15 Days Until The Wedding
Although the Internet had told her that covering the distance from Vancouver to Calgary would take thirteen hours, the Greyhound that transported Maya between the two cities was on the road for just over sixteen. She wasn't sure whether or not to consider the trip a success seeing as — despite the fact that she'd dozed enough en route that she didn't have to waste the day catching up on sleep — she hadn't yet decided on what it was that she wanted to paint. Wi-Fi connectivity had been provided on the bus, so Maya had been able to research some pretty areas within the general vicinity of her second stop. The problem wasn't that she'd come up short; it was that Maya was having trouble choosing between her top three favourites.
She'd initially decided on Peace Bridge because she loved the controversy that surrounded its price to the city — totally contradicting the name it had been given. Maya was also intrigued by the bridge's modern beauty. It had been built in 2012 and was already one of the most photographed spots in the entire area. If that wasn't enough, the bright red of the structure against the green Bow River and Calgary's blue downtown skyline was especially tempting. However, despite the fact that Peace Bridge was entirely unlike the one that she'd just painted — architecture aside, it served a totally different purpose as it had been built specifically for pedestrian commuters — Maya was afraid that her portfolio was becoming too bridge-centred, and had searched for other possible locations.
Simply because she loved a challenge, Maya had instantly fallen for the Rundle Ruins. Although the ruins were a popular spot for wedding photos, the almost random scatter of Calgary's second oldest hospital's remains often disinterested locals and tourists. From the images that Maya had seen online, she'd come to the conclusion that without a bride and groom gazing into each other's eyes in front of the sandstone formations, it would be very difficult to romanticize the space. Only a few of the photos that she'd come across had been able to capture the beauty of the ruins, and Maya knew that she could bring love and brightness to the remains if she got the chance.
Her mind had been made up when she'd stumbled upon images of Stephen Avenue. Dubbed a pedestrian mall, the popular strip looked like Paris' Champs-Élysées in the right lighting. The road was surrounded by skyscrapers and lined with unique sculptures — truly a piece of art in itself. Maya was a sucker for beautiful city streets, and the avenue's old-fashioned architecture mixed with the modern decor made her fingers itch to paint. She worried, though, about how busy the area would be and whether it would even be possible to settle in to paint on the crowded walkways.
Maya kept weighing the pros and cons of each option as she lugged her duffel from hotel to hotel. She'd thought that she could call hotels a day early, or even just walk into one and check in. Maya hadn't booked her stays ahead of time because she wasn't sure how long each painting would take to complete before she moved on. Although that was what was best for her art, she hadn't taken special circumstances into consideration.
Maya had been surprised to find her Greyhound bus completely packed when she'd gotten onto it at six o'clock the previous night. At first she'd chalked Calgary up to be a popular weekend getaway destination, but then she'd overheard many people talking about the "Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth". Apparently she'd picked the opening weekend of some popular outdoor festival to visit the city. That would have been good and well if it didn't also mean that a few thousand other people were visiting Calgary too, and that said people had planned ahead and booked their hotel rooms online weeks in advance.
Maya had lucked out with The Buchan in Vancouver. She'd been less than a twenty-minute walk from Stanley Park there, but that was only one of the reasons why she'd chosen it. Despite its fancy name, The Buchan was reasonably priced and, although her room decor had been very modern, its exterior was classically beautiful.
Now, though, since Maya still wasn't sure what it was that she wanted to paint, she'd simply settled for trying her luck with hotels near the bus station. So far, she'd been turned away from four.
Maya's bag bounced painfully off of her left thigh with each step, and she began to wonder how long she'd been walking. Crossing the street to sit on a bench, she lifted her duffel's strap up over her head, wincing when the material rubbed the back of her damp neck. It wasn't particularly hot out, but carrying all of her things everywhere was starting to take its toll.
She'd told herself for years that she was getting better at not thinking that everything good in her life went wrong, but Maya was starting to feel the dark cloud circling overhead again. Vancouver had been everything that she'd wanted — on her downtime she'd explored the island, splurged on both expensive food and cheap hidden delicacies, and had even bought a souvenir BC t-shirt for Farkle from a small shop a few blocks from The Buchan. But now she could see her long trip stretched out ahead of her as though it were years instead of days. How many other unforeseen events would throw a wrench in her plans?
Maya took a deep breath in an attempt to clear her head. She observed that the tang of metal didn't hang in the air here like it did in New York — she'd noticed that in Vancouver too. Despite the fact that both Vancouver and Calgary were big cities, it was as though they'd been dropped randomly in the middle of patches of emerald and high peaks. From a bird's eye view (and Google Earth) Calgary looked like someone had spilled a small spot of bleach on a green blanket, and — apart from Edmonton — Alberta didn't have much else to offer city-wise. It did, however, have a lot to offer in terms of outdoor activities and farmland.
