Half the World Away

by Rebecca Banks

  ‘Hated it,’ she replied, deadpan, before breaking into a grin. ‘Wasn’t it obvious?’ she enthused. ‘I loved it. Again. This place is phenomenal.’

  ‘I was hoping you’d say something like that. It makes it easier to tell you we’re not leaving yet.’

  She smiled, raising one eyebrow. ‘Kidnapping me and keeping me hostage in a cave?’ she asked. ‘I could be down with that.’

  ‘Nearly. I was planning to keep you there.’

  Her eyes followed where he was pointing to and she gasped.

  Up ahead was a transparent dome-shaped tent lit up by a firepit near the entrance. As the truck crunched along and they got closer, she could see a full double bed set up inside the tent and strings of fairy lights running from the top of the dome downwards.

  ‘What do you think?’ he asked as he applied the handbrake and switched off the ignition. The thrum of the powerful engine gave way to absolute silence.

  ‘I don’t even know what to say. This is unbelievable. How did you do this?’

  ‘Ah, you know me. I know a guy who knows a guy. Shall we go in?’

  Her surprise gave way to excitement and she threw open the car door and scrambled down, skipping towards the tent. She paused at the entrance and waited for Kyle to join her. Taking his hand, she shook her head in disbelief.

  ‘I can’t believe you’ve done all this. It’s insane. Did you know I’ve never been camping before?’

  ‘Honestly, England, that’s shocked me more than the fact you’re a divorcee. How the hell have you never been camping?’ He looked at her like she had just announced she was marrying her dog and moving to Jupiter.

  ‘We just never did it when I was a kid. Then, when I was a bit older and my friends were going to festivals, I couldn’t imagine anything worse than sleeping on the hard ground in the cold with kids throwing up right outside the tent. And then I got married when I was twenty-three, and I had to be an adult and live in a posh flat in the part of London where all the banker wankers live. So, it just sort of never happened.’ She shrugged her shoulders.

  ‘Thank god I came into your life to show you what you’ve been missing. Although, just to get things straightened out, this is absolutely not camping.’

  She looked at him quizzically.

  ‘You have a double bed. And a heater for when it gets cold. And a generator for electricity. And around the corner of that rock there’s a small unit with a toilet and a shower with hot water. This, England, is the ultimate in upmarket glamping.’

  She walked into the dome and looked around. There was the double bed right in the centre, and a huge rug. There was an empty wooden trunk for them to put their things in, and behind the bed was a small fridge and a wicker hamper.

  Kyle pulled a bottle of champagne out of the fridge and carried it to the bed with two flutes, then beckoned for Abbie to sit with him.

  ‘You really are making the apology of a lifetime,’ she said as she sat down on the soft cream duvet. The turquoise, burgundy and dark grey pattern showed Native American symbols including feathers, arrows, headdresses, tepees and eagles.

  ‘This is all so beautiful, Kyle,’ she sighed as he handed her the glasses. She laughed as he made a lunge for the flutes in her hands when the bottle threatened to overflow, bubbles peeping above the neck.

  Filling the glasses to the brim, he put the bottle on the floor and then raised his glass towards her. Abbie clinked her glass with his as he made a toast.

  ‘To the best girl I know. Gorgeous, intelligent, and incredibly forgiving.’

  She laughed and shook her head at him. ‘Flattery will get you everywhere.’

  ‘That’s exactly what I was aiming for.’ Their eyes met as they took a sip of the champagne.

  She looked around again and admired the woven rug on the floor. It was bright blue with a pattern of the outline of yellow four-pointed stars.

  ‘That star is a Native American symbol, too, like the bedspread,’ Kyle said. ‘It originally described a huge meteor shower in the US back in 1833 that they called The Night the Stars Fell.’

  She looked at him.

  ‘Who even are you, Kyle Miller? You are this cliché of a perfect man, bringing me to the most perfect places and knowing all this perfect stuff.’

