“Why don’t you come back to the room with me,” Amanda suggested. “We can do something with Gavin tomorrow.”
“Why?” Sheila stopped and looked at her. “Are you afraid to be alone?”
“No. I’m just not sure you should be alone with this guy. You don’t even know him.”
“Oh, honey.” Sheila returned to the mirror to touch up her lipstick. “You need to get out more.”
“I’m serious,” Amanda held her ground.
Sheila sighed and gave her a smile. “I’ll be fine. Stop worrying. I know how to handle myself.”
Amanda shook her head looking dismayed. She debated whether she should just suck it up and stay with them.
“Sweetie,” Sheila said. “Honestly, I’ll be glad if you gave us some room.”
Amanda wasn’t even sure how to respond to that. She just stood there with a bit of surprise on her face. “Ok,” Amanda finally agreed. “You’re a big girl.”
“Exactly.” Sheila smiled and walked out of the bathroom.
Amanda shook her head and followed after her.
Gavin dropped Amanda off at her hotel and then he and Sheila went on their way. Amanda stood just inside their rented room and looked around, feeling immensely disappointed with how the day ended up. She wondered if she was overreacting. Sheila was an adult after all and free to do what she pleased.
Amanda couldn’t help but think of how different things would be had it been her mother traveling with her. Originally she planned this trip for her and her mom. But then her mother got sick. She was going to cancel but her mom made her promise to still go. Sheila wasn’t her first choice for a traveling companion. They weren’t very close but Sheila was available, willing and had the money to travel and Amanda had thought maybe they would have a good time and become better friends. Now she was beginning to think it hadn’t been such a good idea.
She wasn’t very tired so Amanda put on her swimsuit and headed down to the pool area. She swam a few laps and sat in the hot tub for a few minutes to unwind. She began to feel more at peace with Sheila’s decision and told herself she would still have a good time. After all they were only in Scotland for a few more days. She could see the sights alone if it came to that. Maybe having some time to herself would be refreshing.
Amanda returned to her room and prepared for bed, wondering how late Sheila would stay out. She turned on the TV and browsed the stations until she passed out. When she came to it was almost 2:00 A.M. Sheila still wasn’t back. She checked her phone to see if Sheila had left her a message. There were some messages from her mom, Sam and Kim but nothing from Sheila. She sent her a text, Are you ok?, hoping for a response. She waited a few minutes but there was no reply. She rubbed her eyes and went to the bathroom. She checked her phone again. Nothing.
Amanda began to pace the room, debating whether she should be worried or not. She didn’t even know Gavin’s last name or where he lived. She berated herself for not getting more information before leaving them.
At 3:30 A.M. Amanda decided that pacing wasn’t doing any good. She tried to fall asleep but couldn’t shake the feeling of worry over whether or not Sheila was okay. At some point, though, she passed out because when she opened her eyes again it was daylight. She looked first at the clock. Seeing it was 9:45 she thought by now she would have a message from Sheila. Looking at her phone, again there was none.
Now Amanda felt worried and angry. Why did she have to run off with some strange man she hardly knew? Why did she have to flirt with everyone? Why couldn’t they just have a good time together without bringing someone else into it?
Amanda took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down. She called the front desk and asked if anyone had left a message. Not surprisingly, no one had. She tried to think about what to do. Not coming up with any answers, she made a Wi-Fi call to her mom even though it was still the middle of the night there.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” her mom answered, knowing something wasn’t right for her to be calling at that hour.
“I don’t know where Sheila is,” Amanda said, almost in tears.
“What happened?”
“She went out with some guy she met. She never came back to the room and she hasn’t messaged me.”
“She went out with a guy?” her mom repeated.
“One of the thousands she’s flirted with so far,” Amanda said with a tone that betrayed her true feelings about Sheila’s behavior around men.
“Who is this guy?”
“I don’t know. Some rich guy she met, Gavin. We spent the day with him yesterday. He bought our meals and paid for us to get into Edinburgh Castle. They were all over each other and I just couldn’t take it anymore so I asked to go to my room thinking she would come too but she didn’t.” Amanda sat on the edge of the bed and put her head in her hands. She just wanted to cry.
“Sweetheart, I’m sure Sheila is just fine,” her mom assured her. “This man took you both to a lot of public places and paid for it. If he wanted to hurt her, he would not have left a trail that led to him.”
Amanda realized her mom was right. If she had been able to think about it objectively she may have come to the same conclusion.
“So she’s just a jerk then,” Amanda replied with disgust.
“Honey, you don’t know what happened. Maybe her phone died. Or they went somewhere with no service. You won’t know until you hear from her.”
“Whenever that is,” Amanda angrily added.
“I’m so sorry sweetheart. I know this isn’t what you had in mind.”
“We were having a good time up until today.”
