Writing Our Song (10 page)

He said it would probably be best if I could stay awake until we arrived at our hotel, have a normal night of sleep there, and then just function on New Zealand time but after a nice meal and watching a movie on my own personal screen, the steady drone of the engines were like a lullaby and I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

After what felt like about ten seconds of sleep, I heard the pilot advising us to buckle up for landing.  I returned to my seat with a bleary-eyed greeting to Jeremy and sat down.  Outside my window the world had gone dark long ago but when I pressed my face right up to it and looked ahead, I could see lights fast approaching.

“Land ahoy,” I said.

Auckland airport was surprisingly quiet but it still took a long time to get through customs, they even had sniffer-dogs give our luggage a good search before letting us through.  We eventually walked through the international arrivals gate to see a lone man in a dark suit holding a sign that said ‘Holt’, whom Jeremy waved to.

“That’s me,” he said.  “Where is everybody?”

“I think you’re the last international flight of the evening, sir.  There’s a separate terminal for domestic flights.  Is this all the luggage?”

“Yes,” said Jeremy.

“Excellent.  My name’s Conor, by the way, happy to meet you.”

The man stuck out his hand and Jeremy shook it before he extended it to me.

“Beatrice,” I said.

“Conor, ma’am,” he repeated, “If you’d like you can put that bag on the trolley and I’ll take care of it for you.”

“No, it’s OK, I’ve got it,” I said.

“Come on Bea, his employers have got his family, if he doesn’t take all the bags they get sent to him
in
bags,” said Jeremy.

“It’s true, ma’am,” said Conor.

“Ugh.  Fine, here.”

“You did the right thing.”

“Now one day I can accompany my daughter down the aisle, much obliged ma’am,” said Conor with a smile.

Conor led us to a large black car and opened the rear door for us, waiting for us to get in before he loaded the bags into the trunk.  It wasn’t quite a limo but it was certainly spacious.  I was confused for a moment when Conor opened the front passenger door and hopped in but then saw that the steering wheel was on that side.  Of course, they drove on the left hand side here.

“Man, I’m tired,” I said.

“About half an hour to get to your hotel, ma’am,” said Conor.  “If you need me, I’ll be right up here staying close to the steering wheel.”

With that, a glass divider slid upwards until Jeremy and I were alone in the back and Conor navigated us out of the car park.

“You ever been here before?” I asked.

“Nope, first time,” said Jeremy.

I realized I hadn’t yet asked him why he had to come here, but my eyelids were so heavy that I could barely keep them open so I decided to focus all my remaining energy on staying awake.  After several lefts and rights we were on some highway that led in the direction of the city center.

As I looked at the Auckland skyline I could see it was dominated by a building that looked a lot like the Space Needle back in Seattle, lit up with a blue glow and topped with a mast of many flashing red lights, presumably a warning for any low-flying aircraft.

Eventually, Conor pulled up in front of the Hilton and then he and an employee of the hotel brought our bags inside.  I floated through the check-in process in an almost-delirious state of exhaustion and parted ways with Jeremy, agreeing to meet him for breakfast in the morning.

Instead of being simply told what my room number was, I was actually personally escorted right to the door and wished a pleasant stay.  I dropped my bag on the floor and stared at the huge bed with relish but forced myself to have a shower first.

At last I crawled under the covers and laid my head down on the softer-than-soft pillows on the other side of the world.  My eyelids drooped until they were just barely open and then a thought hit me that had me sleepily struggle to a sitting position.

Had… had Jeremy really said I was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen?  I rested my head on the pillows again and thought about that for a while before I fell asleep.

Chapter 10

The next thing I knew the phone was ringing and, when I opened my eyes, the light streaming in through a crack in the curtains told me that morning had arrived.  I fumbled for the handset and closed my eyes again once I had it held to my ear.

“Mmph… hello?”

“Good morning, Ms. Hampton,” said an impossibly chirpy voice at the other end, “this is Lisa from the front desk downstairs.  Mr. Holt has asked us to contact you to check if you are still planning on joining him for breakfast?  If so he says he’ll wait.”

“Oh.  Uh… yeah.  Tell him yes, I’ll be down soon.”

“Thank you, ma’am, we’ll pass that on.”

“Thanks… hey wait!  Hello?”

“Yes ma’am?”

“Uh… where exactly is breakfast?”

“Mr. Holt is being served in the FISH restaurant on level 1, that’s one up from the reception area where you checked in yesterday evening.”

“OK, thanks again,”

“My pleasure, ma’am.”

I put the handset down and rubbed my eyes.  The world still looked a bit blurry when I opened them, so I rubbed again and was finally able to make some more sense of my surroundings.

I’d been too tired to care last night, but the room was easily the most luxurious I had ever slept in.  It was somewhat minimalist, as most hotel rooms were I supposed, but everything was immaculate and what furniture and art there was all looked expensive and as good as new.

