Out Of My Depth

“Attention all, Spark flight 545 from Harrington Cove is delayed by approximately 1 hour” A few people around me waiting for the flight all come in have a collective groan but for me, I don’t mind because I wasn’t going to be doing anything anyway. Sitting at the table with a second Coffee, I’m working on my iPad with AirPods in listening to music as I feel somebody tapping on my shoulder.

I turn around and see a little kid standing there with his mother “Is your name Brax?” the kid asks as his mother looks embarrassed “I’m sorry about this, come on Angus” she says as I stop her. “It’s fine and yeah my name’s Brax and what’s yours?”. The kid is no more than 7 or 8 as he smiles and tells me “I’m Angus and can I have a photo with you please, I go swimming at your club”.

I take a photo with Angus and talk to him for a few minutes about swimming and he goes back off with his mother. Even though it doesn’t happen to me that often anymore it’s always nice when people want photos with me.

Going back to working for a little while, the arrivals board changes to arrived so I go and wait as I see Courtney coming through the gates, she’s clearly tired and had a big night. I take her bag off her and kiss her as we go through and out to the car. “How was it, can tell you enjoyed the trip” she laughs as we walk back to the car.

In the car, Courtney falls asleep instantly and we get home just after 1:30 and she goes straight into bed while I have a shower before hitting bed. A couple of days later, Courtney and I go for a picnic down by the river where we enjoy each other’s company “You know that we haven’t talked about my job” she says as we sit there eating. 

“Is there anything that we need to talk about? You’re going to take the job and we’re going to move across to Harrington Cove” I say to her as we eat lunch as she looks at me.

“I thought you were having doubts?” she says to me as I nod “Yeah but I told you to take the job because I’ve spoken to Mum, Dad and Nath and they all told me that I was being stupid” I explain as she hugs me.

“You told them that you’ll take the job right,” I say to her hoping that she had already taken it. “Rang them this morning and said yep I’ll take it” kissing her I’m so excited that the next chapter of our lives together. “So, when are you leaving?” I ask her as she looks across at me “Monday, I fly out there’s a brand-new Townhouse that we can have once we get there” she says excitedly. We enjoy our picnic before I head back to the office.

Knocking on the door of my boss’ office and going in I sit down “Brax… how are things? I assume that you’re here about moving to Harrington Cove” he says as I know the news as quickly spread around town. “Yeah, she accepted the job opportunity and well naturally I want to move with her to Harrington Cove”.

Tony looks at me and nods “I can understand that and accept that fact, when does she move?” he asks me. “Monday which is super quick but our apartment lease is up at the end of the month so I’m going to stay until then”. We sit there and talk about job arrangements and the likely travel between here and Harrington Cove if I continue with my work. I tell Tony that I would have to think about it.

The next week absolutely flies by without being able to spend as much time with Courtney as I would have liked with us both working and then Saturday night, Courtney’s friends have organised for her to have a going away party so even then I don’t get to spend time with her.

Getting home in the early hours of the morning, I spend Sunday letting Courtney sleep in because she needs it so I go out for an early run around the city and then head to my parent’s place for breakfast. Heading into my parents living room my Mum is surprised that I’m visiting which isn’t unusual on a Sunday morning “Brax, what are you doing here?” already beginning to organise food for me.

“I thought you would be spending the day as much as you can with Courtney?” she asks already with eggs, bacon, mushrooms and tomato in the frying pan cooking me something for breakfast. “Still sleeping, the girls gave her a Going away party so you know she didn’t get in until 3 am,” I say sitting down as Dad comes wandering in with the papers. “The damn petrol price is going up again, bloody Keppel and the Greenies,” my father says wandering through to the kitchen not noticing I’d come in.

“Brax didn’t hear you come in” my father could have a bomb go off right next to him and he would only notice an hour later and then once somebody told him because he can be in his own world and his hearing isn’t the greatest. “I thought you would be spending the morning with Courtney” as he pours himself some more coffee. 

“She’s still sleeping, hungover probably,” Mum says as she gives Dad more food before he heads back to the living to watch the morning politics shows.

“So are you going to bring her over today?” Mum asks as I sit there not sure really about what the plans are. “I can later on yeah, I was thinking that we were just going to have a romantic night together, I booked a table for us at Le Palais tonight and I’ve always promised to take her there since we got married and never have, so thought tonight was the perfect opportunity.

