Bondi Beach (8 page)

Chapter 15

JANUARY
22-29

Martin spent
several days showing me around the greater Sydney area until we were both worn out and decided to spend the day at home. He had gone into town to get the oil in his car changed while I’d stayed back at his house to catch up on emails. There was a knock at the door, and I walked over to the foyer and opened it. A tall blond-haired man with blue eyes and a square face hesitated for a few seconds before smiling.

“Hi,” I said
. I could tell that my answering the door had taken him by surprise.

“You must be
Eva,” he said as if trying to remember the name and say it at the same time.

I nodded
.

“
Hi,” he said. “I’m Drew. Is Martin here?”

I was about to s
ay “No” when Martin pulled into the driveway, and Drew excused himself and turned around and walked toward the car. The two men hugged, and I stepped back into the house to give them some time alone. A few minutes later, they walked inside and over toward me, and I stood up from the sofa. Martin kissed my forehead. “Eva, I’d like you to meet my friend Drew Faraday. We were roommates in college.”

“We were just meeting when you pulled up,”
I told him. “It’s really nice to meet a friend of Martin’s.” I extended my arm, and we shook hands.

Martin asked Drew to stay for lunch
, and the three of us worked together in the kitchen to make soup, sandwiches, and salad.

We spent hours together
laughing hard as Drew and Martin shared stories of their time at the University of Sydney. Martin told me about an especially difficult professor that he and Drew had in physics class. Professor Rogers had a bad reputation among students, whom he often complained were lazy and never challenged themselves. At the beginning of senior year, Drew, a physics major, told Professor Rogers that he wanted to build an atomic bomb for his class project. Apparently, Drew was convincing enough that Rogers reported him to the university administration, who called Drew in for a meeting with the university’s counselor and his parents.

“
I told them it was a hoax,” Drew smiled. “My parents didn’t believe it, anyway. They didn’t think I was smart enough to pull it off.” We all laughed. “Alright, Ross, I’m gonna get you back for that one,” Drew chuckled, eyeing Martin. “Eva, has this guy ever told you how much he loves cats?"

I shook my head.
“No.” I looked over at Martin, who sat back on the sofa and smiled.

“
Okay, Faraday. Go ahead,” Martin told him.

“
Martin was taking a vertebrate anatomy class. They were getting ready to euthanize a lot of cats so they could dissect them and study their anatomy. He thought that was pretty cruel.” Drew could barely contain his laughter. “One night, Martin and a couple of other students broke into the lab and stole the cats. Then, they brought them back to our dorm room!"

“Drew –”
Martin began to laugh so hard that he had tears in his eyes. "Drew had a date in our room that night. He and Penny were just starting to get into it when I and three other students walked in with pillowcases filled with cats. Penny screamed and ran out of the room, and the cats escaped. We were collecting cats all night.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“We found most of them," Drew replied, “but we were one short. We found out later that one of the librarians had found it and taken it home. It turned out she wasn't too keen on the idea of euthanizing them, either.”

“Then,
” Drew added, “there was the story of Gloria.”

Martin sighed
, shooting Drew a knowing look.

Drew threw up his hands.
“I don't have to tell it, mate."

“No,
” Martin said, “it's alright. Go on.”

"One Saturday
night, we went to a dorm party. Martin didn't really want to go but went with me because I kept pestering him. I wanted to meet some girls, and I didn't want to go alone.” He glanced over at Martin. “Anyway, this hot girl named Gloria was there. She was standing at this makeshift bar, and Martin had gone over to get something to drink. He’d put his cigarette in an ashtray on the bar. He’d smoked back then – thought it made him look cool,” Drew chuckled. “Anyway, she was standing a little too close to the bar, and her jacket started to smolder.” Drew laughed hard. “The look on Martin’s face was priceless. He looked over at me with this terrified look, and I was like, ‘Hey, man, you’re on your own.’"

Martin nodded
, and I laughed. “I grabbed a napkin and put it in someone’s glass of soda. Then, I began rubbing it on her jacket. She thought I was weird until I told her that her jacket was on fire.”

“She never did know that was your cigarette, mate.
”

“No.”
Martin shook his head and laughed.

“
You guys obviously had a great time in college," I said, still laughing.

