Forever - Chapter 31
Thursday
Brooklyn
“I think Tanner owns the apartment beneath his or something too,” Matt said.
“That doesn’t really answer my question.” I paused on the footbridge and leaned on the railing to look at the water. A few fish swam by. “Is this even like…to code?”
Matt laughed. “Probably not. At least he took the tarp off. Usually it’s covered. I thought there were sharks under there for the longest time.”
“Hm.” I watched another colorful fish swim by. “No sharks. But it’s very cool.”
“A little flashy if you ask me,” Matt said.
I laughed. “Come on. I can’t wait to see the rest.” I pulled him across the bridge and knocked on the apartment door.
Nigel threw the door open. “Happy Thanksgiving!” He was wearing an apron that said “Kiss the Chef” with a little turkey stitched to the side.
He was also wearing an Indian headdress, which was a pretty bold move.
The feathers trailing down his back almost hit the floor.
None of it made any sense over top of his lederhosen.
Matt shook his head. “What are you wearing?”
Nigel adjusted his headdress. “I couldn’t remember if you wanted a traditional Thanksgiving or a modern day one. I forgot to write it down. So I did a mix. This is my war bonnet.”
Matt shook his head again. “You maybe shouldn’t be wearing that, man.”
“Why? It’s a celebration! And this is a sacred headdress.”
“Not for you though.”
“It’s very sacred to me,” Nigel said. “I keep it with all my bonnets in locked boxes. I treat all my relics with respect.”
A strange smell suddenly hit me. My nose scrunched up and my stomach churned. Oh no. “Nigel, what are you cooking?” I took a deep breath through my mouth to try and calm my stomach.
“Like I said…it’s a mix between a traditional Thanksgiving and a modern day feast. So we have your classic turkey with all the fixings, including my world-famous biscuits.
I even made a Jello mold which was all the rage in the 60s.
One of my favorites. The dish. Not the era.
” He shuddered. “And I also have the classics. Fresh hand-caught and butchered venison of course. A variety of fish. Cod and bass have been highlighted heavily . And eel. Those slippery devils were hard to catch. We also have an assortment of other wildfowl besides the turkey, fully plucked by yours truly. And so much corn. Corn bread, corn on the cob, corn off the cob, and corn porridge of course. There is no feast without a porridge if you ask me.”
Well, that explained the warring smells in the air. Especially the heavily highlighted fish courses. “Wow that sounds…yummy.”
Nigel smiled. “There’s a little something for everyone.” He straightened the straps of his apron, seeming to emphasis the “Kiss the Chef” written there. “I wanted it to be special for you, mademoiselle.”
“Thank you, Nigel.” I gave him a hug and kissed his cheek.
He was smiling ear to ear when I released him from the hug.
An alarm started going off.
“That’s the porridge! Hors d’oeuvres are circulating. Help yourself to a beverage. But don’t go into the wine cellar, it’s off limits. And Mr. Jacob is already in the other room waiting for you with the other guests.” He sprinted off.
Wait. Jacob? How did he get up here so fast? I must have heard him wrong. I shook my head. “There are a lot of smells in the air.”
“Are you okay?” Matt asked.
I nodded. The smells were making me super nauseous, but there was nothing left in my stomach to come up. “I think so.” I stared at one of the paintings on the wall that was covered with a sheet. “Why are all the pictures covered?”
“No idea,” Matt said. He grabbed my hand and started leading me down the hallway. “But usually there’s a lot more of them. And statues too.”
“Statues of what?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. They were all covered too. Tanner’s always doing renovations.”
We walked by the kitchen where Nigel was pulling something out of the oven. I held my breath. I’m sure the food was great. But it was way too many things going on at once. And he was lucky he wasn’t catching his headdress on fire.
We walked into the huge great room, with floor to ceiling windows that looked out at Central Park and the city.
The sun was just setting, casting a beautiful glow over the cityscape.
But the decorations inside were just as breathtaking.
There were white pumpkins and white candles in gold holders all over the room.
And there was a huge white flocked Christmas tree that almost reached the ceiling.
A white fur rug was wrapped around its base.
It looked like it had just snowed in that corner of the room.
There were little gold leaves hanging from the branches instead of Christmas ornaments. It was elegant and beautiful.
The open floor plan flowed into the dining room that had the biggest table I’d ever seen.
It looked like one of those ones you’d see a king eating at, surrounded by all his loyal subjects.
And there were several cornucopias on it.
Actual cornucopias. I’d learned about them in school, but I’d never actually seen one before.