For reasons that Maya didn't usually like to disclose, she knew a lot more about Alberta than she did any other province; she'd actually been to Calgary before — once. Because of this, she knew that Alberta was Canada's own version of the country. Just with no southern accents. The province was — because apparently Canadians only associated the USA with hicks and republicans — the most like America in that some people walked around in cowboy boots and were right-winged.
Maya never would have guessed that, though, from the skyscrapers that lined the streets and the traffic that filled them. The city was anything if not completely fresh and modern — even its transportation system was totally unconventional. Where New York had an underground subway and Vancouver had their skytrain, Calgary had a light railway — which commuters got to ride for free — that ran entirely on energy generated by windfarms. If Maya had known her way around more, she would definitely have opted for free transportation to trekking through the entire city.
With a sigh, she gathered her things from the bench and continued her search. She probably wasn't too far from the Peace Bridge now, and she was considering just hauling everything over there when a University of Calgary building came into view.
Tensing, Maya couldn't help but think that it was intentionally made to look intimidating. The tall structure was so dark that it was almost black, and it proudly adorned the terrifying U of C coat of arms that featured a menacing black bull with scarlet horns and a villainous expression. The building was unfamiliar to her because it was one of the few at the downtown campus rather than the central one, but it still made her uneasy. Swallowing, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up despite the heat, and she swiveled around to make sure that no one was watching her.
Maya's sudden movement caused her to abruptly shoulder the woman who'd been walking behind her. Before Maya could even open her mouth, the stranger let out a surprised "Sorry!" and smiled even though they hadn't done anything wrong. Canadians.
After the woman scurried off, Maya pried her eyes from the school building and was surprised to see a hotel almost directly across the street. The prospect of being able to put her bags down suddenly made them feel ten times lighter, and Maya's pace doubled as she made her way over to the glass doors.
The air-conditioning felt like getting hit by a blessedly cold train, but she almost walked right back out when she saw how full the lobby of The Sandman was. Squaring her shoulders and daring to hope for the best, Maya bravely wandered over to the check-in desk. The woman who greeted her seemed friendly despite clearly being flustered, and Maya was given a quick smile when she approached.
"Hi!" The woman — Rachel, according to her nametag — clicked a phone back into the receiver and eyed Maya's somewhat disheveled state. "Can I help you?"
It seemed hopeless, but she'd said it enough times that by now the words tumbled out of her mouth without her consent. "Yes. I was wondering if I would be able to book a room for two nights?"
When Rachel frowned, Maya's heart fell. "I'm sorry, hon."
"Oh." Maya shifted her weight a little and hitched her backpack into a more secure position. "That's okay. No problem."
The older woman's fingers began clicking away on the keyboard that rested in front of her. "Hang on, I'll check for you just to make sure." The typing stopped and she leaned in like she was going to tell Maya a secret. "It's just that it's the first weekend of the stampede."
When Maya didn't answer, Rachel straightened up and continued typing. "But, of course, you probably already knew that. It's only the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth."
Maya wasn't sure if she should confide in Rachel that, no, she didn't know that, or if she should just smile and play along. Before she could decide, the receptionist clapped her hands excitedly and turned the desktop screen towards Maya.
"Here!" Rachel tapped a nail on the screen but swiveled it back around before Maya could see what it said. "We have a room for tonight available right now, but you'll have to check out before noon tomorrow."
If she said yes, she'd have to search all over again for another place to sleep tomorrow unless she really rushed her painting, but if she said no, then she might not even find another hotel tonight.
Maya barely missed a beat. "That's perfect."
"James sends his love." Maya could hear some cooking show on in the background, so she knew that she had her best friend's full attention. Riley didn't cook. "He's making us empanadas for dinner."
"Nice," Maya said, simply enjoying the sound of the other girl's voice. "So how is everyone?"
Riley sighed on the other end of the phone, the only indication of her stress. "Fine, I suppose. My mom keeps asking me if I'm getting cold feet."
"Are you?" James interjected from somewhere in the distance, and Maya heard a small scuffle before Riley's voice returned.
"And Farkle is still making passive-aggressive comments about how he's not the best man — I keep telling him that James has a brother but apparently that's not a good enough excuse."
Maya laughed at that and reclined on her hotel bed, staring up at the ceiling and pulling the phone cord even further from its spot on the wall. "Do you miss me?"
"Of course." Riley had already answered before Maya finished her sentence. "But I've been missing you since you visited for Christmas."
"Yeah, well." Maya wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, and she half rolled over, smushing her nose into the pillow. "How are you holding up?"
