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.“Your usual scotch?” Rob asked, as we went up to the bar.I remembered the halfbottle I’d downed the night before and tried not to think how I’d felt when I finally awoke this morning.“If you don’t mind, I’d rather have a virgin Caesar.”He raised his eyebrows.“Why’s that? You off the hard stuff?” “No.Just not in the mood.Where would you like to sit?” He pointed to a table in the corner of the room, where theoccupants appeared to be in the process of leaving.“If you’re quick, you can grab that.Or if you’d rather sit outside, there’s a garden in the back.”After being cooped up in various modes of transportation and breathing canned air for the better part of two days, sitting outside on a warm summer evening sounded perfect to me.Before I could answer, someone else made the decision for us by taking possession of the table.“Okay, the garden it is.” Rob picked up our drinks.“Follow me.”Unlike the inside of the pub, which was crowded and noisy, there was only one other couple in the garden.We took the first table we came to.“Cheers!” Rob toasted, touching his glass to mine.“Cheers!” The garden was surrounded with rose bushes in full bloom.I took a sip of my drink, put the glass on the table, and breathed in the heavily perfumed air.“This is nice.”“How would you feel about living here?”“Hard to say.” I shrugged, reached for my glass, and took another sip of the deliciously spicy contents.I’d expected the question, and I was pretty sure of the answer.Except I also knew with a dysfunctional, on-off relationship like ours it was too soon to make a big decision like this.If I said no too fast, I could regret it.If I said yes, I suppose there was an outside chance I might get to like it here, but if hated it, then what?I was, as they say, caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.I’d been to Britain a few times before on business and on vacation, but that wasn’t the same as living here.“No feelings one way or the other?” Rob probed.“Too soon.Sorry.I know that’s not what you want to hear.”“I know you and I don’t have the greatest track record, so I understand your reluctance.But this is a great place to live.London with its theaters, clubs, fab restaurants and marvelous shopping is less than an hour away.”“Maybe so, but the winters here are so cold, and they’re dark and damp.Freezing my ass off is not my idea of fun.”Rob sighed.“Come on, Cal.It’s really not that bad.I agree, it can get a little bit chilly, but you’d soon get used to it.”“Chilly?” I looked at him.“When we first met, you used to bitch nonstop about the weather and how you loved California.”“I was just a kid back then and, like all kids, I wanted to get as far away from home as possible.California was my dream.I would probably still be there, but…”“But what? You suddenly got homesick?” Short of me asking him point-blank, this was the perfect opportunity for Rob to start filling in some of the blanks.“No.My father’s solicitor got in touch with me.He said my father was dying and wanted me to come home.As his only child, I had no choice and so I came back.” He tossed off his drink in one quick swallow.“I thought once the old chap was gone and his estate settled, I’d return on the next flight.Oddly enough, by the time that happened, I realized many of the things that had sent me off in search of greener pastures no longer bothered me the way they once did, and I was quite content living here.”It wasn’t the answer I’d been hoping for.I wanted to know what happened before that—between our final split and him coming back here to live.I’d seen the way he was acting out before we parted, and I’d listened to all the stories and rumors.What I wanted to hear now was the truth.“Life here is so much calmer and less demanding,” Rob continued.“It might take time for you to adjust, but once you got past that, I think you’d love it.”I was glad to hear the move had worked out for Rob, but I didn’t see it being quite so easy for me.He was originally from here, so it was simply a matter of coming back and accepting what home was all about.I, on the other hand, was a native-born Californian [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.“Your usual scotch?” Rob asked, as we went up to the bar.I remembered the halfbottle I’d downed the night before and tried not to think how I’d felt when I finally awoke this morning.“If you don’t mind, I’d rather have a virgin Caesar.”He raised his eyebrows.“Why’s that? You off the hard stuff?” “No.Just not in the mood.Where would you like to sit?” He pointed to a table in the corner of the room, where theoccupants appeared to be in the process of leaving.“If you’re quick, you can grab that.Or if you’d rather sit outside, there’s a garden in the back.”After being cooped up in various modes of transportation and breathing canned air for the better part of two days, sitting outside on a warm summer evening sounded perfect to me.Before I could answer, someone else made the decision for us by taking possession of the table.“Okay, the garden it is.” Rob picked up our drinks.“Follow me.”Unlike the inside of the pub, which was crowded and noisy, there was only one other couple in the garden.We took the first table we came to.“Cheers!” Rob toasted, touching his glass to mine.“Cheers!” The garden was surrounded with rose bushes in full bloom.I took a sip of my drink, put the glass on the table, and breathed in the heavily perfumed air.“This is nice.”“How would you feel about living here?”“Hard to say.” I shrugged, reached for my glass, and took another sip of the deliciously spicy contents.I’d expected the question, and I was pretty sure of the answer.Except I also knew with a dysfunctional, on-off relationship like ours it was too soon to make a big decision like this.If I said no too fast, I could regret it.If I said yes, I suppose there was an outside chance I might get to like it here, but if hated it, then what?I was, as they say, caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.I’d been to Britain a few times before on business and on vacation, but that wasn’t the same as living here.“No feelings one way or the other?” Rob probed.“Too soon.Sorry.I know that’s not what you want to hear.”“I know you and I don’t have the greatest track record, so I understand your reluctance.But this is a great place to live.London with its theaters, clubs, fab restaurants and marvelous shopping is less than an hour away.”“Maybe so, but the winters here are so cold, and they’re dark and damp.Freezing my ass off is not my idea of fun.”Rob sighed.“Come on, Cal.It’s really not that bad.I agree, it can get a little bit chilly, but you’d soon get used to it.”“Chilly?” I looked at him.“When we first met, you used to bitch nonstop about the weather and how you loved California.”“I was just a kid back then and, like all kids, I wanted to get as far away from home as possible.California was my dream.I would probably still be there, but…”“But what? You suddenly got homesick?” Short of me asking him point-blank, this was the perfect opportunity for Rob to start filling in some of the blanks.“No.My father’s solicitor got in touch with me.He said my father was dying and wanted me to come home.As his only child, I had no choice and so I came back.” He tossed off his drink in one quick swallow.“I thought once the old chap was gone and his estate settled, I’d return on the next flight.Oddly enough, by the time that happened, I realized many of the things that had sent me off in search of greener pastures no longer bothered me the way they once did, and I was quite content living here.”It wasn’t the answer I’d been hoping for.I wanted to know what happened before that—between our final split and him coming back here to live.I’d seen the way he was acting out before we parted, and I’d listened to all the stories and rumors.What I wanted to hear now was the truth.“Life here is so much calmer and less demanding,” Rob continued.“It might take time for you to adjust, but once you got past that, I think you’d love it.”I was glad to hear the move had worked out for Rob, but I didn’t see it being quite so easy for me.He was originally from here, so it was simply a matter of coming back and accepting what home was all about.I, on the other hand, was a native-born Californian [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]