Midnight in Brussels Read Online Free PDF Page A

want to touch that. Her sister told her if she started withdrawing from a savings account it would become too easy and she’d most likely end up drawing it all out before she knew it. So she was very strict with herself. That was money for Europe, and now she had more to add to it because there would be a lot left over even after finding an apartment and buying a car, she figured.
    The cashier’s check was for $9,000. She’d never seen that much money in her entire life. It was in her pocket and it was all hers! She wondered where Johnny had gotten that much. Then her thoughts went to Arlie and the rumors of his gambling. She didn’t want to think about it, but maybe Arlie had been a gambler after all, and maybe Johnny gambled. They were close friends, so they probably did it together. She shook the thoughts of Arlie and Johnny from her mind. All she cared about was the money and what she was going to do with it. Arlie was hardly a wisp of a thought now.
    “Paula, Paula! It’s here! The money’s here!” The screen door slammed behind her as she ran into the family room where Paula was watching Oprah. “All of it! Nine thousand dollars! Let’s go find me a place to live, okay?”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
    A week later Amanda spent the first night in her own place and it felt like heaven - a one-bedroom apartment in a courtyard surrounded by eight other units, the shingled exteriors resembling English cottages set around a lawn and flower garden. She fell in love with it the moment she saw the For Rent sign, and it was within walking distance of KC’s. Perfect.
    The foundation of her particular unit was a bit off-kilter, though. It leaned a tad to the left. She dropped a spool of thread and it rolled down to the northwest corner of the living room, which she found amusing, and it was barely noticeable.
    She furnished the cottage with pieces she had found at thrift stores and used furniture stores and had put up lace curtains she bought at Kmart to cover the paper roller-shades that came with the place. She was as happy as she could be. Finally a home of her own to decorate as she wished and no one to tell her she couldn’t.
    Paula had wanted to buy new furniture for her, but Amanda wouldn’t have it. Paula did insist on buying her a new queen-sized bed, though. Wouldn’t take no for an answer, told her it was an early birthday present, and had it delivered the first day she moved in.
    One evening on her day off from work, Amanda sat on one of the two matching bar stools at her high, white, wrought-iron café table that doubled as a cutting-board island in her kitchen. She’d found a new round cutting board that exactly fit the top of the table. As she sat in her cozy kitchen, she gazed into her charming living room. She sipped on a glass of wine and felt as if she was in another world, her very own cozy cocoon - all safe and happy.
    She loved her beautiful furnishings - the overstuffed yellow-floral-blue-striped love seat, the bamboo cocktail table in front of it, the rattan chair with a lavender seat cushion, oriental framed prints on the wall next to the gold-framed mirror over the fireplace. Although they weren’t exactly new and were slightly worn, they were new to her.
    She had a knack for decorating that could make meager and inexpensive décor look expensive and appealing. At one time she’d even thought of going to school to become an interior decorator. That was back in Arkansas before she quit high school and married Arlie. She’d flipped through an Architectural Digest at the drug store and couldn’t believe how some people lived - the extravagant furniture and artwork they had in their homes. She read the stories about the designers and their lifestyles. It had overwhelmed her and made her wish for her own palatial home. She hadn’t thought about those times until lately, when she and Paula were going from store to store, shopping for furnishings for Paula’s new