Bondi Beach (4 page)

Chapter 8

JANUARY 8-10

Over the next few days, I felt worse than I had following the surfboard incident. Each morning, Martin sat by the bed and cleaned my wound. He checked on me several times each day, bringing food and water into the bedroom and walking me to the bathroom whenever I needed to go. I spent the better part of three days sleeping.

One morning, while I was sitting up in bed and he was cleaning the cut over my eye,
I told him, “When the swelling goes down and Dr. Pine says I can leave, you can have your life back.”

He
smiled a little and shook his head. “Don’t worry about that right now. Just focus on getting better.”

I watched him for a moment.
“You seem comfortable doing this.”

“I’ve had practice
,” he said quietly.

“
In a hospital?”

A melancholic smile crossed his
face as he put on a fresh gauze pad and covered it with medical tape. “At home. When I was a kid, my stepfather hit my mom a few times.”

I was surprised and couldn’t think of anything to say except,
“I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head
. “Okay, I think we’re all set.” He stood up and forced a smile. “I’ll be back in a little while,” he said before leaving the room.

Chapter 9

JANUARY 11-12

After a few more days, I began to improve. There was no question about it – the swellings around my eye and the cut were beginning to subside, and the lump on my head had gone down. The bruise had changed from all purple to some purple with green and yellow, and the skin was beginning to knit together. Dr. Pine had indicated previously that the stitches in the eyebrow might not be visible once the skin healed. Gratefully, the pain in my head had lessened somewhat although I continued to experience some dizziness when I tried to stand.

Although
I offered to call a taxi, Martin insisted on taking me to my follow-up appointment with Dr. Pine. When he walked into the exam room, he was reviewing my emergency room records. He stopped and looked at me with one expertly arched eyebrow.

“I thought you were going to have help.”

Suddenly f
eeling embarrassed, I told him, “That was my fault. I tried to get up alone and fell.”

He walked closer to me and checked the cut over my eye, my bruises, and the receding lump on my forehead. My eye was still swollen.

After he had examined me, he sat in the chair at his desk and began typing some notes into his laptop computer. “I’d hoped to have seen a little more improvement by now, but your new injuries were a setback. I’d like to wait a few more days for the swelling around your eye to recede.”

I got up from the exam table and sat in the chair beside
Martin, who understood that this was not the news that I’d hoped to hear. I looked down and closed my eyes. Clearly, I was better and on a healing trajectory. However, it looked as though I would need to spend a few more days healing in Sydney.

“Okay but I can do
it on my own, can’t I?” I immediately regretted my question.

“Of course, you can do whatever you’d like
, but I wouldn’t recommend it. As long as you’re experiencing some dizziness, you should have someone nearby… just in case,” he glanced at Martin before resting his eyes on me.

Resolute, Martin nodded, but I had another idea
. After we departed Dr. Pine’s office and headed for the hospital exit, I turned to Martin. “I’ll be okay. Really. I can check into a hotel and stay there for a couple of days.”

He
’d seen this coming and put his hand on my arm. “No. You still need help,” he said as he led me toward the car. My head started swimming, and I slowed down. “See? You’re dizzy again.” He stopped and watched me intently as I closed my eyes and waited for it to pass. “Be patient,” he said gently. “It’s just a few more days. You’ll be traveling soon enough.”

“Okay,
” I nodded, resigned to staying longer. As much as I liked Martin, I hated to impose. I’d been at his house for a week already, and it looked as though he was willing to tolerate a house guest for a few more days.

Chapter 10

JANUARY 13-18

The following days went by more quickly as I began feeling a little better and stopped taking the vicodin. Since the pain was tolerable and I wasn’t sleeping as much, Martin encouraged me to venture out of the guest room. The change of scenery was nice – even if it was only the living room or kitchen. I did a little journaling and a lot of reading, downloading and devouring books on my Kindle just to pass the time. When Martin wasn’t working in his office, we watched movies in the living room, and he took me for some short drives around Sydney so that I could get a better feel for the area.