  ‘I could say the same about you. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m pretty crazy about you. I’ve been bringing out the big guns with my pride and joy Chevy and showing you all the best places I know to try to impress this intelligent, beautiful Brit who came literally crashing into my life. Also, don’t think I haven’t noticed how you’re overcompensating for me with Kitty by being incredibly nice to her. You’re kind as well. Where did you even come from?’

  ‘Liverpool, by way of London,’ she quipped, and they drained their champagne.

  ‘Okay, England, lie down.’

  ‘Already? You haven’t even fed me yet. If you want to treat me like a wanton sex slave, you need to feed me to keep my energy up.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I’m feeding you. And I’m not stripping you just yet. Just lie down and look up.’

  She did as she was told while he got off the bed and clicked a switch which killed the fairy lights, plunging the tent into complete darkness.

  As her eyes adjusted, he lay down next to her, taking her hand and sending his gaze upwards.

  ‘Wow.’ It was all she could say.

  Above and all around the dome were thousands upon thousands of bright white stars filling the clear black sky. With no artificial light from the desert, the stars could put on their best show. It was absolutely breathtaking.

  Now the transparent tent made sense.

  Although, she mused, she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the coyotes and deer looking in on what they would be getting up to later.

  As Kyle sizzled bacon in a pan over the firepit the next morning and Abbie sat on the ground with a mug of coffee, he looked at her, clearly deciding whether to speak or not, and eventually decided on the former.

  ‘I’m intrigued, England.’

  ‘About what?’

  ‘How the hell a guy could let you go. I don’t understand.’

  She took her time before answering, considering what she was going to say.

  ‘If we’re being honest, it upset me for a long time. A good couple of years. I can say now that it feels like that period was a lifetime ago, and I wouldn’t change what happened because I would never have come here if we’d stayed together. We were really young when we got married – I was only twenty-three. I never got a straight answer out of him but he just upped and left one day. Told me he couldn’t do it anymore. So, I don’t really know, but probably we got married too young and he outgrew me before I had the chance to realise that I probably would have outgrown him too.’

  ‘What an idiot,’ Kyle huffed. ‘Although, selfishly, I’m glad you’re here.’

  She smiled. ‘We were extremely different people. Josh worked in finance and wore swanky suits every day and had a lot of obnoxious friends that I didn’t like. He equally didn’t like my friends. The girls drank too much and swore too much and were far too normal for his liking. I also think he always had a weird thing about me and my family being from the north of England. I always thought his parents kind of looked down on me. We just weren’t meant to be, long-term. I know that now.’

  ‘I nearly proposed once.’

  She rubbed her hands together with glee. ‘I love this. Now I’m not the only one having to tell uncomfortable and embarrassing stories about my past. Spill.’

  ‘Are you kidding?’ He waved the spatula at her. ‘You literally know I took a girl’s virginity.’

  ‘Yeah but, like you said, you were kids. It was a long time ago. I want to know about more recent humiliation.’

  ‘Jesus, England, you’re brutal.’

  ‘Spill,’ she shouted.

  ‘I was even younger than you were. My girlfriend would have practically been a child bride.’

  She looked at him, f
rowning.

  ‘Coming from an area like this, it’s a small place. You get used to people going to college, meeting someone, getting a job, getting married to whoever they met at sixteen or eighteen or twenty and doing the whole normal life thing. So, when I was in Indiana, I had a girlfriend who was a freshman like me. She was called Kim, she was from Florida and was studying political science. We met in the student bar. We dated for quite a while and I was all set to propose because I thought that was what we had to do next. Some other couples had already gotten engaged while we were at college.’

  ‘Childhood sweethearts. This is such a cute story. What happened?’ Abbie had her elbows rested on her knees and her chin in her hands, all ears for what he had to say next.

  ‘Sophomore year, we left school for spring break and she went to Mexico with her friends from Florida. Next thing, she had hooked up with a local waiter, dropped out of college and moved to Cancun. I never knew what happened to her next, although I did hear a rumour she was a tequila girl in a local bar.’

  Abbie burst out laughing. ‘No fucking way. That isn’t true.’

