After work, Steve went home as fast as he could. He quickly got changed and went straight to the allotment. As he opened the gate to go into the field, his mobile phone rang. It was Hannah.
“Where are you, have you forgotten to meet me?” she said.
They had agreed to meet up that evening and Steve was so preoccupied, he had completely forgotten poor little Hannah.
“I’m sorry, I..I forgot, sorry Hannah”.
She could tell immediately from his voice that something was different.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing, really” he said “Can I call you back?”
She reluctantly replied “Of course” but she knew at that moment that things were not quite right.
Steve went into the pigeon loft, the birds started making noises because they did not expect him there at that time and figured they must be up for their daily exercise. Steve ignored them, he went straight for that newspaper he had left on the floor. He picked it up and frantically went through the last few pages until he found the one that had affected him so much in this way. There it was - at the bottom of the page and he read it again, over and over.
This is to be, he thought. He said to himself “One way or another, I am going to go to this city and see it for myself”. He went home and up to his bedroom. He switched on his computer, he really couldn’t wait for it to start up, taking his coat off at the same time. He opened the internet and searched for NICE. There it was, pictures, information, details, maps, everything. Steve’s eyes were lit up, he could see it, now he wanted to feel it. Then he remembered…Hannah, his father, his mother. He carefully but quickly considered each one, he was methodical like that. Hannah only wanted him to be happy, but was he being selfish, he thought, if he went there. She would be upset, of course but he was sure she could understand. His father, although a little frail, can manage the birds, he does it sometimes, so why can’t he do it if Steve is away for a week or so? And his mother, she was not there of course but would she condone his sudden desire to travel like this? These things were going around in his mind when his phone rang again. He could see the caller was Hannah, he had forgotten to call her back.
“Hannah, I am sorry I never called, are you okay?” he said, apologetically.
“Yes, of course I am” she said in a concerned manner “But is there anything wrong?”
Steve realised that Hannah knew him too well and that she could tell something was going on, he could not hide it from her.
“Well, nothing is wrong, but we need to talk” said Steve seriously.
His decision was no longer dependent on what Hannah or his father thought, his decision was made - he was going. After hearing this request from Steve, Hannah began to cry, she thought their relationship was going to end, something was wrong and to her, it was the end of the world.
“Please Hannah, it’s not bad news, but I need to talk to you about it” he said.
She calmed down and said she would come straight over. He was about to ask her to meet him the next day, but she had put the phone down, she was on her way. He began to think of ways of breaking the news to her that he was going away for a couple of weeks, alone and was sure that this would not be an easy task. Hannah only lived about two miles away and she was at the door of Steve’s house within half an hour.
His house was small, a terraced house in a long row of Victorian houses that all looked the same except for the front doors. Steve’s father answered the door and was a little surprised to see Hannah quite late in the evening and with a red face. He was elderly, but he wasn’t daft and he could see too, that something was not right.
“Hannah, come in, what’s wrong?” he said.
She came in, wiped her feet and gently answered “I don’t know”.
Steve heard them talking and started to come downstairs.
“What’s up, son?” said his father looking up the stairs at him.
He looked at Hannah, she was all red faced and it wasn’t from walking round to his house. She was clearly upset and had been crying. This was it, he had to tell them of his plans.
“Well, I have to tell you”, he said anxiously, “that I am going on holiday for two weeks!”
He looked at the floor. There was silence. His father closed the door and they both looked at him.
Hannah said “is that it, is that what this is all about, just a holiday?”
Steve almost sighed with relief but the anticipation of his father’s reaction still to come was holding him back. Then his father exclaimed
“good, it’s about time you both had a holiday!”
He was smiling. Steve’s face dropped.
“err..well, I am going on my own dad, Hannah has no holiday and we cannot afford the two of us”.
Looking at Hannah’s face, Steve could see that she was okay with it. She understood. His father realised then what he meant. He said surprisingly
“I think that will be nice, where are you going?”
Hannah and Steve went into the lounge and his father went to the kitchen to make them all a drink. They sat down, and Steve explained that he had never travelled abroad and his circumstances now enabled him to try it. Hannah pretended she was happy for him, but deep down she was upset, after all, she loved him. Drinks came in and they all talked about Nice.
“It has a population of about a million people” Steve said.
“I don’t think it’s very far from the Italian border, is it?” said Hannah.
“How will you get there?” asked his father.
Everyone, to Steve’s surprise seemed interested, even keen on the idea. Hannah was pleased that their relationship was okay, she was convinced for some reason there was something going on that would end it, but now she knew what it was she was relieved – well somewhat. Steve went on
“It’s in an area called the Cote d’Azur”.
For another hour, the discussion was all about Nice.
Steve had not got the detail together for his plan of how to get there, when, where to stay and what to do, but there was time to do this, he was hoping to go in the spring,
“It has a lovely climate year-round, but much warmer in the springtime onwards” he said.
Hannah could see that he was so excited, so she went along with it,
“I don’t blame you one bit, I would do the same” she said quietly.
They both knew that wasn’t true but there it was. The following day, Steve had to go to work early but was still thinking about his forthcoming holiday, what he did not know was that the holiday would turn into an adventure, changing the course of his life forever.
Hannah slept on the Nice announcement and the next day, she felt better about it. In fact, in her lunch hour she scanned the internet for information about Nice and the surrounding area. She printed off about nine pages of information altogether, she was preparing all of this when she realised that she was helping her boyfriend to go away without her - for two weeks. She dwelled on it for a few moments and continued and found that she too was becoming very interested in the area, it really was exciting to read about all the things to do there and wished she was going too. She could not, she accepted it and that was it. That evening, she called Steve and told him about the print offs from the internet she had for him and they agreed to meet. The local park was the most visited place by them when they were out together, they both enjoyed the privacy and the surroundings. There were lovely flowerbeds, shrubs, trees and a small lake. There was plenty of wildlife there and Steve often took pictures of squirrels on his phone, he loved those little things and they seemed to be everywhere and very daring, they came so close. They met just around the corner from the park, outside the supermarket.
As Hannah stepped down from the bus, Steve leant towards her and kissed her briefly on her lips. She smiled and held his hand, walking toward the park entrance. There was no gate anymore, it had been removed by a car crash some months before and had not been replaced. They walked slowly up the pathway as Hannah told Steve what she had discovered. They sat down on the usual seat that looked like it had been there since the beginning of mankind. They continued to talk about the Cote d’ Azur and Steve could see that Hannah was almost as excited about it as he was. He promised her that he would keep in touch every day, his phone was his life and it was much the same for Hannah, they both knew this would be such an easy thing to do.
Hannah said “you can take some pictures of the beach there and send them to me, yes and the hotel”.
She really was quite thrilled by it all. She had even told her closest friend at work about it, her parents, her aunt and the neighbours too. Hannah asked Steve if he had any details of his plan, where exactly was he going to go?
Steve snapped quietly “No, that’s too far away yet”.
Hannah pulled her head down into her coat and looked down, for once she wasn’t admiring the scenery she was, well, niggled. He was short with her, she couldn’t go and he didn’t like her asking him about it she thought. Steve could see this and immediately came back “Perhaps you could help me decide Hannah?”
She smiled and they kissed passionately, cuddling for a few minutes after.