Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 414(@200wpm)___ 331(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
I spent the weekend moving from place to place. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but I had a feeling I would know when I saw it. On Sunday afternoon I met up with Chris Mercer, a man I had been trying to arrange a meeting with for months. I apologized for having to keep putting it off and rescheduling numerous times as we walked the long path that led between fields towards his farmhouse.
“I don’t want you to think I’m not serious. I am, but work has been a killer lately,” I explained.
“I understand – but if you are serious about your plans, you’re going to have to make sure you have the time to pull this off,” he smiled.
“I know, but things will be easier soon, less pressure, more time,” I reassured him, trying not to take his tone personally. I knew what I was doing, but he didn’t know enough about me to know that.
Chris showed me around his place, and we talked business for a while. He ran a tight operation, and I was impressed with what I saw. When the talking was done, he saddled up two beautiful horses, and we rode out over his land towards the sea. Moving along at a brisk pace with the thin line of the gray Atlantic up ahead getting bigger and bigger until it filled my vision and I stood on the low rolling cliff overlooking the rocky shoreline, I could almost have been back home. It had been so long since I had ridden, and I instinctively bent down to wrap my arm around my mount and rub his soft muzzle, feeling the heat of his breath. After a break, with the cool air moving in from the sea, we turned back at a more leisurely pace. The entire day had been a total escape from reality. Chris and I had hit it off, and as we talked business, I got the impression that although he said little, he had good instincts. I bid him goodbye, promising him that I was on the cusp of making a decision about everything we had talked about, and with the promise of a good seafood dinner in the nearby town where I had planned to stay the night, I swapped the saddle for the bike and tried to ignore my aching back. It had been too long since I had had a day on horseback.
The town was a quiet affair, and the local hotel was pretty useless. I barely saw the faded décor as I sat down to eat. My appetite, much like my sleep, had been terrible for as long as I could remember, but I finished the food in minutes, and when the waitress brought me more bread, I ate that too. I couldn’t remember the last time I had actually enjoyed a meal so much. My room, with its broken lamp and creaky bed, felt like a palace, and it was all I could do to take off my clothes and fall into bed. My head was reeling with decisions to be made, different versions of my future laid out before me. I thought over the past that I wanted to escape, and the string of bad choices that had led me to where I was. Was I about to make another one? No answer came; I was asleep in minutes.
When I woke up on a blissfully sunny morning with birds singing outside my window, I felt refreshed. In fact, I felt great. I stretched out in the bed, sinking down into the mountain of blankets, and called Lucy. I felt a sudden desire to have company, to have someone there to share the warmth and sunshine with. I called her, but it was impossible to get a conversation going with her. She answered in as few words as possible. She had been at a fashion show, and even asking her about that only elicited the barest of replies. I felt frustrated by trying to drag a conversation out of her, and then I realized that she was always like this, but usually it suited me, because long conversations were the last thing I wanted. I said goodbye and told her I would see her soon, but she pointed out that I was busy in the coming week so that was unlikely. She was right, so we said goodbye again, and she hung up. Sitting at the table in the dining room I realized, I had had a more friendly interaction with the woman who brought me my breakfast than the woman I was in a so-called relationship with.
The weekend had flown, and yet this Tuesday morning was dragging. Gradually the office filled up and I felt glad of the background hum of noise from printers, computers, and people chatting. The unfortunate meeting with the virtual reality guys seemed like months ago, but I knew by Effie’s face that things weren’t okay. I usually preferred to ignore staff disputes until they had been forgotten, but with Effie in and out of my office all day long, that wouldn’t be possible. When she came in to give me some mail, I asked her to stop for a moment.