"Aside from all the wedding stuff? I'm great. But Maya you have no idea how hard it is to plan something like this in New York City." Riley paused and Maya braced herself for what was coming. "Especially without your best friend."
Maya stayed silent until Riley recanted. It didn't take long.
"Oh, you know that I love you," her friend assured her. "I'm just stressed about this whole thing. I can't wait for it to be over."
"Hey!" Maya smiled to herself when James' voice returned.
"It's only so that I can be married to you that much sooner," Riley called to her fiance before continuing. "Are you going to be here for the rehearsal dinner?"
Maya bit her lip and tapped the phone with her finger. "I'll try, but I don't think so."
To her surprise, Riley didn't reach through the telephone and strangle her. "That's alright. I figured as much. You won't really be missing anything. Hopefully my dad gets out all of his tears when he does his practice speech."
"Mr. Matthews will cry at your wedding — it's inevitable." She still couldn't call him Cory; old habits died hard.
"I worry about you a lot," Riley said, almost out of nowhere. "Not the usual stuff," she added quickly. "But you're travelling by yourself in a different country — "
" — and you need me to be alive at your wedding, I know. You've been watching too much Law and Order: SVU."
"That I have," Riley agreed, unashamed.
Maya sat up and glanced out the window. "That show is based in New York City, though."
"And?"
"And I'm in Canada. Nothing bad happens here."
Maya went to bed very frustrated. She'd spent the entire day out and about, scoping her potential locations and had found something wrong with all of them. Peace Bridge, though very beautiful, had seemed like too much of an obvious choice. There were many unique things about its structure, but nothing original about her near decision to paint it. The Rundle Ruins were almost too complicated to paint in such a limited amount of time, and Maya felt as though she wouldn't have been able to do them justice in only a few days. And Stephen Avenue had been — as she'd predicted — far too busy for her to paint in the middle of the afternoon when the lighting was just right.
To make matters worse, she'd started to see more and more people in cowboy hats spring seemingly out of nowhere. She blamed the alleged stampede for their sudden arrival, and wondered how it was that out of all of the festivals in Calgary, she just so happened to show up for this.
Cursing herself for trying to be spontaneous for the first time in years, Maya decided that she'd figure out every last detail of her trip tomorrow before she got back on the road. Well, after she managed to find another hotel, that is.
She should have known that Calgary would betray her like this — nothing good ever happened in Calgary. She didn't care that it had been dubbed the best place to live on earth in 2007 or that it was an achingly beautiful city.
Maya almost considered foregoing finding a new hotel and skipping town the next day, but then she'd just have to find a new location that was consistent with her travels, and that seemed like a waste of time. She feared, though, that she was running out of time to figure out what it was that she wanted to do. Maybe she'd ask Rachel if she knew of any prime painting locations on her way out.
Her room was dark and quiet, so when her stomach rumbled loudly, it sounded like an explosion. Frowning, Maya realized that she'd been so preoccupied with her mission that she hadn't had anything to eat since one of the bus rest stops nearly ten hours ago.
But she wanted to get to bed early so as to get a head start tomorrow, so she decided to stay in bed and wait for her complimentary breakfast in the morning.
Nuvo Hotel was squished in between a chiropractor's office and a Liquor Barn. Also, unlike The Sandman, it was no taller than an elementary school building. Maya wasn't complaining though. Along with the knowledge that they for sure had a room available — she'd checked online — it had only taken her eight minutes to walk from her other hotel, and Nuvo had good online ratings. It wasn't the fact that she was setting up camp somewhere new that upset her, it was that she still had no idea what she was going to do afterwards.
After spending a few minutes trying to find the location of the entrance, Maya pushed her way into the hotel lobby. She'd called ahead of time and had spoken on the phone with a woman named Alice. It didn't matter — they would all be Rachel to her now.
As she neared the front desk, Alice looked up at her. "Are you Ms. Hart?"
Maya eyed the clock above the receptionist's head. If she spent twenty minutes in the room getting settled in, then she'd have about eight hours to scope out a location and paint before the sun went down. She'd said that she only needed the room for one night, but now she was considering asking for two. She'd wasted the entire day yesterday, and hadn't painted a single thing. Still — if she didn't move on soon then she'd just be racing with time to get back home. This was exactly what she'd been trying to avoid.
"Miss?" Alice's voice interrupted Maya's thoughts.
"I'm sorry?"
Alice didn't look irritated, only a little confused. "You're Maya Hart, right? We spoke on the phone a half hour ago."
"Yes." Maya drew the word out in an attempt to buy time while she returned to reality. "Yes, that's me."
