A Window to the Past – Chapter 6
Brenda snaps out of her thoughts about having sex with Dylan when the phone rings.
'Brenda, it's Tim,' she hears on the other end. Tim was her realtor who she called to help find someone to sublet her apartment to while she was gone.
'I found someone who's willing to sublet who can move in the week after you leave,' he tells her.
'Oh, Tim, that's great news. I was a little worried about making the payments while I was gone,' Brenda tells him.
'Well, not to worry, I took care of it for you. Her name is Marie and she just got a job in the front office for Harrods,' he tells her.
'Oh, that's great. I'm glad you didn't find some scary college student for me,' she says with a laugh.
'There was a few, but I thought you'd be more comfortable with someone a little older and more responsible,' Tim says with a laugh.
'You are amazing, thank you,' she says.
'No problem, have a safe trip and I'll call you if I need to,' he says.
'Sounds good,' Brenda says and hangs up.
She smiles to herself looking around her apartment. With her first big paycheck from the first show she was involved in she purchased this apartment. She loved the layout and the proximity to everything and couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy it.
As she looks around, she hears Dylan open the bedroom door and wander out into the kitchen. She laughs at him when he pours his coffee with his eyes half closed.
'Are you laughing at me?' he asks her softly, walking to the table to sit down.
'Your eyes aren't even open yet,' she says, continuing to laugh.
Dylan smiles and starts to drink his coffee.
'Dylan?' she asks.
'Mmm-hmmm,' he says.
'You're going to help me pack up the rest of this stuff and then what?' she asks. She wasn't sure if he was still planning to go back to California.
Dylan shrugs, trying to say as little as possible, since he still wasn't quite awake yet.
'Listen, not to trivialize what happen the other night or anything, but I think you were right when you first got here. We need to talk about what this is between us. I just don't think there's time right now, but I don't want to just leave it hanging out there,' she says.
'What are you trying to say, Bren?' Dylan says, trying to keep his eyes open to look at her.
'Come to New York with me,' she says quickly. 'Come for a few days and let's find some time to talk about this,' she says.
Dylan's eyes open wide and he leans in a little just to make sure he heard her correctly.
'You want me to come with you?'
'Dylan, we can't just leave this out there. I'm not about to have this haunting me until we actually find time in our busy lives to sit down and discuss this,' she says.
'Bren, I never thought I'd hear that coming out of your mouth. You were so very against talking about this every time I brought it up,' he says.
'I know,' she says, looking down at the table. 'I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm ready to talk about it.'
Dylan thinks about what she said for a few seconds before nodding his head and taking a sip from his cup.
'Okay, Bren, I'll come, but you have to promise that we're actually going to sit down and have a conversation,' he says pointedly.
'I promise,' she says and smiles at him. 'Now, let's get this crap packed up. My realtor found someone to sublet my apartment, so I have to make sure that everything is packed up and in storage before we leave.'
Brenda gets up to pour another cup of coffee.
'Sublet?' Dylan asks confused.
'Yeah, I have to pay the mortgage somehow,' she says with a smile and walks into the bedroom to get dressed.
Dylan stares at the space she was just standing in. He had no idea that she actually owned this apartment.
'Oh my God, she is really going to stay here forever. Why would she buy an apartment in London unless she was actually planning to never come back?'
Dylan starts to think of how he always thought that she would come back to California and to him when this whole acting business in London dried up. He always held out hope that she would be back. After he got married, he didn't worry about it so much, but when his life turned upside after Toni was murdered, his thoughts went back to Brenda.
He feels a slight pang of sadness and hurt when he makes the connection that he was probably not part of her long term plans for life.
He sees her turn the corner carrying a few more boxes and puts them down on the living room floor.
She sees him staring at her and flashes a smile in his direction.
'Okay, let's get packing, mister,' she says and turns around to get a few more boxes.
On the Road
Kelly yawns in the front seat of the car as Steve sleeps in the backseat. Donna happily bops to the music playing on the radio as she drives across the border from New Mexico into Texas.
'Where are we going to stop Donna? I'm so tired and I need to eat something,' Kelly says.
'I think the name of the town is Amarillo, which is like forty minutes or so from here. Check the itinerary,' Donna says pointing to a stack of papers in between the seats.
Kelly grabs the papers and begins to read them. 'Amarillo, Texas, The Ambassador Hotel,' Kelly reads.
'That's the one, there should be directions to the hotel on there too,' Donna says.
'Just tell me when you cross over Western Street. The hotel is right on the main highway through the city,' Kelly says.
'Okay,' Donna says cheerfully.
'How can you be this excited? We've been in the car for like ever,' Kelly says.