“We did
. We did,” Drew smiled. “Well, I’d better get home, or Darlene’s going to kill me.” We all stood up. “Eva, it was a real pleasure.”

“Same here, Drew
. I hope to see you soon.”

We hugged, and
Martin excused himself to walk his friend out to his car and returned a few minutes later. As I was cleaning up in the kitchen, he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the neck. “I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too,” I said, my breath catching
.

“Let’s go do something about that,” he said, leading me into the master bedroom and closing the door
behind us.

*****

Martin lay behind me as the moon shone through the picture windows in his bedroom. He’d dozed off for a few minutes, his arms wrapped around me, my body fitted against his. I felt his heartbeat against my back and his warm breath against my neck. My mind wandered and settled on our time with Drew. I had finally met a close friend of Martin’s and had found it reassuring. I’ve always been a pretty good judge of character and wasn’t that concerned that Martin was keeping any big secrets from me. Nevertheless, meeting one of Martin’s close friends gave me the chance to watch how he interacted with his friend and to see what Drew thought of Martin. There was clearly a deep bond between the two men, and it was great to see that Martin had a friend who cared for him so much.

“Drew really like
s you,” he said quietly.

I turned over to face him, and he smiled sleepily
. “How did you know I was thinking about Drew?”

He shrugged
. “I could just tell.” He reached up and moved my hair away from my face with his finger. Then, he ran his finger along the contours of my cheek.

I reached for his hand and kissed it
. “I’m glad I got to meet one of your friends.”

“So am I
. I’d like you to meet my surfing mates, too.”

“Bud and the Mikes?”

“Yeah,” he smiled and said, “Bud and the Mikes” before falling asleep again.

I lay awake for a while, thinking about this long-distance
relationship thing. There was no doubt that I had already fallen in love with this man. I wanted him to meet my friends and for us to be able to spend time together in North Carolina. After losing a few of the people whom I had loved the most, I understood just how precious time is. How, exactly, was this going to work?

Instinctively,
Martin reached his arm across my body and pulled me a little tighter against him, nestling his face more deeply into my neck. I knew that if he’d been awake, he would have told me that it was all going to work out. With that, I closed my eyes and slept.

Chapter 16

FEBRUARY 2

For the most part, we had been in our own little world for nearly a month. Now, Martin was making a point of introducing me to his friends and integrating me into his world.

One Friday evening, w
e met with Bud and the Mikes at Bondi Hardware, a rustic beach restaurant that was clearly popular. We joined them in a large booth that they’d gotten before we arrived. When we walked in, Mike Syke nudged Mike Rumanski with his elbow.

Bud walked over and hugged
me. “Hi, I’m Bud,” he said. “It’s good to see you standing.”

“Thank you,”
I laughed.

“Hey, mate,” he sai
d to Martin, shaking his hand. Martin took my hand, and we walked over to the table together.

Martin said,
“Eva, I’d like to introduce the Mikes.” Both Mikes were standing and shook hands with Martin and me before we all sat down.

Bud said,
“We call Mike Syke “Syke” just so we know who we’re talking about.”

The waitress came to the table for our drink orders before disappearing into the din
. “So,” said Syke. I’m surprised you wanted to come back to Bondi Beach after what Martin did to you.” Martin shot his friend a look and smiled at me ruefully. Then, he put his hand on my leg and gave it a squeeze.

“Better stay away from his surfboard,
Eva. It’s a lethal weapon,” laughed Mike.

“It gives a whole new meaning to hitting on a woman,” said
Syke, and the two howled. I could tell that they’d started drinking early.

“I’ll apologize for my mates
,” Bud smiled. “They don’t know how to behave with women.”

“Oh
and you do?” the Mikes countered simultaneously.

The waitress came for our dinner orders
. “The usual?” she asked the guys, and they all nodded.

“And bring us some more of that amber fluid,” Mike shouted
in his gravelly voice.

Once the
pizzas and the food arrived, the alcohol started to wear off the Mikes.

“
Hey, Martin,” asked Syke, “when are you going to get back on your surfboard?”

“Soon,”
Martin said taking a bite of pizza. “I’ve missed it.”

Mike said,
“You’ve had your hands full.” Turning to me, he added, “Eva, you don’t know what a scare you gave us. We thought you were dead.”