I felt increasingly comfortable with him. It’s not that I had ever felt uncomfortable. It’s just that we were becoming, well, friends. He seemed relaxed and comfortable in his own skin, and it made him easy to be around. He was always courteous and made me, his unexpected house guest, feel right at home.

As we got to know one another better, we shared stories of our travel experiences. It turned out that we both loved to travel. He’d biked through Italy and had hiked to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. He’d worked in several African countries, rock-climbed on the great granite tower of Fitz Roy in South Patagonia, and surfed off the coast of South Africa at Jeffreys Bay. I’d spent time working and making friends all over India and had lived in Europe for a while and traveled through Morocco and parts of Central America. As a result of our travels, Martin was fluent in Spanish and French, and I could speak German and French comfortably.

We talked about where
else we wanted to go – pretty much everywhere that it was safe to travel and where women weren’t ostracized in their own societies. We also discussed what kind of lives we wanted for ourselves and compared the lives that we’d always imagined for ourselves against how our lives had turned out thus far.

One
evening, on our way back from Sydney, Martin parked the car at a beautiful area overlooking the sea. It was a little cool outside, and we remained in the warm car and took in the view.

Turning to face me, he
looked at me for a long moment. Staring into his intense green eyes, I wondered what was on his mind.

“
Eva, I owe you an apology.”

I couldn’t imagine what he needed to apologize for and wondered if this was about hitting me with the surfboard.
“For what?”

He looked out toward the
sea before returning his gaze to me. “A few days ago, you asked me how I knew about cleaning wounds. I was a little abrupt. I’m sorry.”

I shook my head.
“You don’t need to apologize for that. I can’t imagine it’s something you’d want to talk about.”

He
let out a breath that it sounded like he had been holding. “The truth is, my stepdad was only around for a few years. My mom finally had the sense to leave. It wasn’t always bad. Just for a while.”

“I’m sorry”
was all I could think to say. I put my hand on his, and he wrapped his fingers around mine as we both looked out at the sea in silence.

*****

As I began feeling better, Martin and I spent more time together, and I began to notice him in a different way. Of course, I appreciated everything that he had done for me. However, I’d been so distracted by the pain and the fact that only one eye worked that I had seen him primarily as a very generous and responsible man who had taken care of me when I had needed help. By the time I’d been with him for two weeks, we had become friends, and I noticed the fluttering of some other feelings.

I resolved to push them away. After all, I was getting ready to head off on my grand adventure. The last thing I needed was to be crippled by a crush on a man who had been nice to me.

The evening before we went to see my new eye specialist and Dr. Pine for what I hoped would be the final time, we made dinner together. Martin cooked some veggie burgers while I made a big salad with baby greens, diced apple, avocado, macadamia nuts, and raisins.

While we ate, we talked about our favorite movies
. A smile crossed his lips.

“What?”

His eyes narrowed with a challenge. “Can you name three Australian films?” Momentarily stumped, my expression made him laugh. “Do you need some help?”

“Not a chance.
” I smiled. “
Strictly Ballroom
.”

He raised his eyebrows and nodded.
“I’m impressed.”

“It’s one of my favorite movies
. Very sweet and funny.”

“Okay
. That’s
one
,” he teased, holding up a single finger.

I thought for a long moment
. “
Gallipoli
.”

“Wow,” h
e laughed. “Okay, what’s your number three?”

Feeling pleased with
myself and on a roll with Mel Gibson films, I grinned. “
Mad Max
.”

“Of course,” h
e nodded. “Excellent.”

“Beyond that, I have no clue,” I
laughed.

“Didn’t you see
Moulin Rouge
?”

“
Yes!  Was that made here?”

He nodded
. “So was
Babe
, the pig movie.”

“Really?”

“And
Shine
.”

