The Vacation

It's nice to be able to escape...

Sitting in the sun in a new beach had always been something to enjoy...look to your left, look to your right, on one side was a view you had never seen before and on the other was Derek. Even though she had seen this view for the last forty-five years, she'd never tire of it. For now however, she looked straight at the water in front of her. It was lovely, the type that would have ensured that Derek wasn't sitting beside her but was already in the water in his hideous SpongeBob SquarePants shorts that Shania had first gifted him when she was five and which had remained a ritual since. The last beach they had been to was Palau which was almost seven years before. After that it had mainly been hills, mountains, plains or deserts. She could feel herself hoping, even against her own wish, that when she turned, the silhouette beside her (she knew it was Sam) would turn out to be Derek. That's why she wasn't turning, at least this way she could hope. Eventually though she did turn her head towards Sam because he may not have been Derek but he was still someone. At least she wasn't alone.

She had noticed a pattern in the small time that they had been together: talk about Derek, feel happy, keep Sam involved; talk about Megan, feel Sam sulk, see Sam shut up.

Now it was almost dinner time. They had spent about ten hours together with a lunch fitted in there. In between Sam had gotten up and fetched his book from his room and now they were both reading, talking once in a while, but mostly reading. They had talked of everything possible: Derek, Megan (with little success), her daughters, his mother, her boyfriends, his girlfriends, their lives so far, novels they had both read, what happened to her characters after the stories ended and all that. It was probably the last one or two hours that Sam had started reading. Abruptly she got up and Sam looked at her, surprised.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just...well I'm going to finish my book in about half an hour or so. And I wanted to save a bit for later when I go to bed. Then tomorrow I think I'll start Narnia again. C.S.Lewis is a genius, don't you think?" she said and grinned at his surprise that she should like Narnia and that she had brought more than one book for a vacation. Then she rushed to clarify, "The other books are in my Kindle. I just brought this for the flight."

"Oh! I have just this one", he said holding up the Burnett that he'd been reading.

"Well if you want you can read this when I finish. 'Doctors' by Erich Segal. Have you read it before?"

"Yeah I have. And needless to say, 'coz it's Segal, I loved it. Usually I like every book I read, no matter what the story is. I like how any book offers some..." he paused to search for the correct word.

She filled in, "...refuge. I know what you mean. It's nice to be able to escape, even if it's only for a small time, every once in a while."

He smiled at her, acknowledging the fact that she had put his exact thought in words. Maybe that's what made her a good writer, he thought, she had a way with words. She made it seem like they were yours even though it was someone else who wrote them. He was thinking of this when she asked him, "Sam, I am going for dinner now, okay?"

"I was thinking of having dinner a bit later but if you wanna have dinner now, then I'll come. No worries."

It hadn't even occurred to him that maybe she wanted to eat dinner alone, or that she might be wanting some alone-time after having talked to him for about half a day. Of course if she was going to dinner, he'd come, spend the last meal of the day together before retiring for the night of the most eventful day he had had after breaking up with Megan. Neither did it occur to her that it was a bit weird how both of them had suddenly become the closest of acquaintances. Obviously it was clear that she wanted Sam to accompany her for dinner. It wouldn't do now to lose Sam and drop in one of her moods after the gorgeous day she had just had.