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“I hope you never grow bored of me,” I said.
“Impossible.”
“I can be pretty boring.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
We had given up our lives for each other, in one way or the other. After eight years of my high-pressure job, I was ready to try something… normal (if that was even the right word). Kevin, too, was looking for a change. He’d just dissolved a fifteen-year business partnership developing aerosol technology that had had him chained to a desk, in favor of a new venture that would allow him to see the world. We’d first met on vacation, both on the same Mexican beach while considering what to do with the next chapter of our lives.
The solution we came up with, after a series of salt-rimmed margaritas? We’dstayon vacation. What started as a boozy, flirty joke turned into something real when we planned to meet up again a week later, this time in Key West. And then again two weeks later, on Ibiza, and so on, for the next six months until we finally decided to elope. After which Kevin Drexel whisked away the former Samantha Bell to honeymoon here in Berlin, his favorite city.
“You want to see the crypt?” Kevin asked. “They have caskets down there dating back to the sixteenth century.”
“Why, Mr. Drexel, are you trying to get me alone in a dark, confined space?”
“That was sort of the idea, Mrs. Drexel.”
“That’sMs. Bell-Drexel, if you please. And if we’re going to do that, I’d rather not be surrounded by dead Germans.”
“In that case, shall we make our way back to the Adlon and see if our room is ready, Ms. Bell-Drexel?”
I threaded my arm through his, and leaned in close. “You know what I like best about you, Mr. Drexel?”
“My rakish good looks? My devil-may-care attitude?”
“No. You’re a quick study.”
We left the cathedral and made our way west down the Unter den Linden with a little more urgency this time. Kevin made a big deal of pointing out the former communist parade grounds, now a proper garden called—wait for it—the Lustgarten. I told my husband he was making this far, far too easy.
Finally, we checked into the hotel. The Hotel Adlon was every bit as gorgeous as Kevin had promised. Kevin told me that the Adlon, like the Berliner Dom, had been pretty much destroyed by the Allies during World War II; and since it was on the East German side, a stone’s throw from the Berlin Wall and directly across from the Brandenburg Gate, almost nothing had been left of the hotel except a grassy field until after the Wall fell. They eventually rebuilt in the 1990s, with a similar design to the original.
So, in short, we were apparently honeymooning in what used to be Enemy Territory. But Kevin was right; Berlin was in a forever state of birth, death, and rebirth.
“Okay, so we’re in Berlin for seven days,” I said. “Let’s stay in this room the entire time.”
Kevin smiled. “Well, at some point I’m going to have to meet up for a quick drink with Bill. He lives nearby in Simon-Dach-Kiez, just a neighborhood or two away.”
I pulled him close, whispering in his ear, “You’re not going anywhere,” then giving him a long, searching kiss.
CHAPTER 3
FIRST ORDER OF business: washing the air travel and Unter den Linden off my body. The tastefully ornate bathroom was bigger than most studio apartments; Kevin and I could practically take up residence here. And as the warm water cascaded over my body from multiple directions, I was beginning to seriously entertain the idea. So I barely heard him when Kevin stuck his head in to say something.
“What was that?”
“I said I’ll be right back,” Kevin replied. I couldn’t quite see him through the steam, but I could imagine him grinning.
“Where are you going?”
“Just a quick errand. Something I forgot.”
“Please, Mr. Bell-Drexel. You don’t forgetanything.”
“Okay, guilty as charged. I want to pick up some flowers and an outrageously expensive bottle of wine. What’s a honeymoon suite without them?”
“Flowers and wine are nothing compared to this shower. You should take off your clothes and join me.”
“I will. Just as soon as I return.”