Mum tries to avoid asking me the question about work but she has never been the greatest at hiding her curiosity about things “You look like you want to ask me about something?” her expression is one of frustration that I could sense she needed to ask me the question.

“Well two things actually, where are you living and what did they say about work?” Mum asks me as she sits down at the breakfast bar next to me as I keep eating. “There is a townhouse in Harrington Cove that we’re going to move into that is owned by Grove Media that there is a 12-month lease on for us and work well that’s another question for me” pushing my plate away stomach full with half a plate of food still on it.

Mum looks at me concerned “What is the issue about work, I thought that it would be alright?” she pushes the plate of food back towards me wanting me to eat more food despite me being full. “You don’t need to keep feeding me Mum, just because I’m retired doesn’t mean that I want to eat anymore,” I say as she unhappily accepts that I am not eating anymore.

“So, what is the issue about work? I knew that changing the topic about the food wouldn’t get her to drop the subject. “I talked to Tony about it and honestly, the time that I would need to spend here in Broughton wouldn’t be worth the move because I’d need to spend 2 weeks of the month here and it’s just not worth it at the end of the day” Mum nods her head agreeing with me about the work issues.

“I can understand that one for sure, there is no point moving across to Harrington Cove if you have to spend as much time back here in Broughton as you would there”. Mum hugs me tightly “I’ll miss you, you know that right?” her hug tighter than before.

“Mum, I’ll be here for another month,” I say sitting there as she lets go of me nodding her head. “Courtney is going tomorrow and I’ll leave at the end of the month because we can leave our lease plus by the time, I finish my work off it’ll be the end of the month”.

Wandering out to the deck, I have a rare second cup of Coffee as my phone rings, “Hey Babe, how you feeling this morning?” Courtney clearly sounding under the weather after her big night. “Ugh, next question please,” she says groaning down the phone.

“Where are you anyway?” Courtney groans down the phone at me, “Just at Mum and Dad’s, thought I’d give you some space to sleep without any noise” I say laughing as she croaks out a thank you the best she can.

“I’ll be home in about half an hour anyway so can I get you anything?” I ask as she just lets out a groan down the phone. “Well, I’ve got plans for us tonight so make sure you wipe that hangover out” I laugh as Courtney just groans down the phone and hangs up.

Heading back inside “How is she?” Mum laughs as I shake my head “Not good, she must have got hammered last night with the girls” I put my mug down on the bench before getting told off for not putting it on a coaster because “It’ll leave a ring”.

I drive back home trying to not make too much noise as I get back in not sure whether Courtney is going to be asleep or not but when I get in she’s up and in the kitchen looking better than I imagined. 

“How are you feeling?” I say to her as she shakes her hand as to say so-so before wandering over to kiss her softly because I know from the rare times, I’ve been hungover, kisses on the head are far from being fun.

“My parents want us to visit this afternoon so they can say goodbye to you seeing that they won’t get a chance to do it tomorrow” Court nods as I tell her and she agrees. “Yeah, well why don’t we have dinner with them?” she asks as I shake my head because the plan would ruin my surprise for her.

“I’ve already got plans for us tonight,” I say smiling and winking at her as she laughs “I’m scared about what you want to do Brax”. 

Shaking my head I just walk away laughing “You’ll really enjoy what I have planned tonight” I say calling back to her as I head into the office and use the laptop for a little while.

“Should I get dressed in my good stuff or just my usual dinner clothes tonight?” Courtney asks me as she goes into have a shower as I watch her strip and adore her amazing body before she disappears into the shower.

 Sitting on the computer, I look for jobs in Harrington Cove that match what I am doing now but part of me needs a change and as much as I love what I do now, I miss the more active types of work that are out there compared to what I do now.

Courtney gets out of the shower and gets ready to head to my parents' place, I change into a black buttoned-up shirt and dress pants as she puts on a short green dress that reminds me of the dress that she wore when we went on our first date.

Spinning around showing me her dress, Courtney looks at me “Does this dress remind you of anything?” she says as I whistle watching her twirl looking as sexy as ever. I sit there for a minute and play dumb “Well… it does look familiar but I can’t quite place it” a cheeky grin goes over my face as I feel her hand slap across my shoulder and even though my biceps are big, Courtney has developed the most painful slap ever.

