yard and bird feeders would create a sanctuary beyond belief for their feathered friends.

“Hey, let’s grab a bite to eat at Bottoms Up,” Sasha suggested. “It will be my treat for all your help today.”

“Sasha, I don’t want to get too personal, but where is this money coming from?” Karen asked.

“Well, I am doing ad campaigns for Hair Brained and I’m still under contract for some modeling gigs. The house was paid for in cash from the sale of my apartment, and I get a generous allowance every six months from my trust fund,” she said, matter of factly.

“You have a trust fund?” Mia was astonished, even though she shouldn’t have been. Sasha’s father was a famous French movie star, back in the day. Maybe he still was.

“Sure, doesn’t everyone? Oops… sorry I said that. Open mouth, insert foot, right?”

“Um… yeah,” Mia said. “Okay, let’s go eat, we can’t live on Merlot alone.”

The familiar ring of the bell above the door put a wide grin on Mia’s face when she entered Daniels Camera Shop Monday afternoon. Aaron was behind the glass shelved counter helping a customer decide on a camera for his daughter. He glanced up for a second and shot a wink Mia’s way. She browsed around as Aaron continued to explain the differences in features of Sony and Canon cameras to his customer. Mia poured herself a cup of coffee and sat at the wooden table that had been in the same spot since Aaron’s grandfather opened the store in 1933. She helped herself to a lone sugar cookie sitting on a beautiful bone china flowered plate.
I better go in the back and grab more cookies to set out.
Mia went behind the curtain to the storeroom carrying the plate with her. The box of cookies sat on the same shelf as the tin of coffee. She loaded the plate with cookies and returned it to the table. This store held a special place in Mia’s heart, and had, ever since she was a child. Aaron’s dad used to let the neighborhood kids come in and take a cookie now and then. The memories made her smile. Soon enough she and Aaron would make their own memories right here with their own brood of kids. They’d work side by side and the kids would tag along until they reached school age. She looked around, deciding in advance where she would create a play area for their future children.

The customer chose the Canon. Aaron boxed it and rang up the receipt. They exchanged pleasantries and the man happily left with the new camera for his daughter.

“Hi, honey. How’s your day going?” Mia asked, looking back at the door before giving Aaron a deep, French kiss.

“I’m fine, babe, how about you?”

“I’m good. I just did a short photo shoot at the gazebo, so here I am. Yesterday afternoon, we helped Sasha lug bedroom furniture upstairs in the Victorian. Aaron, you wouldn’t believe how beautiful the outside looks. The exterior paint job and the roof are done. Sasha hired someone to trim back all the overgrown shrubs. It’s amazing how it’s coming along.”

“I’ll drive by it on my way home from work. How about coming over for ribs and a nice mixed greens salad tonight?”

“That sounds delicious. What should I bring?”

“Just yourself, you’re all I need.” The door opened, and another customer walked in. “Gotta go, see you back home at six-thirty.”

“Bye, Aaron.”
See you at home? That has a nice ring to it.

“Mario, can you give me a hand with this box?” Karen asked. She was alone in the store with Mario. Max and the full time employee left to take their lunch break.