Hello all. Next update will be very soon. This has been the hardest section to start for some reason. Everything's mapped out but the individual sections are hit and miss. Enjoy!
DAY SIX – DENVER
"Pay attention, you ass!"
Paige sighs exasperated with herself for overlooking Emily's road rage tendencies. She was sick of driving so she figured a break would be nice. A slow, easy drive down into Denver would be just the ticket.
Only now does Paige remember why she always drives in the city: Emily becomes a nightmare on the road. It's not that she's a bad driver, just the opposite, actually. Instead, Emily loves to keep a running commentary on everyone else's driving which always devolves into cursing, shaking fists and frustrated huffing. When Paige first saw Emily's maniacal attitude when driving she thought it was funny and a little cute. Today, though – as it has many times in the past – it's literally and figuratively driving Paige up the wall.
"Em, would you please calm down? We're almost to our exit and I don't want some loony with a grudge against gorgeous ex-swimmers to hunt us down," says Paige.
"But did you see that guy? He crossed three lanes of traffic! I mean, he could have caused a huge accident and this damn tin can would crumple into a ball if we got hit!"
Paige sighs again and offers a mental apology to the U-Haul company for Emily's lack of faith in their product. The truck has run great for their trip and Paige certainly doesn't want to invite bad karma due to Emily's irrational yet adorable anger issues.
Paige looks at the directions her cousin Liam sent to her phone. "We're at our exit, make sure you're to the left so we can get that turning lane we need," says Paige.
"I know!" shouts Emily.
As the truck rolls to a stop at the light on the off-ramp Paige growls. "I am never going to let you drive in traffic again. Never ever ever ever ever ever!" Emily turns to her and scoffs causing Paige to turn the knife a bit more. "Never ever. Never. Not in this or any other lifetime."
Emily knows Paige is just venting and just like that her anger diffuses. She marvels at how it works – just when her judgment gets clouded and she gets crazy and irrational Paige can just bring her back with little effort at all. She missed that. I guess that's why they say some people ground you, she thinks.
Smiling Emily looks at Paige and shoves her shoulder. "You are such a tough guy." Paige plays hurt, rubbing her shoulder and gasping in pain. "You are a brute," Paige says. "Help, police! I'm being abused by this really hot brute!"
"Really hot, you say?" Emily says quietly.
"No duh, Emily." Paige rolls her eyes. "But are you ignoring the 'brute' part? That was kind of the whole point."
"I'm just choosing to ignore it," Emily answers. Paige sits for a moment trying to figure her way out of this completely weird conversation when the truck's horn blast startles her from her thoughts.
"The light is green, dumb shit, go already!" shouts Emily.
As they park Paige looks up, up, up at Liam's building. She cannot believe this is where her cousin lives. Sure, the address says "Park Avenue" but really, where other than New York does that matter? In Denver, she guesses.
She grabs her bag from the back of the truck and hands Emily her suitcase. The drive was short but stressful so the girls really need a rest from the chaos and, frankly, from each other. Spending almost a week solid with just one person tends to wear on anyone and with the push and pull of their feelings they can both use some down time.
Liam buzzes them into the building and they walk through a pretty swanky lobby to reach the elevators. "Jeesh, this place is really fancy," says Emily and Paige nods, not really knowing how Liam managed to get such expensive digs. Uncle Bob said he was unemployed…right?
Paige reaches out and punches the button for the elevator and when it arrives they proceed to the 14th floor, home to Liam's condo. She barely raises her hand to knock when it flies open and Emily is grabbed for a fierce hug. "Emsy, Emsy, you amazing piece of shit! I missed you so, my love!" Emily drops the handle of her suitcase and laughs as Liam backs into the condo and spins her around in his arms. "Put me down, Li!" Emily says trying to regain her breath from laughing.
Paige stands in the doorway watching this display with a mix of shock and annoyance. Li and Emily's relationship always mystified her – the pair always flirted shamelessly with each other when nothing would ever come of it. Little did Paige know the main reason for the flirting was just to get a rise out of her and it always worked. Li drops Emily back to her feet and gives her a genuine, affectionate hug. "I'm so glad you're here, Emily." He looks over Emily's shoulder and sees Paige waiting patiently for her greeting. "Oh, hi P," he says stepping away from their hug then grabbing Emily's suitcase and pulling it into the condo.