  ‘I swear on my Chevy’s life it is,’ he laughed, handing her a plate of bacon and sausage.

  ‘Oh my god, were you heartbroken?’ She didn’t like the thought of someone hurting him.

  ‘Nope. I realised I didn’t really care all that much and decided to make the most of my remaining years in education to have some fun before I had to become a grown-up. What I had saved up to buy the ring, I used to buy the Chevy.’

  ‘That is a ridiculous story.’

  ‘That’s college life, baby. Two of my buddies here from Utah did meet their wives at college, though. They’re each two kids and a dog deep in life already.’

  ‘It’s so nice you have lifelong friends close by. Says a lot about you that you guys have been friends pretty much your whole lives. I’m looking forward to meeting them.’

  ‘Are you missing your friends from home?’ He moved away from the fire to sit opposite her, eating from his own plate of breakfast.

  ‘Yeah, I am. The time difference makes it more difficult. We’re trying, and we’re emailing and texting, but obviously, it’s not the same as seeing them. But don’t get me wrong, I’m loving it here and you and Rose have made all the difference. I could have been anywhere in the world, but it’s the people you meet who make places special. It could have been really lonely.’

  ‘Tell me about them. Obviously, I know a bit about Violet already.’

  ‘Violet will always be my best friend. We met at university, and she’s brilliant and fierce and is going to be a bloody brilliant mum. Then there’s Polly. I met her when we moved in together after I separated from Josh, and she’s hilarious. She’s a musician, she frequently changes her hair colour and she was one of the only people in London who managed to meet guys in actual real life on a regular basis and get dates. That was until she met this artist called Damian, fell madly in love, and now they’re happily living in our old place together. It’s funny, Rose kind of reminds me of a mix of them both. Maybe that’s why I was so drawn to her.’

  ‘You look so happy talking about them. You’re beaming.’

  ‘I am. When you live far away from your parents, like I did when I was in London and they were in Liverpool, your friends become your family and they’re both the best girls. I lost touch with the people I worked with in the music industry as when I was with Josh, we didn’t really do anything unless it was with his friends. Then, when we split up, I kind of hibernated. But those two have been the best.’

  ‘Well, I can’t wait to meet them. They clearly have great taste in friends.’

  Abbie suddenly had an idea. ‘I’ll show you what they look like.’

  She grabbed her phone from inside the tent and clicked onto Facebook. She showed Kyle pictures of Violet and her from university days, right through to her leaving party in London. She showed him photos of Michael and explained how the job at the Utah Saints was all down to him. And she found a variety of snaps of Polly showing her with red hair, blue hair, black hair and green, so Kyle could see the whole spectrum of colour. Then she showed him her mum and dad, and Lily, and her heart felt full as she shared the people she cared about most in the world with the man she was falling in love with.

  She couldn’t believe how lucky she was.

  CHAPTER 20

  Clutching her notebook, Abbie walked into Hank’s office. Six months had flown by and now she was having her formal review.

  Even though she knew she’d been doing a good job, and Hank had regularly praised her, she couldn’t help but be nervous. Being in Salt Lake City had changed her life for the better more than she could have dared to imagine, and she didn’t want to lose it.

  ‘Sit, sit, sit, Abbie. Do you need a coffee? I’ll get Kitty to grab you one.’

  ‘I’m okay thanks, I’m good with this water.’ She shook her water bottle at him and sat down.

  The last thing she wanted nowadays was to have Kitty do anything that could be seen as waiting on her, or imply that she was less senior. She certainly didn’t want him to ask Kitty to fetch her a coffee.

  She focused fully as he started to speak.

  ‘This is really just a formality, Abbie. We’ve been so impressed with you. We know that you were thrown in at the deep end, living in a foreign country and working in something brand new, but you’ve attacked this challenge full force and we’re already seeing results. Your team love working with you, and since you launched The Half-Time Show, our ticket sales are up an average of seventeen per cent per game. That’s no coincidence. Our numbers were at a plateau the last three seasons until this initiative launched.’

  Abbie didn’t know what to say. She had taken a massive risk and it was paying off.