'I slept while Steve was driving, so I'm wide awake right now,' Donna says. 'Come on, Kel, lighten up, we're driving across the country.'
Donna turns the radio volume up a little bit and starts to sing.
Kelly stares at her for a few seconds and then can't help but start to laugh.
London
Dylan and Brenda spend the next day packing up her apartment and putting boxes for storage and luggage to bring to New York in different piles.
Brenda stands in the kitchen and stares at everything piled up in the living room. She looks around and sees empty shelves and bare cabinets.
She sighs out loud and walks to the table to sit.
'What's the matter, Bren?' Dylan asks her as he puts one more box on the pile.
'It feels the same as the day I moved in. I was so busy with a show that I was working on that I was living out of boxes for almost a full month. The shelves were empty, the rooms were empty, a few dishes were out so that I could eat,' she tells him.
'Well, that's what it's supposed to feel like when you are embarking on a new and exciting endeavor,' he says.
'Yeah, I guess,' she says. 'Well, our flight is all set up and my agent told me that there would be someone at the airport to pick us up when we get there.'
'That's great. I think there's a few more things to get ready for storage and you should be all set to go,' Dylan says.
Dylan watches Brenda's face as she nods her head at him.
'Are you nervous?'
'Maybe a little. I've never been asked to play a part that I didn't audition for and I'm scared that they're going to take one look at me and think that they made a huge mistake,' she says.
'Brenda, they watched you perform. You didn't have to go through the craziness of auditioning and wondering whether or not you did a good job. They saw something in you that they loved and I'm sure they are very confident that you are the perfect person for this job. They wouldn't have offered it to you if they didn't,' he reassures her.
Brenda smiles and looks up at him. 'Yeah, I guess you're right.'
Washington D.C.
Brandon sits at his desk polishing his report for George. He is finally happy with the end result and puts it on his desk for review.
George comes around the corner of the cubicles with a huge smile on his face.
'Brandon, we are in!' he says.
'In where?'
'I just got an exclusive interview, on the record, with Ron Jones,' he tells Brandon.
'No way, how did you swing that?'
'Well, it seems our young man is very, very angry with his father and he is just bursting at the seams to tell someone about it,' George says.
'Grab your coat, we're going right now to meet him,' he says and picks up his voice recorder and a pad from his desk.
Brandon grabs his things and follows George out of the building.
They meet the kid in an arcade and sit down to talk with him.
'Look,' Ron says, 'I don't have a lot of time. My father only lets me out of the house for a few hours a day.'
'It's no problem, Ron. Tell us about your most recent arrest,' George says, setting up the recorder in front of Ron.
'I got stopped just outside of D.C. for a broken tail light. The cop must have smelled something because he asked me to get out of the car. He searched me and then put me in the back of the police car while he went through the car and the trunk,' he says.
'What did he find?'
'There were two pounds of marijuana and a brick of cocaine in a bag in the trunk where the spare tire usually goes,' Ron says.
'Ah, well those two hold a pretty hefty jail sentence and fine,' George says, writing on his pad.
'Yeah, the cop looked like he just woke up on Christmas morning when he pulled them out of the trunk,' Ron tells them.
'So, I was arrested and brought down to the police station. They called my dad and he came down to try to get me out.'
'What happened after that?'
'I was brought into a room and he was sitting there with some woman I had never seen before. He introduced her as my lawyer and told me that I had to do everything she told me to do.'
'I had no idea what was going to happen, but she just told me to keep quiet in court and that she had already taken care of everything for me,' Ron says.
'We read over the court case,' George says.
'Yeah, somehow she pulled some strings or something and I walked away,' he says, shrugging his shoulders.
'Look, I have to go,' he says looking at his watch.
'Thanks for talking with us, Ron,' George says shaking his hand.
'I know that I screwed up and broke the law, but I had an experience and realized that there are probably people out there doing a lot more harm than I was doing and they're not going to jail for it. I should be in jail right now and I'm not because my father is the deputy Mayor. It's just not right,' he says.
George nods his head and watches the kid walk away.
'Wow, what kind of ridiculous strings did that woman and the mayor pull to get this kid off on these charges, especially since it was his fourth drug possession offense?' Brandon says.
'I don't know, Brandon, but we're going to find out,' George says, grabbing his things and walking out of the arcade.
On the Road
Kelly, Steve, and Donna spent the night in Amarillo and continued the next morning on their trek.
'Okay, where's our next stop?' Donna asks Steve as she turns the car onto the highway.
Steve grabs the itinerary and tries to figure out where they were.
'Looks like if we all take shifts, we can make it to Nashville before we have to stop again,' Steve says.
