Chapter 21

  He woke up the next morning with his head still pounding from the music and the scotch. Even still, he wasn’t going to squander his time in Sydney, and quickly got himself together to face the day. There was a lot more to see and do.

His plan was to take the ferry over to Manly, as it was a wonderful way to see Sydney Harbor while avoiding some of the trappings of being a tourist. The city was still bustling with activity, and he ordered a greasy Australian breakfast at the restaurant downstairs.

Traversing the harbor, he looked and saw the huge cliffs on either side of the water. It was one of the most stunning things he had seen, and he got out his phone and scrolled through his music. He found “We may never pass this way again” by Seals and Croft, and turned it all the way up. It was a beautiful song, and it reminded him to appreciate the moment and the time he had here. We may never pass this way again.

After taking a little walk through the town, he found a place called the Manly Brewery overlooking the water. It was a little early still, but he ordered a large beer anyway. When in Australia do as the Aussies was his rationalization, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that he was drinking a huge beer at 10:30 in the morning. 

His rationalizations and guilt were interrupted by something he saw out of the corner of his eye. It was a gorgeous Indian woman sitting with a tall dark-haired man with their hands overlapping each other. He looked harder this time, and saw that it was Amarita, the woman he had met in the little beach town that had in part launched his move to Auckland. It was a stunning coincidence by any measure, and he wasn’t a man who believed in coincidences.

He took a large sip of his beer and thought about his next move. Amarita looked like she was in the middle of a tense situation, and he felt a tinge of anxiety surge through his body as he looked once again at the scene. His instincts told him they were not having a pleasant conversation.

He took a mental screenshot of his life as he thought about the forces that led to him sitting here. He was a widower who sometimes drank too much, drinking a large beer in the morning. He was watching a woman who he shared an electric evening with that changed his life, fight with the man who she was probably engaged to. He was in a strange corner of a new country, and didn’t have a clue what would happened next for him.

But he knew life had taken him here for some reason. Now he had to figure it out.

He decided to move to the bar and get a closer look at the situation. Part of him wanted to simply go and say hello and see where the chips would fall. He also wanted to respect her space however, and let whatever was happening between them play out the way it was supposed to go. They had shared a life-changing moment not long ago, and he sensed she was in the middle of another such moment that had nothing to do with him.

 Sipping his beer, he looked over at them again and saw their hands were no longer touching. The dark-haired man was no staring into the bay, and her eyes were now locked directly on him. He was busted.

  He turned back to towards the bar, as the physical feeling he got from seeing her was too intense to continue to keep looking. A few moments later she came to the bar, ordered a drink, and slid a napkin towards him that said. “Not now. Tomorrow. Opera House 2:30. We’ll talk then.”

He felt like he was in a movie.

 He took the last swig of his beer and finished the glass. It was time to go back to Sydney and think about his next move, and he wanted a clear head and a clear heart before his big meeting the next day. He had plans to see the city, but knew he would be preoccupied about what lay ahead. Historically he had sought to be close to water in these moments, and felt compelled to go there again now. He boarded the ferry for the short trip back to Syndey.

Something was about to change.