Page 17 of Always in Watch Hill
It wasn’t the best reply, but I gave myself some grace. Getting back into the swing of things was going to take some time, but I knew I had to do it. I couldn’t hide away the world I’d built of day trading, cryptocurrency, and video games. Those things sustained me during the period of forced isolation, but that wouldn’t last forever. And besides the rest of the area had been open for a few weeks. I had the vaccine, I was young, and I still had my whole life ahead of me. I needed to get back to it.
“Glad to see you,” I told Grayson as I lifted the beer. “This is good.”
“I was wondering when you’d start coming around again.” Grayson leaned his back against the counter and crossed his arms. “But I hear your rental business managed to hang on.”
“Who told you that?” I sipped my drink.
“One of your renters had dinner at the bar last week.” He cocked his head. “I can’t remember her name, but she seemed really friendly. She mentioned how she enjoyed the unit.”
“That was nice of her.” I set down my drink. “I’ll be back here more often. Getting back at it.”
“Good.” He pushed off the counter. “Can I get you anything to eat?”
I ordered Saratoga chips and he strode away after a few more comments about the latest Major League Baseball series between Cincinnati and St. Louis. He wasn’t gone but a few seconds before I took my phone from my back pocket and opened her Instagram account. I wasn’t a social media stalker or anything like that, but I’d found her account during my search and looked at a few times, even though I hadn’t brought myself to follow her. I just couldn’t get her out of my mind.
And to my surprise, she’d posted something new—a photo of her looking very official with her laptop. She wore a pair of black glasses and posed in front of a large plant. “Looking for a way to get back into travel? Be sure to join me at the Midwestern Club. All my best travel tricks are waiting.”
I studied the photo for a bit. Too bad this woman lived in Chicago instead of Cincinnati. Almost five hours, and no real reason to be there.
Except...
ELEVEN
LYNNE
Adecent crowd showedup at the Midwestern Club. Fifty people or so, and more than I expected since this was my first talk since the pandemic began. It felt good to be in front of people again and seeing Emily’s smiling face armed with a large camera and extra lights made it much easier. When I finished my presentation on travel deals and smart budgeting against rising prices, I asked the crowd if they had any questions.
A few people raised their hand, and I called on one in the back, a woman wearing a floppy hat and a knit scarf.
“What do you think we should do about vaccination cards?” she asked.
“You should make several copies before you travel and put one in a safe place. Also, if you are traveling overseas, various countries have different regulations.”
“What do you think is the future of the cruise industry?” a man closer to the front asked. He held hands with a stone-faced woman I assumed was his wife. “They’ve been hit so hard.”
“I think it will take a while, but if you are vaccinated and a little brave, there are some great cruises departing in the next few months. Look for more about this in my column next week.”