“Oww, what was that for?” rubbing my arm in pain as she laughs “For pretending that you don’t remember about my dress”. I laugh as she hits me again as I keep pretending not to remember that she wore that dress on our first date eventually I relent “It was our first date at Bangkok Palace, 18th September, we’d been talking for a while before I asked you out and it was about the second or third day since getting back from the International Swimming League in Dubai”.

The smile over her face says everything as I remember the details of our first date as we grab our things before heading to my parents’ place. We pull up to my parents’ place “You ok Court?” noticing that she has been very quiet on the drive over here. “Just your driving that’s all” trying to make light of the situation when I can tell that this is bothering her.

“My driving isn’t that bad anymore, it’s been 2 years since I last got pulled over,” I say laughing at Courtney who lets out a smile. “It’s hitting you about leaving now isn’t it?” sitting next to her as I rub her leg as she wipes her eyes and nods,

“Yeah, a little bit you know,” she says trying to let out a smile as she looks at me “It was alright with the girls last night because you don’t get to see them all the time, but now that it’s family it’s really hard because you can’t just go and visit them whenever you want”.

Everything Courtney just said is exactly the same as the doubts that I had about going across to Harrington Cove and got over but they all come flashing back to me as I think about everything that she said. “I know, that’s why I felt weird about it all but Mum and Nath talked me out of them because this is an opportunity that is never going to come around again” I sit there looking at her as she nods.

“Oh, I know that, I’m not going to give it up, just saying it’s going to be tough” we hug each other as we get out of the car and head into my parents' house. We stay there for a couple of hours as we enjoy the company of Mum and Dad as well as Nathan and Naomi come along as well as we spend time together before we go out for dinner.

Everybody loves Courtney and growing up as an only child and not having any other family around, the McGregor’s quickly became her family as well and they took her in almost instantly, with how amazing that she is. Part of me didn’t want to leave for dinner but I wanted at least one more romantic night in Broughton before we left.

Pulling up near the “Restaurant district” I get out of the car as we walk around to the row of restaurants that run along the street on both sides of the park. “You’re not taking me to Bangkok Palace twice in a week are you?” Courtney looks at me as we walk in the same direction as to where Bangkok Palace sits. “You love the Palace” laughing as I mock offence at her suggesting that I would take her there again.

“Well first date and everything you know,” I say as I try to convince her that we’re going to Bangkok Palace instead of Le Palais. I laugh as I walk past Bangkok Palace as Courtney stops and looks at me confused “Aren’t we going in here?” she says as we point at the door of Bangkok Palace.

“Hmm Nah, I thought we might try somewhere new and special,” I say as she catches me up and we walk past another Indian restaurant and I wait outside Le Palais. “I thought you might want to try here?” I say looking across at Courtney who has a smile on her face “How did you manage to get a booking?” Bookings at the restaurant are about as rare as Hen’s Teeth, especially for a Sunday night.

“Well, when you are a multiple World Champion and Olympic Medallist, you get plenty of connections around the place” I laugh as we head into the restaurant and get shown the table.

Sitting there looking at the menu, my eyes open widely as the menu is far removed from my usual options as Courtney fawns over the food before looking up at me “You can have meat tonight if you want”. Normally I tend to go towards a more vegetarian diet with Courtney being a pescatarian because it’s easier and healthier but I can’t fully put meat behind me at all.

Dinner goes well as Courtney enjoys her soup and then a Vegetarian Casserole while I sit there and have an overpriced steak with onions and what are essentially Sweet Potato fries. The food is definitely not worth the price in my opinion but Courtney enjoys hers and loves it which makes me happy.

We skip dessert and walk towards the park and sit down for a few minutes enjoying the night air which we did after our first date as well and sit in the same seat. “I am so proud of you” sitting there I put my arm around Courtney and kiss her as we sit on the seat under the moonlight. I don’t think I can conjure up the lightning storm that happened that ended our first date sooner than what we both wanted.

Talking for a little while we reflect on our relationship and Courtney flashes back to when I proposed to her. It wasn’t where I had originally planned but the moment couldn’t evade me. I was in Paris for the World Championships and I was having a shocking time missing out on qualifying in the 200m Freestyle which quickly became my main event. I was disappointed and my confidence was pretty much shot when nothing was going right.

It was about 11 pm and I was sitting on the balcony of the hotel we were staying at in Paris looking out at the lights, feeling pretty lonely and I face timed Courtney and she sat talking with me about things for about 2 hours before deciding that this was really the woman that I wanted to marry and have part of my life.