“Nothing has changed,” Jackie said flippantly. “But then that’s the good thing about home, as much as you may change, it’s always there, the same as ever, waiting for you to return.”
Jackie hailed a taxi and instructed them to take them to the train station, where Andy was already waiting for them.
As the car pulled away from the campus, Alex turned back and watched the familiar buildings drift into the horizon.
“I’m so proud of you, sweetheart,” Jackie said as she patted Alex’s knee.
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Oh, before I forget, this came for you, at the trailer. I wasn’t sure when to give it to you.” Jackie reached into her handbag and retrieved a letter in a white envelope, which had Alex’s name and Woodsdale address neatly written on the front.
Alex instantly recognized the penmanship and felt her heart freeze as though it had suddenly been locked in a vice.
“Why did it get sent to the trailer?” she asked, confused.
“I’m not sure, but here.” Jackie handed Alex the letter.
Alex held the envelope in her hand; it felt heavy with intent. She wasn’t ready to read it, not yet. She put it in her duffel bag, and it wasn’t until she was on the train, being rocked by the steady movement as she was pulled back to Woodsdale, that she took the letter out and opened it.
Jackie had fallen asleep, leaning against the glass window, the late afternoon sun warming her face and revealing some of her newly acquired wrinkles. Andy was preoccupied with his phone, texting the redhead who he had met at the Kappa Pi house.
Alex gingerly opened the envelope and pulled out the handwritten letter. Settling herself in her seat, she began to read.
Dear Alexandra,
By now you will have graduated from Princeton, and I am so immensely proud of you. Your degree will guarantee you the bright future you so truly deserve. I hope that you have some comprehension of what you have achieved. Few could accomplish what you have done given your circumstances.
I haven’t heard from you in so long I almost debated not sending this letter. Clearly you’ve moved on with your life and found someone else, and I’m pleased for you. It’s important that you find happiness, Alex.
Four years is a long time to be apart from someone, and yet, this time has only served to teach me that my love for you runs much deeper than I could ever have anticipated.
I try to move on with my life, to think of what we had as something which exists only in the past, but I cannot. You are always in my thoughts, the mark you placed upon me with our love, indelible.
There are some loves which define us, and we carry them with us for the rest of our lives. Ours is one such love, at least it is for me. Maybe you don’t feel the same, and that’s fine, but I had to tell you how I feel, put my honest feelings out there, or else I’d spend a lifetime wondering what if, and that is no way to live.
So congratulations on graduating. I thought of you today, as I think of you every day. I wish you only success and happiness in your future. But please know that should you return to Woodsdale, or should you wish to return to me, no matter how much time passes, I will be here, ready and waiting.
True love does not diminish with time. I know that now.
Yours,
Mark
Alex folded the letter back up and returned it to her duffel bag before stretching out her leg and gently kicking her sleeping mother. It was time to wake up. Woodsdale was the next stop.
Don’t stop now…
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Book 3: Living With Love, Chapter 1
Alex spotted Ashley gazing out of a window in the departure lounge in LAX and immediately ran up to her. Ashley turned just as Alex approached, and the girls embraced.
“I missed you!” Alex said as they pulled apart, taking in Ashley’s new glow from having spent a few weeks back home in Los Angeles.
“I missed you too, fellow alumni.” Ashley smiled fondly.
“Oh my goodness, yes, can you believe we’ve graduated!” Alex exclaimed.
“Of course I can; we are amazing.” Ashley laughed. “And now we’re off on our well-earned amazing European adventure!”
“I’m excited,” Alex said giddily. It had been years since she’d last been on vacation, back when her father was alive.
“Me too, I can’t wait to soak in the culture, and the men,” Ashley added cheekily.
“When do we board?”
“Any minute now.” Ashley looked back out of the window and pointed to a plane close by to where they were standing.
“That’s our plane.”
“It is?” Alex gazed in awe at the huge metal bird. She’d forgotten just how exciting airplane travel could be.
Over the loudspeaker there was an announcement that the Virgin Atlantic flight to London Heathrow would commence boarding imminently.
“That would be us, old sport,” Ashley said in a terrible English accent.
“Spiffing.” Alex laughed in an equally terrible attempt at the dialect.
Twelve hours, four films and three airplane-quality meals later, Alex and Ashley arrived at the first point of call on their European adventure: London, England.
The two girls, wearied from travel, pulled along their now unbearably heavy suitcases as they shuffled out of the arrivals gate. Their pace slowed to a crawl as they approached the sliding glass exit doors and noticed that outside it was raining, heavily.
“Eurgh, rain,” Ashley moaned, pausing to pull up the hood on her sweater over her head. Alex did the same thing and braced herself for the drizzle awaiting them just outside.
“Come on, we just need to get a cab,” Alex rallied her friend with as much enthusiasm as her fatigued body could muster.
“I believe the proper term here is a taxi,” Ashley quipped, her clipped fake accent returning.
“Taxi, then.” Alex smiled. “We still need to get one to get to our hotel.”
