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Buckling his seatbelt, Alex was immediately thrown all the way back into his seat as Sarah pulled out onto the motorway and put her foot to the ground speeding from twenty to one hundred kilometres per hour.
In school, she had kept to her books. He never would have guessed she would be a closet speed freak.
It was nonetheless a pleasant surprise. It was good to know that she was, at last, letting her hair down. He just hoped the cost of the discovery wasn’t him becoming a red smear across some stretch of Australian motorway.
“How are Rich and Janet?” Sarah finally asked, keeping her attention on the road ahead and not noticing Alex suddenly stiffen in his seat. “After I sent you that email, I considered contacting them too, but I just couldn’t think of anything to say.”
“What? Sarah Snow lost for words, now I’ve heard everything!” Alex shot her a sideways smirk and said, “last I heard Rich was working for his dad. I don’t know about Janet.”
“Really?” she asked, unable to keep her surprise hidden as she quickly glanced at him. “But you two were so close, she was even saying you guys were talking about working things out and getting back together.”
“We did, and things were going pretty well for a while, but we broke up nearly a year ago. There werecomplications.”
He hoped that explanation would satisfy her, but Sarah was ever curious and though she nodded, he could tell she wanted to know more. Despite himself, he found the words coming out before he could stop them.
“It’s a long story but I guess we just had different ideas of what life would be like after graduation. She wanted the life she’d gotten used to at university. Nightly girls’ nights and weekends away. I wanted something steady, a family, career, the whole nine yards, you know. Janet could never understand that.” Alex paused. He needed to consider his next words carefully and gave a moment’s serious thought as to the best way to put it before continuing slowly. “In the end, I think we both knew it wouldn’t work. It was just a matter of who would admit it first.”
Sarah, much to his relief, didn’t press the matter further and they spent the next few moments in silence as Alex considered his failed relationship with Janet. What he’d told Sarah had been true, from a certain point of view. They’d both realised the inevitable end, only Janet had realised it much sooner than he had. For Alex, the truth had become apparent whilst they were attending one of his firm’s cocktail parties, celebrating the start of a tour for their newest, and most successful, signing artists. Alex had discovered the singer, Augustus Flemingworth, singing karaoke in a club and offered him a break. His presence was expected and, as she was a fan of most indie rock, he’d brought Janet for their weekly date night.
Janet had never been one to drink, but that night she had consumed an ample sum while he’d been forced to talk shop. He had been politely trying to brush off a job offer from a representative from a competing agency when he suddenly noticed Janet had vanished. Concerned, he discarded subtlety and bluntly refused the offer before searching. It didn’t take long. The party was being hosted at the singer’s new flat in one of Chelsea’s more choice buildings and he’d visited the place enough times for him to navigate a path through the press of bodies without getting lost. When he found her, she had been the centrepiece of a foursome on Augustus Flemingworth’s bed. Sandwiched between them, were two of the catering staff whose names he’d never asked after, and she was busily performing fellatio upon Flemingworth.
It is an interesting feeling, to have your world fall apart around you. For Alex, it was like being plunged headfirst into an icy lake. He had stood there completely numb for a moment before retreating away from the open door and leaving the party without saying a word to any of the revellers. Not sure of what to do, he had gone home, packed up all his things before writing her a hasty note to say that it was over. He hadn’t seen Janet since.
“I’m so sorry Alex...” Sarah whispered, her voice shaky as she glanced at him nervously. “I can’t imagine how that must have felt-”
“Forget it, I have.” Alex snapped, his voice hitching with a note of pent-up anger. “Goddamnit, what happened to you, Sarah? You just disappeared. I thought... we could - I woke up and you were gone.”
“Alex...” She looked like she was about to say more but then a high-quality recording of Beethoven’s fifth Symphony filled the car. Giving him an apologetic glance, she took one hand off the wheel and reached into the side of her door to withdraw a small earpiece with flashing bright green LEDs. Fixing it to her ear, she pressed the answer button before returning both hands to the wheel. “Hello.” her voice remained even and friendly as she greeted whoever was calling her.
Almost seething, Alex sunk back into his chair and watched the world outside the car fly by. A tall blue road sign announced that they were driving down the M5 and Alex tried to compare the city’s triple carriageway with its rural English equivalent. The exercise helped calm the storm raging inside of him and he felt a sudden surge of self-loathing. He’d never meant to get angry with her, she deserved better from him than that.
Realising they were approaching an intersection, he breathed a quick sigh of relief as the traffic light suspended above the junction changed from bright green to yellow. Instead of slowing, however, Sarah suddenly slammed her foot down on the accelerator, challenging the light while angrily speaking into the earpiece. “What do you mean they need me to come in? I told Ramon I couldn’t do any shots this week. No, I have a friend staying with me. He’s come all the way from England and has only just arrived. I can’t just leave him to... well, why can’t we just.... but what about... oh fine! I’ll be there in half an hour.”
She pressed the button to end the call before angrily hurling it behind the seat just as they zoomed under the lights, an instant before the amber hue turned a bloody red.
“Oh Alex, I’m so sorry but I have to pop into work.”
“This really shouldn’ttake any longer than an hour, Alex, I promise,” Sarah assured him as they walked along a cobblestone path that traversed the edge of a stretch of beach along Sydney’s eastern coast.
Panting heavily as the sun beat down on them, Alex could do little more than grunt in acknowledgement as he struggled to keep up with her.
Sun-kissed and dazzling, the beach reminded Alex of something from the old David Hasselhoff show ‘Baywatch’he’d watched as a kid. The only thing missing was a scantily clad Pamela Anderson running into the water in slow motion.
Everywhere he looked, beneath clear blue skies, there were dunes of sugar fine sand leading down to turbulent white-capped waters of turquoise and deep cerulean. Despite the picturesque conditions, the sandbanks were sparse for all but the occasional dog walker or, of course, lifeguard.
“So, what exactly is it you do again?” Alex asked before using the back of his hand to wipe away the sweat trickling down his brow. Never in his life had he felt more overdressed. His heavy denim trousers felt stifling and his shirt was sticking to his back like a second skin. Thank god Sarah had insisted he leave his leather jacket in the car.
Still a good four or five strides ahead, Sarah glanced back over her shoulder and flashed him a mischievous smile in way of an answer before adding hastily as she walked on “You’ll see soon enough.”
She was completely at ease in the sizzling temperatures. Cursing himself for not checking the Australian weather before he’d left for the airport, Alex couldn’t help letting his eyes linger on her buttocks for a moment before hurriedly glancing up to see if she’d noticed.
His throat was parched but to his relief, a light breeze began to blow, ruffling his hair and cooling his skin. Grateful for the reprieve, Alex turned his head up to the horizon and caught his first glimpse of what could only have been their destination.
Against the glare of the sun, the scene was at first hard to discern, but as they approached, he began to make out the shapes of a dozen men and woman milling around two caravans. Further down the bank, down by the rolling surf, a cluster of chairs were overshadowed by a huge parasol and faced three tall light stands fixed with umbrella covered strobe lights
A makeshift photography studio?he thought. It certainly wasn’t what he’d expected. Although Sarah had forever been a fountain of information and opinions, he had never heard her express an interest in photography.
They were just approaching the closest caravan when a young woman with styled and dyed dark red hair dressed in a pale blue shirt and snug fitting grey jeans, and holding a clipboard, stepped out of the open doorway in its side. She looked to be deep in thought but that evaporated the moment she caught sight of them.
