THREE
A week later when I checked for jobs and again found nothing I felt a bit down. I wasn’t worried yet; I told myself its early days. I checked my bank balance and saw I had enough to afford to stay in the room for at least another 7 months if I was a bit more frugal in other areas. Instead I gave Sean a ring and convinced him to book some time off work so we could go away for a few days. Nothing fancy mind, just somewhere different, where I wasn’t constantly reminded of my failings. He seemed sceptical until I said I’d foot the bill as a way of thanking him for putting up with me in my darkest hour, at which point he jumped at the offer. We settled on a weekend in Spain, just the two of us, some hot weather, alcohol and the chance to meet some new people with a clean slate. This was going to be my chance to re-establish myself, to pretend the last few weeks (and Marie) never happened. Of course things didn’t quite go as I had planned them.
We got to the airport, boarded without any complications, arrived, collected our bags and made it to the hotel hassle free. No confusions with the language barrier, or hold ups getting through the metal detectors, no problems with our passports or extortionate taxi drivers; if anything it was boring. Sean still seemed to be tiptoeing around me so the conversation during the flight was stilted at best. Sample exchange:
Sean: I don’t like airplane food.
Me: No, me either.
Sean: *Nods*
At which point we’d both resume reading for half an hour or so until.
Me: I hope the weathers nice.
Sean: Yeah
Me: *Nods*
It was a looooooong journey.
We arranged to meet up in the hotel bar a couple of hours later to give us time to shower, get changed and generally spruce ourselves up a bit. My plan was to get Sean drunk so he’d relax and stop worrying about me for a change. I thought this might be difficult because I assumed his plan would be to keep me sober so he wouldn’t have to worry about me; but when I got to the lobby I saw Sean already propping up the bar still wearing the same clothes from the flight.
“Bloody hell you’re keen.”
I saw a line of empty shot glasses in front of him. He stayed silent.
“Are you alright?”
“I don’t know.” He finally muttered.
I ordered us both a drink and sat down next to him.
“What’s up?”
“I’ve just been thinking you know. About you and Marie.”
I don’t want to talk about her; we came here to get away from all that.”
“I know, just it’s scary. It made me think about me and Tanya you know, like she’s seemed really distant lately, and if Marie could do that to you out of the blue, well it really makes you wonder doesn’t it? Like it could happen to anyone.”
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Facing Up
HumorWhen David Pullen finds out his girlfriend has been cheating on him his whole world comes crashing down and he soon finds himself jobless, homeless and desperate to get his life back on track, but of course nothing's ever that simple.
