A Gift to Remember (13 page)

One seemed to have been taken mid-air while Aidan was in the throes of what looked like a seriously scary skydive. Darcy gulped. Though it looked and sounded like fun, she knew she
wouldn’t in a million years have the nerve to do something like that.

In another, he was scuba-diving, surrounded by numerous colourful fish in what was obviously some fabulous tropical destination, his thumb and forefinger held up to the camera in an
‘OK’ sign. Perhaps Australia or the Indian Ocean somewhere? Darcy felt a twinge of envy. She’d always wanted to travel to Australia, ever since reading about it in
The Thorn
Birds
– it always sounded so eccentric and exotic – but had never had the opportunity. Not to mention that, given her meagre salary, she’d hardly ever be able to afford
it.

Based on what Darcy knew about the place, it was certainly a memorable destination. Picking up the photograph, she placed it carefully in her bag, hoping that the once in a lifetime trip might
mean something to Aidan.

Then again, long-distance travel seemed par for the course for people like him, she thought. Maybe if you travelled that much it didn’t feel like such a big deal. Darcy knew that if she
had the opportunity to visit even a fraction of the countries that Aidan had obviously spent time in, or partake in some of his adventures, she’d treasure those memories for the rest of her
life.

Moving on, the next photo actually made Darcy’s heart sink.

In this one Aidan was pictured alongside a smiling redhead, the woman’s perfect white teeth gleaming as she beamed at the camera, her luscious hair fanned out beneath her ski hat and mask,
as the couple stood arm-in-arm atop a ski slope somewhere; snow-covered mountains in the background. Aspen, Vail – Mont Blanc even? Darcy shrugged. As if she would be able to tell. It’s
not like she’d ever visited any of them and thus could differentiate between mountains situated here in the US, or abroad. She had only ever seen pictures of Mont Blanc, and had certainly
never been to France. She lifted this picture up and put it in her bag too.

It meant that her earlier suspicion about the flowers in the hallway were correct; Aidan was indeed attached, she thought to herself, a little surprised at how much this disappointed her. These
two were clearly a couple, and such an attractive one at that, Aidan with his tall, earthy good looks and the woman, model-thin with her perfect smile and stunning cheekbones.

Darcy sighed at the sheer perfection of it all: this amazing house with its coveted Upper West Side address, top of the range furnishing and rare paintings, the beautiful companion and
evidently, the means to travel to the most exciting destinations in the world.

The guy seemed to have it all – things most people could only dare to dream about. A truly wonderful life.

Darcy stopped in the middle of the room and looked around her wide-eyed, and now even more curious about the man who lived in this venerable Aladdin’s cave.

Who in the world
was
Aidan Harris?

My name is Aidan Harris and I’m an idiot.

Looking once again through my contacts list, I couldn’t escape the idea that I was missing something that should have been blatantly obvious.

But then again, no matter how hard I tried to get used to this stupid iPhone and all the incredible things it was supposedly capable of, I just had to admit that I really missed my BlackBerry. I
get it that all this new technology is supposed to be the latest and greatest thing, and therefore absolutely integral to modern life, but bloody hell, is a simple keyboard really too much to ask?
Some clickable keys that allow me the opportunity to truly feel that I am getting something done? This virtual onscreen keyboard thing is just not cutting it, and besides, my fingers are too
big.

‘I’m trying to program in my contacts but I can’t seem to figure out how to do it,’ I said to the girl from the Apple Store who was assisting me.

Jenna was her name: I was informed of this after standing around for forty-five minutes in the basement of that gigantic futuristic glass box that has made its home on Fifth Avenue. Completely
incongruous if you ask me, situated as it is right across the road from the beautiful French Renaissance building that houses the Plaza Hotel. Quite literally a whole different world.

And incredibly, with this little box of wonders, it seemed you needed to make an appointment just to ask a simple question. Who ever heard of making an appointment in a cell-phone store? Though
looking around at the crowds all worshipping at the feet of the company at its flagship Fifth Avenue store, I was beginning to understand why.

