I couldn’t believe so much could come out of such a slender woman. She hadn’t even had that much to eat or drink before we left. At lunch, she’d hardly eaten, and now on the way to our hotel over at the next town, she was starving.
“I’m going to check in and hit the dining room,” Carla told me as she made us get up and push ourselves into the line of mad rushers.
“You must’ve worked up quite the appetite to squash your way into the line of people getting off the bus.” I grinned at her.
“Well, you didn’t lose the entire contents of your stomach,” Carla reminded me, giving me a glimpse of the old Carla. “I am really sorry about your clothes and shoes.”
“It’s no big deal, really.” I shrugged.
“Are you sure?” She looked at me with narrowed eyes as we got off the bus and went to check in. “Because I could’ve sworn I saw you wince when I ruined your one-of-a-kind sneakers.”
“You saw that, did you?” I grinned. “Really, it was my fault because I thought for sure that you had nothing left to bring up.”
“Once again, I proved you wrong about one of your assumptions.” Carla gave me a smug smile. “I really hope they sorted out the bookings this time.”
I was a bit disappointed when we were assigned our own rooms this time. Granted I had not slept very well knowing Carla was in the room across from me. My mind kept torturing me with memories of our night together. I was hoping that tonight I would pass out from lack of sleep from the previous night.
Carla and I went directly to the dining room to have some dinner. I watched in amazement as she grabbed three slices of pizza and then added extra toppings to them. Topping she’d told me in Hawaii she didn’t like. But here she was piling them onto her pizza base before taking them over to the chef to heat and crisp while the topping cooked.
I was really starting to wonder if Carla had been taken over by an alien entity. Today she’d cried when she saw a ladybug fly away. Then I’d seen her have a blow up with a store clerk who told her they didn’t have a product on the shelf right behind him. The poor kid had been scared out of his mind when this lady had gone all crazy on him, then became all cute and sweet again once she’d got what she’d wanted. Like a gremlin.
“How’s your pizza?” I asked Carla as I watched her polish off the last slice of it.
“Awesome,” Carla licked her fingers before wiping them on her napkin. “Is something wrong?” She asked me, her brows furrowing.
“No.” I shook my head, “Why do you ask?”
“Because you keep looking at me as if I’ve grown two heads.” Carla raised her eyebrows at me. “If you don’t stop doing it, I’m going to start taking my dinner in my room alone.”
“Sorry.” I shook my head. “It’s just you seem so different.”
“Oh,” Carla nodded. “You’re not the first person to have said that to me this past week.”
“Have you turned over a new leaf?” I asked her teasingly. “Because I’m teetering between really liking this new Carla but missing my fiery competitor.”
“Fiery competitor is still in here.” Carla grinned. “I’m just a little off my game since I got this bug, so I’m taking it easy. And also because I’ve been really stressed out lately with work, so I have to try and avoid confrontational situations.”
“That explains a lot.” I nodded. It really did explain a lot, Carla trying to avoid stressful situations. Maybe that’s why we have fallen into an unspoken amicable understanding.
“So now that you know I don’t have an extra head about to pop out, can you stop with the uncomfortable staring?” She put her face forward.
“Yes.” I held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor from this minute forward, I will not look at you as if you have sprouted two heads.”
Carla raised her glass of water and we drank to our pact.
***
We had two wineries to see in one day today and Carla looked like she was feeling a lot better. She was even back to her old fighting self. At the first winery, she questioned nearly everything the poor host was saying and argued with me on some points I brought up that she did not agree on and so the day went on.
We were going to be traveling through the night, so we stopped in a small town to have dinner and then got back onto the road. Early the next morning, we finally arrived at the hotel we’d be staying at for the next day. There were no wine farm tours today. We were free to wander around the small historical town we were in and take in all the sights.