  ‘I’m so happy it’s working, Hank, and I’m loving working here. I’m looking forward to going big for the final game. And then the trip with the youth team to London should be really helpful and rewarding for them. Basically, if you’ll have me, I’d love to stay.’

  ‘It’s a deal.’ He reached over the table, grinning, and shook her hand so hard it nearly took her arm off. ‘Is there anything you need from us? Anything else we can do to support you?’

  ‘I don’t think so. Everyone has been great, thanks. I do have an idea for next season, to create a fan club to get the local community engaged with the club from an early age so they grow up supporting the Utah Saints. That way, if you’re always encouraging the kids as well, they’ll go through their lives as an engaged supporter and get their friends involved. Once I’ve fleshed it out a bit more, I’d love your feedback on that.’

  ‘It sounds awesome. What would we do without you around here now? You’re just a ball of energy, aren’t you?’

  It was funny hearing someone describe her that way. He wouldn’t have recognised her a year ago. He definitely wouldn’t have called her energetic.

  ‘If we’re all set here, I’ll get your paperwork drawn up to say you’ve passed your probation with flying colours.’

  ‘I think we’re set,’ she replied, then picked up her things and practically skipped out of the office.

  She walked straight into Kitty, who asked her how it went.

  ‘Really well. I’ve passed my probation and he wants me to stay. I’m so thrilled,’ she said, hugging Kitty in a moment of uninhibited happiness.

  Kitty seemed surprised but hugged her back, then beckoned her into her office to carry on talking.

  ‘I’m super stoked for you,’ she said as they sat down. ‘It’s been amazing having you here. And I’d never be planning a trip to London if it wasn’t for you.’

  ‘We’re going to have a lot of fun. Before then, though, it’s the final game of the season in exactly two months, on the fifteenth of October, and I’m about to sign the contract with the band this afternoon.’ She wiggled her eyebrows at Kitty, the hint of a smile on her face.

  ‘Who? Someone I’ve heard of?’ she asked, leaning forwa
rd on her chair.

  ‘I think you will have. Memphis Black?’ Abbie waited for a reaction.

  Kitty’s eyes opened wide. ‘Oh my god, are you kidding? I love them. I downloaded their new album just last week. How did you get them?’

  ‘I hope everyone’s reaction is the same as yours. I met them just before they blew up, so they’ve done a good deal for us. They’re super excited at playing in a sports arena actually, and Kevin, the drummer, loves football so he’s buzzing. They’ve not done that before. I’m dealing with their agent now, they’re so big time.’

  ‘Fame has gone to their heads already?’ Kitty asked, leaning forward even further.

  Abbie laughed. ‘No, not at all. They’re just on tour and busy, and they’ll be doing the game during a few days off, so it’s easier if I talk to their agent while they’re on the road. They’re really nice people. You’ll meet them when they’re here. In fact, you can take care of them for me on the day if you want?’

  She really shouldn’t keep trying to people-please with Kitty. But it was like she couldn’t stop – words just came spilling out of her mouth.

  ‘I’d love that! We’re going to have the best time over the next few months. I’m really happy you came here, you know, Abbie. It’s so nice to have a proper friend at work, and I’m enjoying the projects we’re doing together so much.’

  ‘Me too,’ she said, throwing Kitty a genuinely grateful smile. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you.’

  Kitty clapped her hands together. ‘We have to celebrate. You’re over here all alone and you just got some great news from your boss and I want to make sure we mark the occasion. No excuses, tonight, we’re going out. I’ll plan something and send you an email later with the details. Okay?’

  What could she say? She couldn’t tell Kitty about the person she most wanted to celebrate with, so she found herself nodding along in agreement.

  A couple of hours later she watched with her arms folded as Kyle practically bent double laughing across the table from her in San Giovanni’s. He had said there was no other place to celebrate than their favourite Italian restaurant. They had escaped for lunch together so she could tell him properly about the meeting with Hank, and he was now in hysterics as she relayed how she’d been roped into celebrating with Kitty that evening.