When I swung my feet out of bed I wiggled my toes in the soft carpet, contrasting it to the somewhat threadbare coverings of my own apartment, before peeking out the window.  The harbor view was beautiful with the sun already high in the sky and occasionally hiding behind puffs of clouds that looked like they had no intention of drenching anybody in rain.

I pulled on some clothes and was halfway out the door when I decided to have a look at myself in the mirror.  I was thankful for the afterthought, the left side of my hair was standing up like I’d been electrocuted, and the right side was flat as a pancake.  A vigorous two-handed ruffle evened it out somewhat.

The restaurant was easy enough to find but a single glance around the room told me that my t-shirt and shorts had left me woefully underdressed for the kind of place this was.  Thankfully there weren’t many people there, I wasn’t sure if I could take many more full-body-scans from people looking down their noses at me.

Jeremy fit right in, of course, wearing a suit that was begging to have coffee poured on it.  He even had a cup steaming away in front of him, which he was absentmindedly stirring as he looked at a newspaper from back home.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize this was a formal occasion,” I said.

“It’s not, don’t worry about it. Please, have a seat,” he gestured at the chair opposite him.

I sat down and looked for a menu but didn’t spot one, my stomach rumbling as I caught the scent of bacon from the people sitting closest to us.

“So five thousand dollar suits are the only things in your wardrobe?” I asked.

Jeremy moved his cup of coffee a few inches further away from me before replying.

“No.  I won’t tell you how much this one cost but once I’ve got all the business out of the way I can dress down a bit.”

“Business?”

“Yes, this isn’t entirely a holiday for me,” Jeremy waved to a waiter who came straight over.

“Ready to order now sir, ma’am?” he asked.

Jeremy looked to me and gave an ‘after you’ gesture.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen a menu but can I have what they’re having?” I pointed, “Bacon and eggs?”

“Certainly.  And you, sir?”

“That sounds good to me, I’ll have the same.”

“Anything to drink?”

“Orange juice please,” I said.

“I’m fine with the coffee, thanks.”

The waiter smiled and nodded to both of us and headed in the direction of the kitchen.  Jeremy folded up his newspaper and put it off to one side before picking up his coffee and taking a sip.

“What’s the business you’ve got to take care of?” I asked.

“It’s actually related to Bloxhamtech.  There’s a little start-up company here, they’ve developed some software that would go hand in hand with some of the new technology that Bloxhamtech is working on.  They’ll do a hell of a lot better working together than they would on their own.  It’ll be a lifesaver for Bloxhamtech and an unexpected explosion right out of the gate for this New Zealand company.  If I benefit from having shares in both companies then that wouldn’t be the end of the world either.”

“How did you hear about them if you’ve never been here before?”

“Well, I have people keeping their ears to the ground all over the place.  When I heard about what they were doing I saw an opportunity.”

“Why did you have to come yourself if you’ve got people with their… uh… ears to the ground all over the place?”

“Technically I didn’t, but I think I can negotiate a slightly better deal myself.  Also, I wanted to meet the two guys face to face and see if they’re the kind of people I’d like to work with on other projects.”

“Just two guys?  They’re the lifesaver for Bloxhamtech?”

“Yeah, though I’ll help a bit too.  That’s what I love about software companies, it’s one of the industries where people can still create incredible new things right out of their garage.  That’s literally the case with these guys, they don’t have an office and they’re working out of one of their mom’s garage.  Lots of people have good ideas but because they’ve got no idea what to do about getting prototypes made, patents and all the other roadblocks that come with physical products a lot of the ideas never see the light of day.”

I’d never been particularly entrepreneurial but it was nice to listen to the excitement in Jeremy’s voice.  The talk about opportunities, finding hidden gems and success kind of swept him away and I couldn’t help but be pulled along for the ride just a little.  The way he talked about business reminded me of the way I used to talk about singing.

“So how long do you think all this business will take?” I asked as the waiter came back with my orange juice.

“I won’t really know until I meet them,” said Jeremy.  “All of today at the very least.”

“Oh.  Any suggestions about how I should fill my time?”

“Up to you.  I’d like to have dinner with you tonight at seven, but until then it’s lady’s choice.”

“Pfff.  I’m no lady.”

“Well, whatever you are, it’s your choice.  You can see what you can see by foot, or I’ve also got a car and driver on call for you.  There’s a guy named George sitting in the lobby wearing the same uniform that Conor had on last night.  He’ll be there all day if need be until he takes you to the Sky Tower tonight, that’s where I’ve booked for dinner if you want to come along.  He can probably give you some suggestions if you want to be driven somewhere today.”

“He’s on call all day… for me?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s weird.  What does he do with himself while he waits?”

“Whatever he wants I guess.”

“Like count the tiles on the floor in the lobby?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’d do.”

“Me too,” I said with a smile I forgot to even try to hide from him.