“Okay, okay.”
They bustled out of the airport and hailed a nearby black taxi.
“Oh my God.” Ashley giggled as they got inside, her energy suddenly renewed. “The taxi looks just like it does in the movies. I feel like I’m Bridget Jones!”
“You girls American?” the taxi driver asked from the front seat in a thick cockney accent.
“What gave us away?” Alex asked drolly.
“Well, welcome to England,” he said in a friendly tone. “I hope you have a lovely time here.”
“Super!” Ashley declared in her own terrible attempt at the accent, which made the driver smile and shake his head.
****
Alex liked London immensely. It was bustling like any other city, but what made it different was the abundance of history littered all around. You couldn’t walk down a road without tripping over some important landmark. It made everywhere seem so interesting and unique.
They were staying in a hotel on the outskirts of the city, which meant that each day they had to traverse the underground system to get to any of their destinations. This presented a problem for Ashley, who wasn’t accustomed to public transportation.
“Alex, where do we go?” she asked helplessly each morning after they’d planned their day out, handing the map of the underground to her friend while wearing a lost puppy expression.
“Okay, well, we’re heading for Buckingham Palace,” Alex muttered as she surveyed the map.
“I do hope we get to see the Queen!” Ashley clapped her hands together with excitement.
“So we want to get off here.” Alex pointed at a mark on the map, which meant nothing to Ashley.
“Just follow me.” Alex smiled, enjoying her role of tour guide. It made her feel important, like an integral part of their adventure rather than just a spectator.
Being surrounded by so many British accents was a complete novelty, especially for Ashley. She had a fondness f
or British guys, citing that they were so well dressed and well spoken that she couldn’t resist them.
A few times during their traversing of the underground system the girls were asked out for drinks, but they always declined.
“This vacation is a man-free zone,” Ashley would inform them sternly as they sighed with disappointment.
Even though the vacation was meant to be man-free, Alex’s mind was far from devoid of the opposite sex. She kept thinking about Oscar, worrying about how he was doing back in America in the hospital, where he was being kept following his suicide attempt. She wondered if he was getting better and if she’d made the right decision in leaving him there.
“Stop thinking about him,” Ashley would tut whenever she spotted Alex gazing blankly ahead.
“I’m not,” Alex would lie.
“I know you too well, Alex. Stop thinking about Deloitte and focus on now. There will be plenty of time to see him when we’re back.”
It helped that Ashley knew her so intimately that she could essentially protect Alex from her own inner demons.
But even Ashley didn’t know about the other guy who haunted Alex’s thoughts. The guy who had written her a letter that she simply couldn’t forget.
Mark was back in Woodsdale, teaching and apparently waiting for her. He had said that he’d wait for her forever. The romance of the declaration resonated within Alex even though she tried to resist it. As much as she wanted to stop thinking about both Mark and Oscar and focus on her vacation, she kept thinking about the letter and the promise to wait. It had admittedly blown her away.
The girls walked through a large green park as they made their way towards Buckingham Palace. They were now dressed for the weather, both in skinny jeans, boots and parka jackets. Even though they had hoods covering their heads, Ashley insisted on bringing an umbrella, which was proving difficult to manoeuvre on and off the busy underground train carriages.
“Do you really need the umbrella?” Alex asked as they descended the stairs from yet another underground station.
“Brolly,” Ashley corrected, loving learning all the local lingo.
“Fine, brolly, do you need it when we have our hoods?”
Ashley shrugged flippantly and looked at the umbrella she was carrying by her side.
“I think it gives us an air of mystery,” she concluded. “There is something romantic about walking in the rain beneath a brolly.”
“You’re mad.” Alex shook her head in amusement.
“But you love me anyway.” Ashley laughed, leaning against her friend’s shoulder.
In spite of the rain, the park was relatively busy, with clusters of fellow tourists collected under numerous umbrellas, the rain having refused to let up since their initial arrival in England.
As Alex and Ashley drew closer to the edge of the park, they spotted some ornate golden gates, marking the end of the park, and beyond them stood the impressive architectural giant that is Buckingham Palace.
“Ooh, look at these gates,” Ashley cooed as they approached them. “The Queen has got taste! Do you think it’s real gold?”
“I doubt it.”
Ashley placed a hand upon part of the gold detailing just to check.
Walking through the gates, they crossed a road consisting of mainly black cabs and buses and found themselves standing at the front of the palace. Glancing up the mile-long road that led to the palace, there were numerous Union Jacks fluttering in the breeze. Despite the backdrop of rain, it was a beautiful sight to behold.
Alex rummaged in her rucksack for her digital camera, eager to take some pictures of the palace, aware of how much her mother would want to see them.
The building itself wasn’t that spectacular. It was flat and square in shape, with windows all the same size and width, reminding Alex of a Lego house. It was the trimmings which told of the royal inhabitants: the lustrous gates adorned with gold embellishments, the grand fountain beyond the driveway, where Queen Victoria sat at the helm, looking out upon London.