“Really?
? Oh, wait. What was the one with Mel Gibson and Linda Hunt?”

“
With Signourney Weaver?” he asked, and I nodded. “
The Year of Living Dangerously
.”

“Yes! I love that movie.
” I smiled and had an idea.

His green eyes sparkled as he flashed a grin at me.
“What? Do you want to watch them all?”

“No
. But I do think we should have a movie day. We can spend the entire day eating popcorn and watching movies.”

He chuckled.
“Alright. But there’s no reason we couldn’t watch just one tonight. What do you want to see?”

“You pick it.”

He shook his head. “No, you’re my guest. What do you want to see?”

“Something fun
. How about
Strictly Ballroom
?”

“
Strictly Ballroom it is.”

Martin made some popcorn, and we settled into our places on the sofa
. As we watched this wacky romantic comedy, I realized that I hadn’t laughed that much in a very long time.

*****

That night, I dressed in my short cream nightgown and got ready for bed. To steady me, Martin held my hand and arm as I climbed into bed. It had been two weeks since the accident and eleven days since I’d fallen at his house. Although the dizziness was nearly gone, he took his caretaking duties very seriously.

After turning off the light, h
e walked around the bed and climbed in on the other side. We both lay on our backs and looked up at the ceiling. Moonlight flooded through the windows with its bluish-white light.

“It’s beautiful,” I said
. “The moonlight.”

He turned
his head to face me, and there was a serious expression on his face. He looked a little sad, but I wasn’t sure why. We lay there looking at each other for a long moment. He swallowed and stared back up at the ceiling. “If Dr. Pine approves it, are you going to travel straight away?”

“I don’t know.
” I looked back toward the ceiling and closed my eyes. “I thought I might get a hotel in town for a few days before heading out.” I felt him watching me again. “I’d like to look a little better before I get on the road. I might wait until the bruises are gone.” I opened my eyes to look at him and smiled a little. “I don’t want to scare the other tourists.”

Martin
rolled over onto his side to face me, propping himself up on one elbow and putting his other hand on mine. “Stay here with me,” he said softly.

I looked at him and could tell that
this was a sincere request. I knew that he regretted hitting me with his surfboard. Yet, I felt like I’d been such a burden to him that I was surprised that he wanted me to stay longer. Unless, of course….

“
Martin, you’ve taken such good care of me. It’s going to be hard to leave, but I need to let you get back to your life.” I could feel my eyes begin to water, and I hoped that, in the darkness of the room, he didn’t notice. I looked up at the ceiling again.

“You’r
e not imposing, Eva. Stay here. Just for a few more days until your bruises are gone. Besides,” he smiled. “I still owe you a dinner out for all of those hospital meals.”

“It’s not like you haven’t more than made up for my time at the hospital,” I told him quietly.

His eyes were unusually serious. “Please.”

I looked
at him for a long moment and nodded. “Okay.”

*****

We’d both been sleeping when we were awakened by a noise outside. I sat up, and Martin got out of bed and walked through the house to check it out. When he returned a few minutes later, he said, “It’s just a possum moving around by the rubbish bin.”

I watched him as he turned out the light and walked back toward the bed.

“Thanks for checking.”

“
No problem.”

H
e settled back into bed while I brought the covers up to my chin. Although it was summer in the southern hemisphere, the nights were still chilly. I regretted not having worn a longer nightgown and socks to bed.

Martin turned his head. Even though I was lying on my back, I could feel him watching me
. “Are you cold?”

I turned my head toward his.
“A little.”

Rolling
onto his right side so that he faced me, Martin stretched out his right arm. “Come here,” he said quietly. Still lying on my back, I moved closer to him, and he made up the difference, settling his chest up against my left side and placing his left arm gently across my ribs. “Better?” he asked.

“Much,” I said
sleepily. He kissed me softly on the side of the head. My heart began to beat a little faster, and we both drifted off to sleep.