Losing Control

I turned to give the girls a questioning look but they seemed just as confused as I was. “Where are we going Scott?”

Pausing briefly he smiled over his shoulder at me, “Just trust me Anna, you’ll have a great meal without all the….” he made a face.

“Yes,” I grinned. “That sounds good to me, lead the way.”

Not needing any more prompting, Scott led us towards the double doors that stood closed between the front desk and the entrance of the restaurant. “Now,” he stopped at his hand curled around the handle of the door in the right. “This isn’t fancy or anything and to be honest, it smells a little stale because of the cigarette smoke but…” he gave me a helpless look. “Try to see past that?”

“Ok,” I said a little hesitantly as I walked behind him into the dark room. Once in the room, he left of for a moment to go turn on a light or two and the girls all gathered around me.

“Aunt Anna? What is this?”

I shrugged as the lights came on, “I don’t know Cass, I think he’s trying to make up for our breakfast not going the way he had hoped.”

“Oh,” she nodded slowly as she watched me. “What happened?”

I didn’t really want to tell them because I didn’t want them to think I overreacted but after leading them over to a table just to our left which had been set up with cutlery, napkins and five glasses of ice water along with menus. As we sipped our water and waited for Scott to come back, I found myself telling them about Tessa’s appearance at our table. “I just know she’s going to keep being rude and yes, I know we only have a couple more days here but still, I don’t want that stress. I don’t need that stress.”

“You’re right,” Lindsay said seriously. “You don’t need her attitude Aunt Anna and you certainly don’t need Scott.” I raised a brow in her direction and she nodded firmly. “You don’t need another guy in your life, you have two guys who would do anything for you; all you have to do is ask!”

I was about to tell her that she didn’t know what she was talking about when Scott walked back into the room with a tray holding a couple pitchers of ice water and a notepad and pencil. “Hey ladies,” he grinned as he sauntered over to us. “I see you made yourselves comfortable, good.” He placed the tray on the table and posed with the pen to his notepad. “What would you like to have for breakfast?”

The girls all started speaking at once, apparently they were really hungry, it was fun to see him scrambling to get everything they were saying. When they fell silent, he was still writing furiously. “Ok,” he ran a hand through his hair and stared at the notepad. “Cassie - ham/cheese omelette with brown toast, orange juice and a side order of bacon. Lindsay - French toast, white, no powered sugar, extra syrup, extra bacon with chocolate milk. Natalie - scrambled eggs, sausage, white toast with peanut butter and raspberry jam and a glass of white milk.” He paused, looking to the girls for confirmation; they nodded happily.

“Ok then,” he smiled and turned to me. “That just leaves you. What would you like Anna?”

If it was any other guy, I think I would’ve been all flirty and say him but I just wasn’t in the right mood for that. “Umm,” I glanced at the menu one more time and then told him I would like pancakes, bacon and orange juice.

When he left to place our order, I started to feel wrong about even being there with him; he wasn’t what I wanted at all. Jordan was.

“I have to make a phone call,” I told the girls as I got up from the table with my cell in my hand.

“Oh no you don’t!” Cassie jumped up after me, ripping my phone from my hand. “You aren’t calling Jordan Aunt Anna! You can wait a couple days before you make a fool of yourself with him.”

“I just want to talk to him Cassie,” I tried to express the great importance of calling him but she wasn’t buying it, she told me that this trip was about hanging out with them not calling Jordan or anyone else all the time.

“You talked to him last night,” she reminded me, like I needed to be reminded. “He is working right now, so just sit down and enjoy yourself for the love of God! It won’t kill you to not think about a guy for five minutes Aunt Anna!”

I have to admit I was a little offended by that comment. “Well Cassie,” I snatched my phone back from her. “I believe you were the one who just had to invite Scott, a guy, along to our breakfast this morning after me clearly telling him that this trip was about you and your sisters. I didn’t want to see him because I didn’t want to ‘think about guys’ but you just had to butt in, didn’t you? God!” I threw my hands up in frustration. “You are just like your father! When something doesn’t go the way he thinks it should, it’s everyone’s fault but his!”

Cassie glared at me, “Well Aunt Anna that’s a Christensen trait, one you’ve perfected!”

“Yeah well…” I stopped myself from continuing, I didn’t want to argue with Cassie about this. “Just…” I sighed. “Cass, I’m sorry. I don’t want to argue with you, let’s just sit down and make the most out of this breakfast.” She looked so stubborn; she looked just like me when I thought I was right. “Please?”

Grudgingly, she agreed.

When Scott came back from placing our order, he walked into a room totally different than the one he left. I knew that he knew something was going on but I didn’t really wish to get into it with him. Even when the girls went over to play pool after Scott opened up the table, I still didn’t feel comfortable enough to spill my troubles to him.

The rest of our trip passed by without much excitement, it was hard to be happy when my niece was holding on to her resentment from the argument we had. Before we left the hotel, Scott gave me his number and IM address and asked me to look him up when I got home. I told him I would, and I knew I would but I couldn’t promise much, if anything would come out of it.

I thought the trip home would be the longest three hours of my life, with Cassie not talking to me, the other girls were quieter than usual. I pulled onto the highway, the stress headache that was bugging me for the last couple hours heightened and I had to pull off to the side of the road again. The girls told me later that when I turned around to look at them, I was whiter than they ever seen me before.

“Cassie,” I blinked through the tears that were forming from the pain I was experiencing. “Could you please take us home?”

I could see the worry in her eyes as she shot forward from her resting place in the back seat of my car. “Are you ok Aunt Anna?” She reached out to touch my forehead but I moved away.

“Yeah,” I gave the best smile I could but I knew it would look fake to them. “I just…” I looked away. “Could you drive please?”

“Yeah, sure,” she replied as her seatbelt slipped back over her shoulder while she reached for the door handle.

Once we had changed places and Cassie reassured me that she knew where we were going, I relaxed against the seat and stared out the window.

I think a field of green grass with a bunch of cows surrounding a small watering hole was the last thing I saw before everything went black.