“There is so much history here,” Alex exhaled, impressed.
“It’s all so… posh and classic,” Ashley commented. Where she lived in Los Angeles, everything was new. Few buildings were older than fifty years, so it blew her mind to think that what she was currently looking at had stood there for hundreds of years.
Alex was busily taking pictures of the fountain, the statues, the gates and the palace itself. Around here, countless people were doing the exact same thing. She was so lost to her picture taking that she almost forgot herself. Then she remembered the itinerary of the day and quickly checked her watch.
“What time are we booked to go on the London Eye?” she asked Ashley, who was nearby gazing through the gates at a uniformed guard.
“Is it true they don’t move?” she asked, not hearing Alex’s question.
“What time are we going on the Eye?” Alex asked again.
“Oh, half eleven.”
Alex looked back at her watch in a slight panic. It was already eleven in the morning.
“We’d better go, Ash, as we’ve got to walk over there.”
“Really? Okay.” Ashley backed away from the gates, her face twisted with slight disappointment.
“I’ll go back there, right?” she asked as they now walked beneath the fluttering flags, steeling themselves against the continual rain.
“To the palace? Sure.”
“I mean, I’ll be living there one day.” Ashley sighed wistfully.
“You will?” Alex asked, bemused.
“Yes, when I marry one of the princes,” Ashley said confidently.
“Ash, I think that only one of the princes is still available.”
“Then he will do.”
“Fair enough.” Alex laughed.
“As long as I get to be a princess, that’s all I care about.”
“Ashley, you already are a princess!”
****
By noon the girls were enjoying a bird’s-eye view of London from their vantage point within a capsule as they rode the London Eye, which was essentially a giant Ferris wheel.
“Ooh, there’s Big Ben!” Ashley shrieked, pointing; then she pivoted around and looked through the opposite side of the glass and cried out, “There’s The Tower of London! And Tower Bridge!”
Alex followed her friend’s frantic gaze, looking through her camera lens as she kept taking pictures, determined to capture every single moment of their vacation.
A nearby family kindly offered to take a picture of the two of them together, so Alex and Ashley smiled broadly, their hair flat and wet from the rain, the grand tower of Big Ben lurking in the background.
“I’m going to miss London,” Alex admitted sadly as she thanked the tourists and took back her camera.
“Me too,” Ashley agreed. “But we are going on to Paris!” The English accent was now dropped in favour of a French one.
“Your accents are awful.” Alex laughed.
Ashley merely shrugged and smiled.
“Do you even know any French?” Alex asked a little anxiously. It suddenly dawned on her that they were next destined for a country where neither of them spoke the language. England had been easy, as English was their native tongue.
“I know some,” Ashley said, looking a little uneasy herself. “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?”
“I don’t suggest you go around saying that when we get there,” Alex said, raising an eyebrow.
“Why not? French men can be very passionate. I have first-hand experience.” Ashley smirked knowingly, referring to her ex-boyfriend Pierre, who was French.
“This vacation is a man-free zone, remember?” Alex reminded her.
“Shame.” Ashley winked, though secretly the prospect of meeting French men scared her; it would only remind her of Pierre and reopen old wounds.
“Au revoir, London!” she called through the glass. “And soon, bonjour, Paris!”
****
Bags repacked, Al
ex and Ashley navigated their way through the underground system and out of London. Their next train journey would take them beneath the ocean, through the Channel Tunnel, over to France and, ultimately, Paris.
“I’m not sure I like the idea of it,” Ashley pondered as they sat on the train, the British countryside whizzing past the window in a blur of green.
“Of what?” Alex asked, momentarily glancing up from the book she was reading.
“Of the tunnel,” Ashley clarified, biting her lip and looking nervously out the window.
“Why not?” Alex closed her book, taking care to mark her current page, and focused on her friend.
“I don’t like the thought of going under the ocean,” Ashley admitted, shivering slightly at the thought.
“It’ll be fine.” Alex smiled. “It’s built to withstand water pressure.”
“Still…” Ashley didn’t look any less uncomfortable. “I mean, did you ever see that movie Daylight, with Sylvester Stallone? Where they get trapped in a tunnel?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“What if we get trapped in there?” Ashley asked anxiously.
Alex was starting to discover that despite her wealth of experience traversing the globe, Ashley was a nervous traveler.
“We won’t,” Alex answered with complete conviction.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I am.”
Ashley continued to look out of the window and drum her fingernails nervously against the table between them. In less than an hour they would be approaching the tunnel and making their way through it, beneath the waves. Alex knew that she needed to distract Ashley, to help her relax, so she decided to talk about something she really didn’t want to, knowing it would pique Ashley’s interest and cease her worrying about the tunnel.
“I was thinking about sending Oscar a postcard from Paris.”
Upon hearing this Ashley’s nails immediately ceased their tap dance on the table, and she looked at Alex with a face contorted with stern surprise.
“A postcard?” she repeated.
Letters of Love (Lessons in Love) Page 16