Part 44 (1/2)

'Your real wish,' Helen whispers.

Sasha looks at her, wide-eyed. At the same time my heart dips. Can The California Club read the invisible ink behind what we wrote down on our slips of paper?

'You mean the wish they grant isn't necessarily what we wrote down?' I have to be clear on this. Is there still a chance for me and Elliot?

Helen smiles enigmatically. 'What you wrote is just the starting point.'

'Come on, Gypsy Rose Lee spill!' Zo heckles.

Helen takes a seat beside Zo, lays a hand on her cheek, closes her eyes and says, 'I see a man with a large p.e.n.i.s in your recent past ...'

'Who told you?' Zo leaps back.

'Guilty!' I raise my hand. I was dying to tell someone and the others were all busy when I tried calling them en route to Union Station.

'Something I should know?' Sasha raises an eyebrow.

When Zo's done telling the Eddie Powers story, Sasha asks me for a Joel update. After my near-miss with Elliot I want to run to Joel's consoling arms all the more but explain that I've let him slip away with no means of contacting him. I'm just about to get paranoid that he deliberately vanished without trace, never having any intention of seeing me again, when Zo turns our attention to Helen's s.e.x life.

'So where's Reuben tonight?'

'Oh he's um, home or out, I'm not sure. Surfing, probably. Who knows where!' She gives a strange unnatural laugh.

'So which is better, surfing or s.e.x?' Zo probes.

'Reuben says that if you reckon surfing's better than s.e.x then you're not doing it right!'

'But what do you say?'

's.e.x with a surfer is the best!' she laughs.

'Really?' It's the one species Zo hasn't tried and she's obviously concerned she's missing out.

'Well, not just any surfer. With Reuben.' Her eyes s.h.i.+ne bright. 'He's The One, for sure.'

We all give a 'dreams-really-can-come-true' sigh then Helen gets to her feet and asks, 'Ready to see your room now?'

'You betcha! Where is it?' I ask, peeling myself off the s.h.i.+ny bedspread.

'Over the other side, three floors up.' Helen motions ahead. 'You're sharing with me, hope that's okay.'

'Of course!' Darn, I won't be able to have a good cry and purge myself of the Elliot disappointment. 'Is there a mini-bar?' I try and sound casual.

We follow Helen up a spiral staircase lined with bright green carpet for that essential astro-turf look without the hazardous grazing possibilities.

'Up again!' she calls as Zo and I pause for breath on the second floor.

Another spiral twirl and she steps back to let me insert the key.

'Carin,' I read the hand-painted driftwood plaque.

'Apparently it's a Swiss word of endearment,' Helen tells me.

I open the door.

Just as the Tack Room was an a.s.sault in red, this is like dreaming in bubblegum I've never seen so much pink! I look up at the vaulted ceiling where painted wooden beams fan out from a central peak and find a hefty burnished gold Cupid bearing a seven-stick candelabra.

'Imagine if the hook gave way you'd be crushed in your bed!' Zo shudders.

'But what a way to go!' I run my hand over the bedspread layer upon layer of beautiful roses. Crossing the berry carpet I slot into one of the two high-backed leather chairs the color of pink sugared almonds to get a different perspective. Everywhere I look there's mirrors surrounded by swirling serifs of dark gold and more and more pink pink velvet curtains (blush fading where the sun has seared them) and even a pink leather ice-bucket. h.e.l.lo ...

'The champagne!' Sasha remembers. There's a slos.h.i.+ng sound as she pulls out the bottle. 'All the ice has melted ...'

'I don't care!' I'm right by her side holding gla.s.ses at the ready.

'I'll go and get some more.'

'Open it first!' I beg.

Helen takes over to pop the cork and fills four gla.s.ses to the brim.

'To Lara, on her birthday! May this be the start of a year filled with many wonderful surprises!'

'To Lara!' they chorus.

We take a slug, wincing at the lukewarm taste.

'I'm getting ice.' Sasha heads for the door.

'I'll come with you, I need to get a c.o.ke from the vending machine,' Helen joins her.

'So do you like the room?' Zo twirls around like a little girl in her best party dress.

'I love it!' I really do. My only complaint is that it doesn't come with a Romeo type in velvet and brocade, spouting poetry.

'We all took a vote and decided this was the most you it's that quirky thing you like but by far the most romantic.'

I raise an eyebrow. I'd hardly call my current situation romantic. I feel like I've lost Elliot all over again. As self-pity tickles my tear ducts my survivor instinct urges me to 'Step away from the Cupid!'

'Is that another balcony?' I ask, making a dash for it, staring intently at the sloping yellow mountains beyond the grazing fields.

'That's the one they were hiding on,' Zo tells me. 'When I came in they all jumped out at me thinking it was you! And all the while you were ...' she trails off.

'Did you think, for a moment, that he was in bed waiting for you?'

She searches my face for the truth.