‘It’s really not that difficult,’ Jenna said. Behind the bright smile and perky demeanour, I had the distinct impression she was trying to rein in her frustration with me
– a guy who was probably old enough to be her father as he struggled to get to grips with new technology.

But despite what she might think, it wasn’t that I couldn’t adjust to new technology. I just wanted to perform basic actions with it, without feeling as though I needed a Molecular
Physics degree.

I watched for a moment as Jenna did something fancy with the handset and then suddenly, she was talking to it – was I hearing things or was another voice answering her back?

‘OK, Aidan, just talk into it now so it recognises your voice,’ she said, as if it was perfectly normal for human beings to talk to inanimate objects.

And was it another indicator of my age that this casual use of my first name rankled? OK, so at thirty-seven years old, I’m not exactly a geriatric, but surely it’s not too
old-fashioned to expect random strangers to address you in a more respectful manner, rather than behaving like you’re best buds?

I shook off my frustration, guessing that the waiting around in the stifling heat of this glass box, compared to the biting cold outside, as well as the enormity of the task I was currently
trying to undertake, was making me feel old and narky. Maybe I wasn’t being fair; Jenna was only simply trying to help – and being very nice about it too.

‘But who am I talking to and what should I say?’ I asked her, still suspicious as she held the phone up to my mouth.

The young assistant gave me a friendly smile. ‘Doesn’t matter. I am just setting up Siri for you.’

‘Who?’ I asked, decidedly baffled now.

Jenna laughed. ‘Siri is your new best friend. Didn’t you see the commercials? And oh, there was this great episode of
The Big Bang Theory
, where one of the computer geeks
had a quasi-love affair with her. Siri is a feminine computerised intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator,’ she told me, evidently guessing that most of what she’d talked
about had gone completely over my head. She was right. ‘She uses voice recognition technology to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions on your iPhone,’ she
continued chirpily. ‘Really? You’ve
never
seen the commercials?’

I shook my head, completely clueless. ‘No, I haven’t,’ I replied. ‘But I suppose it’s not all that surprising because I don’t watch a whole lot of
TV.’

Though considering what I do for a living, you would think that I would be much more adaptable to new technology. It definitely would help me keep my days a lot more organised than they have
been recently.

I turned my attention back to Jenna, who was now furiously pressing some more buttons. It seemed like she knew what she was doing, so I let her get on with it, while I thought about what else I
had to do that day.

Finally she held the phone back out to me. ‘Here you go, Aidan. Everything should be working now. All you have to do is hit this button right here,’ she indicated the relevant
command icon, ‘and Siri will get you whatever you need in your phone. Contacts, directions, doesn’t matter – she’ll pull it all up for you. So if there is a contact you want
to add, just tell her what you want to do and she will do it. Does that make sense?’

‘I suppose so.’ I nodded and took the phone from her. As much sense as a disembodied voice inside of a machine could possibly make. ‘What happened to the
old
kind of
personal assistant?’ I asked her jokingly. ‘The human kind?’

She gave me a smile. ‘Made redundant, I guess. I mean, unless you are like, super-rich, of course. The rest of us have Siri. So how would you like to pay today, Aidan?’ she asked
then. ‘Cash or credit?’

I took a final look at my iPhone, supposedly now in complete working order. ‘There’s a billing address on file. It’s a corporate account.’

But instead of going off somewhere else to look up the company details like I expected, Jenna promptly took out a little portable machine that looked like a credit-card processor, and poked
around at it for a moment.

Finding what she needed, she looked back at me and smiled. ‘Awesome. OK, Aidan, you’re all set.’

I paused a little, waiting for her to hand me a receipt but she didn’t.

‘I hope you have a great day,’ she continued, obviously eager to move on to the next customer.

Awkwardly running a hand through my hair, and aware that it was badly in need of a cut, I knew I once again would come across as deeply uncool. ‘Well, do I get a receipt or
anything?’

She smiled again. ‘I’ve just emailed to it you. Should arrive in no time.’ As she spoke, the iPhone made a sound signalling that an email was incoming. ‘That’s
probably it.’

‘OK.’ I glanced down at the phone screen and saw that she was indeed correct, then slipped the handset into the pocket of my coat. ‘Thanks for your help, Jenna.’