Fresh fruit and vegetables poured out of them.
The white candles and gold accents continued into this room too.
But the real thing that brought everything together were the string lights stretching the length of the huge open floor plan.
Strings of gold leaves and twinkle lights dipped from one side of the ceiling to the other.
It somehow screamed Thanksgiving and Christmas all at once.
I swallowed hard. Maybe that was the point. Matt and I were originally supposed to get married around Christmas time. This tied everything together. But my eyes started watering at the twinkle lights. “It’s beautiful.”
“I know they were busy setting it up all day,” Matt said. “It’s perfect, huh?”
I smiled up at him. “So perfect.”
“Touchdown!” Jacob yelled. Jacob and Tanner were sitting on the couch watching football.
What the… We’d literally been standing in the entranceway. There was no way they’d passed us. And there were a million stairs they’d needed to climb.
“How are you two already up here?” Matt asked as he escorted me over to the huge white couch.
Jacob stood up on the couch and turned around. “The magic portal!”
Tanner laughed. “The stairs.”
“But Abuelo…”
“The stairs,” Tanner said again.
Jacob sighed like Tanner was exhausting him.
“We were standing in the hallway,” Matt said. “You didn’t pass us.”
Tanner shrugged. “We just beat you up here, I guess.”
“You’re on the 89 th floor. That’s not possible. Is there another entrance to your apartment or something?”
“Ah yes, that makes sense.” Tanner nodded. “It was that one. I have many entrances to my apartment.”
“Just tell them about the portal, Abuelo…”
“How about you go play knights with your friends, little man?” Tanner handed Jacob one of his sticks.
“Okay.” Jacob jumped off the couch and ran over to Scarlett and Sophie who were sitting on the floor sipping juice boxes. He sat down between them and Scarlett handed him a juice box. The three of them did a cheers and all took sips.
It was the most adorable thing ever. Especially because Jacob was in a little suit and Scarlett and Sophie were both in frilly dresses.
“There you are,” Rob said and walked over to us.
“Hey, man,” Matt said.
Rob turned to him. “Oh, sorry, almost didn’t see you there. Congrats again.” Rob slapped him on the back and then turned to me. “A word, Brooklyn?”
“Ummm…” I really didn’t want a private word with Rob, because I was terrified of what he was going to say.
“I’ll go get us some drinks.” Matt lowered his hand from my back. “Is some ginger ale okay?”
“That’s perfect,” I said. But I cringed when he left me alone with Rob.
“You all set on your end?” Rob asked.
“What are you talking about?”
He laughed. “What do you mean what am I talking about? The prank, Sanders.”
“We’re not doing a prank,” I hissed.
“Yes we are. A classic Hunter Sanders mess around.”
“Stop saying that. I’m a Miller.”
“About to be a Caldwell, yadda yadda. I’m always calling you Sanders. This is going to be epic.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
An evil smile slowly spread across Rob’s face. “You’ll see. We really did a good job this time.”
“There is no we here!”
“Shhh, you don’t want anyone to know what we’re planning. Actually, wait, we need James to complete the original trio.” Rob turned around and whistled. “Yo, James!”
“Don’t you dare call James over here!” I hissed.
“Too late. He should be a part of it too. Like old times.”
“No old times. Just new times. New times that don’t involve inappropriate pranks. Do you not remember what happened last time?”
“You pretended to die because you were being overdramatic.”
“I was kidnapped!”
“See…all about the drama.”
“Robert Hunter, stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“Everything!”
“Um…what’s up?” James asked as he walked up to us. He looked back and forth between us. “Is everything okay, Brooklyn?”
I was about to tell him no and that his brother was insane, but Rob cut me off.
“We’re golden.” Rob slapped him on the back. “We’re bringing back the pudding prank.”
James lowered his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
“You know…the pudding prank. From our last Thanksgiving with Sanders. And this time it’s going to be even better.” His evil smile stretched across his face again.
“I know what pudding prank you’re referring to,” James said. “But you can’t be serious right now. It’s their rehearsal dinner, Rob.”
“Exactly.” Rob nodded. “So epic. I can’t wait to see Tanner’s dumb face covered in pudding.”
“Please make him stop,” I said to James. “He won’t listen to me. Maybe you can make him see reason.”
James shook his head. “Rob, this is completely inappropriate, even for you.”
“I don’t know what you mean by that, but I think you meant this is genius, even for me.” Rob smiled. “Just wait until you see the pudding.”
I groaned.