Paige huffs but follows him in. She gets a good look at him for the first time in months – his dark brown hair is a bit too long and has a bit of curl to it. He's taken to wearing glasses and that with his lanky, six-foot-tall frame pegs him as a serious, hard core nerd. Girls historically never gave him the time of day but then he'd unveil his smile, a white, gleaming toothpaste commercial grin and somehow his geeky appearance didn't matter anymore.
Looking around his condo Paige felt even more confusion about her cousin. He was a charmer, for sure, but how is he managing this? "Liam, this place is unreal," Emily says. She stands in front of floor-to-ceiling windows that frame the downtown Denver skyline. It's one of the rare Front Range days where smog doesn't distort the view and she can see for miles in each direction. The view is only a small part of the condo's appeal, though. It is decorated like a catalog for Crate and Barrel, the space's open floor plan running kitchen into dining room into living room and out to a sizeable deck overlooking the view.
"Thanks! It cost a mint but it's awesome, isn't it?" Liam says proudly. Paige squints at him, then around the condo, then back at him again. Liam sees her confusion but God forbid he clear it up for her voluntarily.
"Okay, Liam, spill. How did you afford this place?" Paige asks, dropping onto a nearby loveseat and settling in for a story.
Emily is preoccupied with scoping out the condo so Liam can do nothing but acknowledge Paige's question.
"You know my mom died." Paige closes her eyes and shakes her head, already exasperated at the direction this story is going. Liam chuckles to himself. "Duh, of course you know that.
"Well, she left me a little money from her life insurance policy. But I blew through that pretty quickly so I was out of a job and pretty broke. I remembered this friend of mine from out here who I'd meet up with sometimes when we'd come to ski at Christmas," Liam says.
Paige holds up her hand to stop him. "You are talking about your dealer, aren't you?"
Liam shrugs. "The phrase 'High Country' was popular long before I went there. Anyway…" Paige motions for him to continue.
"This friend ran into me the last trip we took out here with Mom. We talked a little bit and when she heard Mom was sick she told me her, well, services might be of some use. I told her I couldn't imagine my mother smoking a joint but she said she wouldn't have to. And she didn't – it turns out she put the stuff in some brownies and dropped them off at the cabin. I came back a few hours later and my mom was high as the Hubble telescope but happy – her nausea from chemo was almost gone."
Of all the things in the world the last thing Paige expected to hear was how her aunt got high off pot brownies and her shocked face was enough to send Emily (who'd come back into the room) into a hysterics. Paige turned and gave her a dirty look. "She was a grown-up Paige, anything that could make her comfortable when she was sick is okay by me," Emily says.
Liam grins at her but Paige is still uncomfortable with the whole visual. "Mom did say the brownies were a bit dry and that she'd probably use Grandma's recipe if she ever made them herself but we never really got around to it. She went into hospice a few weeks later."
Liam gets a far-away look for just a moment before shrugging and continuing with his story.
"So, when I lost my job I kind of moped around for a while, feeling sorry for myself. I mean, I'm a handsome, well-educated dude with my own car and apartment yet I couldn't nail down a job. I eventually went up to Frisco to stay with Dad when he was home for a few days and ran into my friend…"
"Can we just give this friend a name?" Paige says.
Liam thinks for a moment. "Let's call her 'Flower'," Liam replies.
"Are you kidding?" Paige asks. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Where the hell did you come up with a name like that?"
"Umm, because that's her name – Flower." Liam smiles and Emily breaks into laughter yet again. As per usual she's taking quite a liking to Paige's discomfort. "Her name is Flower and she's a 50-something grandmother who makes stained glass windows and maintains a…garden, I guess.
"I got an idea when I saw her again. I asked her how the whole brownie thing worked. We sat down and outlined some things, like how to maximize her harvest, how to tweak Grandma's brownie recipe for big batches, that kind of thing. When I looked up a year later I was raking in the dough. And now that pot is legal in Colorado…" he says.
"You are in fat city," Paige finishes, in utter disbelief.
"'Chronic Brownies' are all the rage," he says in satisfaction. "Available in classic chocolate, triple chunk chocolate and, coming soon, milk chocolate with walnuts."
And so there they are, the three of them taking in Liam's rise in the baked baking world – Liam self-satisfied, Emily crying from laughter and Paige mystified at Liam's luck. After a few minutes Paige breaks the silence.
"Well, Mr. Money Bags, you're buying our dinner," she says. "Hamburger Mary's?"
"You're on!" Liam says.