‘No problem, Aidan. And remember, if you have a nontechnical problem in the future, just call on Siri. She can help you solve any issues you might have, I guarantee it.’

Hmm,
any
issues? I wonder . . .

I made my way up the winding stairway out of the bowels of Apple and up into the glass box, smiling when through the window I saw Bailey outside waiting patiently for me. Sitting next to a tree,
with his leash tied around a fire hydrant, he stared at the big structure, probably wondering what the hell this place was and what I was doing in there, but sitting patiently just the same.

He was a really great dog. Sometimes I got the distinct impression that he absolutely knew what was going on. Notwithstanding that his breed was known for its intelligence and high level of
observation in any case, Bailey, I felt, was a cut above the rest.

As I stepped outside into the piercing cold air, the dog immediately stood up, greeting me with a wagging tail, his ice-blue eyes boring into mine as if to say,
what took you so long?
Couldn’t agree more, fella.

I untied his red leather leash from the hydrant and pulled the iPhone out of my pocket, considering once again Jenna’s statement. Around me, the holiday shoppers were busy running from one
Fifth Avenue store to the next, on a mission and apparently quite sure of where they needed to go to find what they were looking for. Shirts at Bergdorf, jewellery at Tiffany or Cartier, scarves at
Louis Vuitton. I envied them briefly, wishing my own shopping expedition would be as easy.

I looked down at Bailey. ‘What do you reckon, buddy? Do you think I can get what I need in time?’

He cocked his head to the side in answer, and I couldn’t escape the all too clear expression that appeared in those shrewd, almond-shaped eyes. I pursed my lips and said, ‘Gotcha. I
get the picture. You doubt me.’

If Bailey could have rolled his eyes right then, he probably would have.

At that moment, my iPhone rang, but this time I didn’t panic because now I knew how to answer it. I looked at the screen display but it was a withheld number.

‘Aidan Harris speaking,’ I said into the handset.

She started up like she always did, right in the middle of a sentence. ‘You know, I never understand how I end up getting stuck with these long-distance business trips so close to
Christmas. Why can’t I have your job? Swanning around New York without a care in the world and all this money to spend.’

‘Ha-ha, I wish.’ I laughed, not in the least bit offended. ‘Where are you off to this time?’

‘Hong Kong. For this stupid merger. Of course, the only time that the masters of the universe want to get together is when it is most inconvenient for their staff. So off I go, sayonara
and all that.’ She sounded exasperated.

‘Erm, sayonara is actually Japanese, you know,’ I couldn’t resist teasing.

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah – of course you’re the expert in these things, aren’t you?’

‘I have no idea what you are talking about,’ I replied innocently. ‘Hope it’s not too crazy for you though. And here’s an idea, maybe you need to introduce your
boss to Siri.’ I explained all about my recent brush with the Cult of Apple. ‘Having now been schooled on the benefits of a virtual personal assistant, I will never have to
inconvenience another human being again.’

She barked a laugh. ‘Ha! As if you’d ever rely on anyone else, be it human or computer. We will see just how long
that
lasts.’ She paused for a moment and then got
round to the true purpose of her call. ‘So. The plus side to all of this is that when I get back, I’ve got more time off so I’ll probably fly over earlier than planned, if
that’s OK?’

‘Fantastic. I can’t wait to see you.’

‘Me too,’ she said warmly. ‘It feels like ages. It’ll be good to see your face, the rest of the crew too. How is everyone?’

‘Good. Excited about Christmas and seeing you. Do you know for sure when you’ll be arriving?’

‘Not yet. I’ll give you the heads-up when everything’s finalised. So enough about me, what are you up to? Is it snowing there at the moment?’

I looked up at the sky. ‘Not yet, but I’d imagine it’s on the way. Freezing cold though,’ I told her, my teeth chattering in agreement as I walked, and I briefly
considered popping into the Plaza for a breather, but then remembered I had Bailey with me, and knew that lovely as they were, the staff at the Palm Court wouldn’t take too kindly to such a
wolf-like animal frightening away their guests. A Starbucks carryout would have to do for the moment.