Falling Down Under (I) #Wattys2016

Part 9

I drove straight to the Botanical Gardens, the location for the Living Free fundraiser the next day. There were a few issues in regards to the order of presentations, with the typical last minute time change requests. Once everything was sorted, I headed back home to collect the twins from school. I had organised for Sam and Emma to stay at friends places the next night, so I didn't have to rush home after the event. Being one of the main organisers, I was expected to stay to the end.

Both kids had to prepare a talk for the following week. As our weekend would be busy, I made them both sit down to finalise their speeches. Sam was talking about "How to be a great team member", while Emma's topic was "How to define courage". They were both very good students, but needed some incentive to get prepared. A year ago, Sam hadn't prepared for a speech at all. He had told me that he had it all worked out, but had nothing written down, no pictures to show, nothing. Just some ideas in his head. It turned out to be the best speech in his class. It was a great gift to have, but it was important to me that they learned to get prepared. In a few years it wouldn't be that easy to just start talking. If they didn't learn now, they wouldn't learn later how to learn.

At quarter past four Dave knocked on the door. He was every mother-in-laws dream, just not his partner Corey's mums: A sweet, kind guy with the most honest smile I'd ever seen. With his short brown hair, blue eyes and just a tad taller than me, he was the typical guy from next door type. When I joined the gym where Dave worked as a personal trainer three years ago, I felt straight away at ease with him. Dave was fit and muscular but not in an exaggerated way, as I'd often imagined personal trainers would be. I'd managed to lose seven kilos on my own in six months but then got stuck. All in all, I'd aimed at a weight loss of fifteen kilos, ideally twenty though. The thought of all those well trained, sexy members and trainers had me delay my joining a gym for a while. But then I heard about a ninety day weigh loss challenge through a friend, another mum at school. The decision to join together had put me more at ease. Dave had been my allocated trainer. With my marriage being on the rocks, I soon discovered that the extensive exercise gave me much needed energy. Enough even to better cope with a husband whose behaviour had been getting worse over the months. Almost daily I booked into training sessions for the ninety days, and Dave and I soon began talking not only about fitness matters, but also our personal lives. Like me, he'd been in a one-sided relationship at the time. After successfully completing the challenge - I had lost another thirteen kilos, which left me with my ideal weight - we continued catching up outside the gym halls, and Dave sometimes gave me private sessions at the park - for free. We supported each other well in unhappy times, which lay the foundation for our now solid friendship.

Dave gave me a big hug and kiss on each cheek at the door. He then pushed me away at arm's length to check me out. "Legs in form, tummy fine, biceps good." He turned me around in a quick twist: "Butt: firm." With a wicked smile, his gaze wandered up to my face. His eyes widened and with a little exaggerated shock he declared: "Great in form, but you look like crap, darling. What happened?"

Not wanting to start the story of my past week in the doorway, I urged Dave to come into the kitchen.

"Coffee, tea?" I asked him. "I've also got a bar of chocolate."

"Wow! Slow down, girl! Here go the calories. You look like you need it though. You've lost weight and are pale as a ghost. We should sit outside; get some Vitamin D and O2. Maybe do some exercise?"

"Let's get the vitamins, skip the exercise. Grab your cup and move your butt out on the balcony." With a smile I handed him his glass and led the way outside.

"How have you been?" I hadn't seen him in over a week. Sitting there with Dave made me realise just how much I missed him in the past few days. Dave had always been an extraordinary listener and adviser, more even than Hannah, who tended to joke over things.