The breakfast was superb, fluffy scrambled eggs and mouth-watering crispy bacon plus some toast and a banana to cap it all off and my stomach was no longer rumbling.  Jeremy had to excuse himself to leave before I was completely finished but said he hoped to see me for dinner.

I went through the lobby and spotted a man relaxing on a chair with iPod headphones stuck in his ears, wearing a dark uniform like our driver had the previous evening but I didn’t go to him.  Instead I went towards a rack of pamphlets and grabbed half a dozen to maybe get some ideas about what I might like to see, taking them up to my room for a more thorough examination.

After scanning over them for a while I decided I didn’t want to go to any over-crowded tourist hotspot, I just wanted to sit in the sun and do pretty much nothing.  A beach.  This called for a beach.  I changed into my bikini and pulled my clothes back on over the top before getting my beach towel out of my bag and heading back to the lobby.

George had his eyes closed and was tapping his foot and nodding his head along to the music I couldn’t hear, I called his name three times before he heard me.

“George?”

“Yes, ma’am.  Ms. Hampton?”

“That’s me, just call me Beatrice.”

“Will do.  Got somewhere you’d like to go?”

“Actually I was hoping you could help me out with that.  Is there a nice beach reasonably close by?”

“Um… yeah, sure.  Mission Bay isn’t too far away.  It’s not school holidays so it won’t be too noisy or busy on a Monday.  Uh… there’s the beach, a little park with some trees for shade, then a road and then some shops, so you can get some lunch or a snack there too.  How does that sound?”

“That sounds perfect, can I walk there from here?”

“Uh… you can but if you’re walking there and back it’ll probably take about three or four hours out of your day and half the walk isn’t exactly anything special to look at.  If you want to do it though, it’s pretty easy.  Walk out of those doors, turn left and stay on the coastline until you see a sign that says ‘Mission Bay’.  Or I can drive you.”

“Hmmm.  OK, can you drive me please?”

“Yes ma’am.  Are you ready to go now?”

“Yeah, where’s the car?”

“I’ll bring it right to the doors, just be out front in a couple of minutes.”

“Alright.  And call me Beatrice.”

Just a few minutes later I was being driven along the waterfront.  Contrary to what George had said, I thought that most of it was actually quite nice after we made it through what appeared to be a port where rusty containers from cargo ships were stacked so high they blocked off the water view.

After that it was only another ten minutes and George was pulling into a small car park.  I picked up my towel and thanked him.

“No problem, ma’am.  Have you put your sunblock on?”

“Uh, no.”

“Do you have any?”

“No, I figured I’d just retreat to the shade if it gets too hot.”

George started rummaging around in the glove compartment, eventually handing me a bottle that said SPF50+.

“Here you go.  We’ve got this hole in the ozone layer here, you can get sunburned pretty easy.”

“Oh really?  OK, thanks.  What are you going to do?”

“I’ll wait here.  It’s only a two hour car park, but as it’s not full they’re probably not going to enforce it.  If they do, I’ll move over there or somewhere close,” George pointed at one of the other spare parking spaces.

“I might be a while, like a really long time.”

“I’ve got air conditioning and my iPod, I’ll be fine ma’am.  Thanks for the thought though.”

“Alright, I’ll see you later then.”

The beach was just a short walk across some grass where a volleyball net was set up with nobody playing.  Several couples and groups were sitting or lying around under trees or out in the sunshine, while further to my right as I walked I could see lots of guys who looked to be in their twenties playing some kind of game with an oval ball.

When I stepped out on to the sand I could see the beach itself was far from deserted but there was more than enough room for me to spread out my towel without coming anywhere near anybody’s personal space.

Taking George’s advice, I put the sunscreen on before lying down and closing my eyes.  There were hardly any waves at all on this beach, I could barely hear them lapping at the shore.

From back on the grass I could hear those guys laughing and playing their game, and from all around me I could hear the occasional snippet of conversation.  A cool breeze wafted over me every now and then, offsetting the heat of the sun somewhat.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to make my mind go absolutely blank for as long as I could.  It was easier said than done, random thoughts always slipped in.  Even so, at least they weren’t stressful thoughts.

When was the last time I’d been able to just sit there and do nothing like this?  When was the last time I didn’t have to fight for every second of survival?  Too long, too damn long.

The worries about my budget and the frustrations of work melted away easily.  Even better, I felt like it was really possible that I could leave all the rest of it behind for a while too.  Jeremy was right, I was tired.

I did what I had to do to survive, to get through each day without pulling my hair out and screaming until my voice stopped working.  As much as I liked Seattle, the familiarity, there was no chance of running into anybody who knew me here.  There was nobody who would either blame me or feel sorry for me, it was a sweet release I hadn’t even dared hope for when Jeremy had first laid out the invitation.

*****

My day was spent alternating between the beach and the shade, with one trip across the street for some ice cream and a bottle of water to bring back to the beach and another trip for a late and light lunch.  According to my phone, the time was fast approaching five o’clock when I awoke from a snooze under a tree.