Alice stood up and wiped her palms on her thighs before opening a drawer. "The room is ready — I have your key here." She produced a swipe key from the desk but kept it in her hand. "I just have to run your credit card first."
"Of course." Maya fumbled for the front pocket of her backpack, flushing when it took her a few attempts to retrieve what she was looking for. "Here."
Alice took the credit card in between two fingers before swiping it and asking Maya to enter her pin.
The other woman frowned after glancing at the computer screen. She swiped the card another time. "Try it again."
Robotically, Maya re-entered her pin and watched Alice expectantly. She wasn't worried about the credit card company putting a hold on her card because she'd warned them ahead of time that she was leaving the country. She was, however, worried about the confused face that Alice made after checking the computer again.
"It was declined." Alice looked at Maya apologetically. "I'm really sorry, Miss Hart. I — I'm supposed to cut up your card."
"What?" Maya's hands gripped the countertop. "That can't be right."
"I can try it again if you'd like." Alice looked as though she knew that it wouldn't work, but was still happy to humour Maya one last time.
"Okay."
If she'd been anywhere but away from home, Maya wouldn't have cared about her card being declined. She'd had her information stolen before, and had been reimbursed every penny that had been falsely spent in her name. That wasn't the bad part. What was currently making her palms sweat as she watched Alice swipe the card for the third time was the fact that she knew she'd be completely screwed if it was declined.
It had taken her credit card company a week to ship her a new one the first time that this had happened, and she did not have a week to spare at the moment. Also, her card would be shipped to her Seattle address, not Nuvo Hotel in Calgary. She would have to give up her entire trip — her art — if that was the case.
Alice seemed to move in slow motion and Maya was repeating a mantra of the word please over and over in her head as her card was processed.
The receptionist's sympathetic expression said it all, and Maya didn't even object when Alice produced a pair of scissors and sliced her travelling monetary plan in half.
"I am sorry." Alice's words seemed to bounce around an empty cave before entering Maya's ears. "Are you travelling alone? Would you like to use the telephone?"
"Yes, I — " Maya swallowed as Riley's face flashed into her mind. She couldn't burden her best friend with this. The bride-to-be was stressed out and worried about her enough as it was. Besides, all anyone in New York could do for her right now was wire over enough money for a plane ticket, and Maya didn't want that. She refused to let her portfolio suffer because of this.
The idea of calling Becca left her mind as quickly as it came; her roommate was a drive of over eleven hours away. Besides, Becca's car wouldn't be able to handle the cross-country trip, and Maya wouldn't ask her friend to do that anyway.
Alice was looking at her expectantly, and Maya realized that she still hadn't answered the other woman's question.
"I would like to use the phone," she said, finally. "Please."
"There's one in the lounge," Alice said, motioning to an area behind Maya. "You're free to use the computer as well."
"Thank you." When was the last time that she'd used her credit card? Probably when she'd checked into The Sandman, but that couldn't have been when her information was stolen. It could have been anywhere that she'd bought food or souvenirs from within the past two days. She brought up a mental image of all the suspect middle-of-nowhere rest stops where she'd bought snacks and bottled water.
"You can't sleep here," Alice said, eyeing Maya worriedly, "but you can stay until you've gotten this figured out."
Maya wished that she was in a state more equipped to acknowledge the employee's kindness, but she simply nodded before turning away and seeking out the telephone.
In the back of her mind, she'd known that she would end up in a situation like this. She hadn't planned or even hoped for this, but somehow she'd just known that she'd end up making this phone call.
Riley's words replayed in her mind as Maya dialed a number that she hadn't even realized she knew by heart.
"I'm just saying that you're adding countless hours onto your trip, and that you probably won't run into...anybody."
Maya knew that this was her only option — that there was only one person that she could call. But she really, really, didn't want to call him.
A/N
Wow, okay! So that chapter was supposed to be really short lol. But I think that it's the longest one so far — almost four thousand words!
I've had that last scene in my mind basically since the beginning of this story, and it felt good to finally write it. Props to you if you got the Clueless reference.
This update wasn't my favourite though. I'm not sure how I feel about some of the writing, and I had to re-write the first 400 words or so because my computer shut down and I lost all of my work.
GUYS Lucas is in the next chapter! Because (obvi) it's him that she's calling.
Thank you to the lovely guests who commented on the last chapters! I love you all. Especially those of you who mentioned that you weren't upset that I went into obsessive detail about Vancouver. I've very much been enjoying learning more about my beloved country, though I myself have never been to BC or Alberta.
I don't usually like to ask, but please review if you like this story. I'm writing this for me, but I'm really motivated by your comments.
Thank you!
-Lia
PS: I didn't do any intensive editing of this chapter so I'm sorry if there are any mistakes!