'How far is Nashville from Washington?' Donna asks.
'About 10 or 11 hours. We can totally be there by tomorrow night,' Steve says with a smile.
'Tomorrow night? Really?' Kelly says from the backseat.
'Yup, almost there, Kel, are you excited?' Steve asks her.
Kelly sighs and stares out the window. 'Do you think this is a good idea?' she asks.
'Here we go,' Donna says under her breath.
'What if I tell him how I feel and he totally rejects me?' Kelly says.
'Kel, you can't worry about that. Either you want to tell him or you don't. Maybe you'll just know when you see him what your decision is going to be,' Steve says.
'Maybe, I just don't know. Maybe this was kind of rash. Do you have his number? Should we call him and tell him we're coming?'
'Kelly, stop getting all wishy-washy on us. We are not going to change the plan now because you feel like you may have made a mistake or something. We're going to surprise him and we're going to have a good time while we are there,' Donna says.
Kelly pouts in the backseat as Donna speeds the car up.
London – the next day
Brenda and Dylan make one last pass around her apartment to make sure that she didn't forget anything.
'Okay, that looks like everything,' she says standing in the middle of a sea of boxes with her hands on her hips.
'Well, the truck should be here any minute to pick up the things for storage,' Dylan says.
'Thank you for helping me with this, Dylan. There is no way I would have been able to get this done without you,' she says.
Dylan looks at her face and then turns when he hears a knock at the door.
Brenda moves past him to open it and sees the storage company guys standing there.
'Hello, Ms. Walsh?'
'Yes, come right in,' Brenda says. 'Everything in this pile right here goes to storage.'
She shows them into the living room and they start to move boxes out of her apartment and into the truck.
Brenda and Dylan sit at the table watching them move her things.
'After they're done, we should probably get to the airport,' Brenda says.
'Yeah, it'll probably take some time to get through security,' Dylan says.
Brenda stands as the last box is taken out of her apartment. One of the guys hands her a piece of paper and a key to the storage unit.
'Thank you,' she says and watches her things drive off down the street.
'Well,' she says closing the door, 'that's that.'
She sighs and turns her head slightly to see Dylan standing behind her. He puts his arms around her waist and whispers in her ear.
'It's going to be great, Bren, you'll see.'
She smiles and leans back into his chest.
'We better get going,' he says.
She turns around and smiles at him. 'Will you call for a taxi while I get the rest of my things out of the bedroom?'
Dylan nods and watches her turn the corner.
Brenda stands in her empty room and looks around. She grabs her phone, her carry on bag, and her scarf. She takes one more look at her room and closes her bedroom door.
'The taxi will be here in ten minutes,' Dylan says, hanging up the phone.
'Okay,' Brenda says as she wanders around the living room.
Dylan grabs his bag and puts it by the door.
'I'm going to call Iris and tell her what's going on, okay?' Dylan says.
He sees Brenda nod her head and picks up the phone.
'Hi, it's Dylan,' he says when she answers.
'Dylan! It's so good to finally hear from you. What's going on? Where are you?' Iris says.
'I'm still in London with Brenda, but we're getting ready to leave,' he says.
'Oh? Where might the two of you be going?'
'Brenda got an offer to work on Broadway in New York and I'm just helping her move over there,' Dylan says.
'She's going to be on Broadway? Wow, that's so exciting,' Iris says.
'Yeah, it is. I just wanted to let you know what was happening,' he says.
'Thank you for thinking of me. So, what's happening with the two of you?' Iris asks.
'Uh,' Dylan pauses, 'I'm not sure. I'll have to get back to you on that one.'
'Ah, I'm guessing that she's standing in the same room with you and that you don't really want to say anything out loud. Is that right?'
'Right,' he agrees.
'Okay, call me when you get to New York, sweetheart. Have a safe trip and give Brenda my congratulations,' Iris says.
'I will, talk to you soon,' Dylan says and hangs up the phone.
'Iris is very proud of you and says congratulations,' Dylan tells Brenda.
Brenda smiles at him. 'How is she doing, Dylan? Is she holding up alright?'
'Yeah, I think she is. She hasn't been feeling badly at all,' he says as they hear the sound of a horn.
'Oh, the taxi is here,' Brenda says and runs to the door. She waves to the driver and starts to move her bags out to the sidewalk.
Dylan grabs a few and helps the driver put them in the trunk. They finally get all of them in and he goes back to the apartment to get her.
He stands at the door with her and follows her eyes around the apartment. He puts his arm around her shoulders and waits for her to turn her head.
'It's time, Bren,' he says.
She nods her head and lets him lead her out of the apartment.