Atonement(55)
“That is quite the coincidence. I suppose your boyfriend has him cornered and they are having some bullshit conversation in fluent Dutch.”
Carolien nodded. “Yep. When I saw you bolt up the stairs, I knew something was wrong. You two are being careful, aren’t you?”
I stared at her as if she was speaking a foreign language. “What ever do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re on something, right?”
“Oh…that…yeah, we’re cool and it’s taken care of.”
“Okay because when I first got preggers with Maartje, I was the same way. Sick as a dog and you kind of reminded me of that when I heard you in the toilet.”
“No, I think I just drank too much. We’ve only been here for two and half weeks. City hopping and soon, our vacation will be over and it’ll be back to Seattle. I start a new job when we get back and he’s opening his own business so I would hope nothing like that would happen. It would be quite inconvenient.”
Carolien laughed again as we walked out to the patio area. Ironically, marijuana could be smoked indoors but cigarettes couldn’t therefore we had chosen to sit on the patio.
“You Americans and your inconveniences. Do you think a baby gives a shit about you starting a new job? Or him opening a business? Do you plan to be all traditional and get married first before the babies come? I know that is very important in your culture.”
“Well,” I began slowly, “it’s only half my culture like it is Colin’s. My dad was from France and my mother—well, the woman who raised me—is from southern England so although I grew up in the States, my parents’ weren’t exactly conventional. I don’t really think my mom would care if I had a baby out of wedlock, as long as the father and I planned to make a life together.”
“It’s a good attitude to have. Jens and I aren’t married and probably won’t even though we have Maartje. It doesn’t seem like something that has to happen, you know?”
I nodded in reply, not because I didn’t agree but because she had me spooked. I knew I wasn’t pregnant but that whole “P” word was the reason why I was never promiscuous. Everyone knew no form of birth control was one hundred percent accurate and accidents could happen but God knows I didn’t want that to be the case between Colin and I.
The moment I saw him chatting to Jens, Carolien’s boyfriend, the whole thought disappeared from my mind. His Dutch was smooth and definitely that of a native though he’d grown up in the States. It flowed easily from his palate and they seemed to be involved in a very intense conversation.
I sat next to him and he introduced me to Jens, who was obviously mixed race with his café au lait skin and the most gorgeous ice blue eyes I’d ever seen. He switched to English quite easily and the four of us had a great time.
We all agreed to meet up the next morning and they would take us to the countryside so after about an hour, we left The Grasshopper and walked to our apartment.
I wrapped my arms around Colin’s waist and clung to him as he slipped an arm around my shoulders. “Are you sure you’re okay? You had me worried there for a while.”
“I’m fine. I just drank too much and did too much marijuana but I’ll live,” I replied. He kissed my forehead and we continued our walk down to our apartment.
My hackles immediately went up as I saw a group of youths ahead. They looked North African or Middle Eastern, certainly not a unique sight in a country or city like Amsterdam. They were loud and rowdy and from a quick glance, I counted at least seven of them.
“Maybe we should do the American thing and cross the street,” I told Colin as he looked up to see the trouble heading our way.
“That is so racist, Deirdre. They’re probably just minding their own business. We leave them alone and we should be fine,” he responded in a good natured way.
“Listen, racist or not, I’m scared and that many youths scare me. You can’t defend both of us and we don’t know what the f*ck they are up to,” I said in a cold voice.
Colin guided us toward the other side of the narrow cobblestone street but just as I expected, they were up to no good. They began shouting to us in Dutch and Colin shouted something back though the bravado in his voice was seriously lacking.
Before I could realize the brevity of the situation, there were seven of the youths in front of us and three or four of them behind us by the sound of voices overlapping.