Hi! It’s me! Lily!
And… I’m in LA.
Well, Calabasas, actually.
I got up way early and Sabby took me to the airport at around 6 AM. She was being a real worrywart, but I told her I’d be okay. I guess I understand, though. She worries about me. I’m glad she does. But the flight itself was pretty uneventful, you know, ding-dong, crowded plane, all that.
When I got there, well, they’re two hours behind Austin, so it was something like 9:30. Robert was there to pick me up, but nobody else was. Okay, at least I knew him, so there’s that.
On the way back, he asked me how my trip was, you know, the stuff you ask people about when they fly. He has a very nice car – Dave can afford a nice car if he wants one, but he has a run of the mill SUV. Robert’s car is a BMW. He seems very proud of it, he told me the model and how much it cost, etc. I can’t say I was all that interested, but I let him tell me. It seemed like it was important to him. He’s really not a bad guy, but he’s… not like Dave. You’ll see.
So we drove along the beach for a while, it was a nice drive. He actually has a convertible, so he put the top down, and the air smelled really nice. He stopped at a nice restaurant overlooking the ocean, and he bought me lunch. That was nice of him. I didn’t have anything fancy, but a tuna melt did kind of hit the spot.
Then we drove up a winding mountain road. It was really, really pretty, and finally we ended up at his house.
What a big house.
It’s on a mountaintop overlooking the canyon, and the driveway itself is like half a mile long!!! It’s a really beautiful house. I asked him how he afforded a house so big, and he seemed to kind of preen at that. He said he’s a director of marketing at a large company, and… he’s pretty well paid. And his wife was some kind of high-powered executive too. When we got in, he showed me to a guest room, and it’s got its own bath and shower, and a large window overlooking the mountains!
It really is a very nice house. Dave and Sabby have a large enough house for everyone, you know, bedrooms for all of us and an office for him, but it’s just a normal suburban house. This… this is not a normal suburban house. This is fancy.
He said his wife was at work and he needed to work in his office for a little while, so I could spend time in the room if I wanted, or I could take a walk, or there was a game room he showed me with video game consoles and a television and a bunch of snacks. It was very nice, I have to admit. There was also a poll in the back and he said I could spend some time swimming if I wanted, and showed me the exercise room, too. They… really do have a lot of things.
So around 3 PM, Rebecca and his wife got home at around the same time, Rebecca from school and his wife from work. Rebecca doesn’t get off for spring break until April, so… I guess I won’t see too much of her next week. Though Robert did tell me he was taking her out for a couple of days so we can do some fun stuff.
So, I met Rebecca.
She’s a pretty girl, a little younger than me, dressed very fashionably, and, well… seems nice enough but a bit aloof. She honestly didn’t seem too happy to meet me. She just kind of said hi and then went up to her room.
His wife was friendlier. She said it was nice to meet me, that I was a surprise, but that family is family. I guess Rebecca is a little jealous because she was always the only child and now she has a half-sister, but she said Rebecca would come around.
They ordered pizza, and we ate pizza and chatted. Turns out Rebecca and I have something in common – she loves chocolate too. So, I went up to my luggage and got a chocolate bar – I packed several, of course.
That helped, I think. She certainly ate the chocolate, and seemed to warm to me a bit.
So I’m writing this from my room with a window looking out on a starlit sky and a mountain. It’s really pretty. The house is so big and quiet. They seem okay. I… miss Texas, though. They have so many nice things…. but my family is there. Everything I love is there.