Everyone
agreed.

“Well, I appreciate you calling the ambulan
ce,” I told him.

Mike pointed to
Martin all the while looking at me. “No offense, but I told this guy not to bother visiting you at the hospital. It was an honest accident.”

“Don’t be an asshole, Mike,” Bud said
.

“
No, I’m just sayin’. It wasn’t like Martin did it on purpose.” Mike looked at me. “But he took you home and took care of you and all that.” Mike glanced over at Martin. “You’ve got a soft heart, man. It’s one of the things I admire about you. Me?” he shrugged. “I would have left her in the hospital to work it out with her insurance company.”

Martin looked at his friend
with a combination of two things that I’d never seen in him – threat and anger. “That’s enough, Mike.” There was an awkward silence for a moment. I wasn’t sure what to make of this. I didn’t know if I should appreciate Mike for his honesty or if he was simply being a jerk.

“How long are you going to be in Australia
?” Bud asked me, breaking the silence.

“Just a few more weeks,”
I smiled.

Syke
asked, “What's your impression so far?"

Martin squeezed my hand
, which was resting on top of the table, and I appreciated the reassurance. “It's really beautiful here. Martin’s taken me around Sydney and to the north beaches, and I'm learning a lot about the culture and the landscape. Everyone's been really nice.”

“That’s quite a way you two met,” Mike said
.

“Yeah,” I said quietly
and nodded. I didn’t know if it would be followed by a crass joke so I didn’t say anything else.

The rest of the evening was devoted mostly to innocuous small talk, and
Mike remained fairly quiet. Since we’d already visited some of the northern beaches, Syke and Bud suggested that Martin drive me down the coast of New South Wales to see more beautiful beaches. They recommended that we might want to go horseback riding, and we told them that we were getting ready to go camping in the Blue Mountains.

“The Blues!  Beautiful
place,” Bud said. “I took the kids and wife there last year. It was a really busy weekend, lots of people. You’ll love the views.” He looked at Martin. "You're probably better off there than at Bondi."

“Why?”
Martin raised an eyebrow. "What's happening at Bondi?"

“
Lots of amateurs,” Bud said.

“
With everyone on holiday, I hadn't seen so many shark biscuits in one place in quite a while," Syke said.

I mouthed “shark biscuit,
” and Bud said, “Yeah. We surfers kind of have our own language.”

Martin turned to me
. “We call rookie surfers ‘shark biscuits,’” he said with a wry smile, and I laughed.

Bud
looked over at Martin. "There hasn't been much good surfing the past few days. Lots of ankle busters."

“Small waves
,” Martin said to me, and I nodded.

The guys talked surfing for a while longer before we all called it a night
around 10 p.m. Mike was sulking in the corner, nursing another beer.

Bud leaned into me as we were about to leave
. “Sorry about Mike. He’s not a bad guy.”

“T
hanks, Bud,” I nodded. “It’s alright.”

“
Eva, it was nice seeing you conscious,” Syke said, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks,
Syke,” I said.

“Night,
Eva,” Bud said, hugging me.

Mike nodded
and shook my hand. “Maybe we’ll see you again.”

“Maybe,” I
answered.

As Martin and I walked out to the car, he slid his arm around my
waist. “I’m sorry about Mike.”

“
He wasn’t that bad,” I told him although Mike had put a damper on things, and everyone knew it.

We drove home in silence
. Not long afterward, we went to bed. We were staying in the master bedroom, now, and Martin lay on his back staring at the ceiling. I lay on my side, my arm draped across his body and closed my eyes.

“Are you okay?”
I asked.

After a long silence, Martin said, “
Mike’s wife left him last year for another guy. He’s been bitter ever since. Frankly, he’s become a real ass.” I could tell that he was still angry, and I couldn’t think of anything to say that would help so I didn’t say anything at all. “We’ve all tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but, after he’s had a few drinks, he just gets stupid.”

“It’s okay,” I
offered.

“No,” h
e shook his head. “It’s really not.”

“I’m sure Mike’s a good person beneath it all
. He just seems… angry.”

“
He didn’t used to be that way. After tonight, though, I’m not so sure how much longer we’ll be mates.”

“Well, don’t quit your friendship on my account.”

Martin didn’t answer.