The bathroom was down a very long hallway — about as far away from Paola and Steve’s guest room as you could possibly get.
So when I woke up early the next morning, I tried to walk as silently as I could on the polished (white) marble floors. I had to pass the baby’s room to get to the bathroom, and the door was slightly open. I peeked into the room; it was a shocking shade of pink. So far, it might be the only room in the house that wasn’t white — but it looked very sweet and cheerful.
I quickly showered and got myself ready for another presumably long day. I was almost too weary to notice how nice the towels were — I said almost. They were white, and enormous, and I remember feeling so thankful to be clean.
But the distance between the guest room and the bathroom made getting ready after my shower a bit tricky.
So I wrapped a towel around my body, and sprinted back to the guest room, hoping no one would see me. It’s the weird things like these challenges that stand out in my mind the most when I look back on my first days in Miami. There was literally never an easy moment where I felt completely safe or comfortable; everything seemed to always leave me feeling raw, vulnerable, and very exposed.
But somehow, I made it out of the house without setting off any alarms or wrecking the fancy car I was borrowing from Steve and Paola on the giant dip at the end of their driveway. I was slightly ahead of schedule, and so I decided I had enough time to stop to get myself a coffee.
The morning traffic was just starting to crank up, but I felt confident that I had plenty of time to spare. So I pulled into the Whole Foods triple-deck parking structure and parked the red Mercedes in a spot where I was sure it wouldn’t get dinged.
I was just queuing up to pay for my coffee when Lou called me.
“Baby, where are you? The doctor is here right now,” he said.
I looked at the time on my phone — it wasn’t even 6:30 yet! He was that early? No!
“Can you stall him?” I asked.
“I’ll try. But hurry.”
Of course, when someone asks you to hurry, everything that can possibly get in your way will get in your way — including a woman paying for her large coffee and chocolate croissant with quarters, dimes, and nickels.
