The Perfect Life
Part 1 - Spring
"Well, there's ten minutes of my life I'll never get back." She laughed at her best friend, Katrina's, twisted humor, and told her that she had to go. "I'm off to my big interview!"
Allison
Brown hung up the phone and rushed into the bathroom to get ready.
She
had recently finished school to become a travel agent and this was the day she
was being interviewed for the perfect job. The agency was situated on a perfect
distance from her home, just a fifteen minute bus ride. She thought she might
have had to move, but as it turned out, somebody was retiring. She applied and
they wanted to meet her.
Allie
could feel her life turning around for the better already. Not that she had too
much to complain about so far, but she felt good things was in store for her.
And she wanted to think she was deserving of it. Of course, she would have to
nail the interview first. Strangely enough the nerves was working with her this
time, she didn't really feel nervous.
She
got to the bus stop with five minutes to spare. Had she forgotten anything? No,
she was so ready for this. Bring it on!
Her
friend Katrina had told her to visualize having already gotten the job when
going to the interview. She had read somewhere that it made you feel more
confident. Allie would at that moment have to agree, she felt stronger than
ever.
On
the bus, however, getting closer, she would have a small meltdown thinking all
sorts of bad thoughts, but as she got closer to her destination she forced
herself to get her act together.
"I'm
getting the job, I'm getting the job, I'm getting the job."
Walking out of the interview she felt
awesome. She really had nailed it. If the didn't want her now she was
absolutely sure that it would have nothing to do with her. Perhaps someone even
better turned up.
She
realized she was hungry and went to her favorite restaurant for lunch. She sat
there, looking out at the people around her, out on the people on the street
walking past, feeling pretty good. The rain was coming down hard out there. But
really, who cares. She smiled.
"I'm
getting the job, I'm getting the job, I'm getting the job."
She
nearly jumped out of her seat when her cell phone started ringing. It was only
Katrina wondering how the interview went. They talked for a while, until
Katrina had to go.
She wandered the streets, looking through
shop windows, for hours. She got soaking wet, but had a smile on her face the
whole time.
"I
got the job! I got the job! I got the job!"
Katrina
met up with her after finishing work and they headed to one of the fancy
restaurants in town. The kind of restaurant you only go to when there is
something to celebrate. And they were certainly celebrating this evening.
Allie didn't get home until the wee hours
of the morning, but she had had an amazing night. Going to sleep she wondered
what she could ever have done to deserve such a fantastic day as this one had
been. She smiled.
"I
freaking got the job!"
The Perfect Life
Part 2 - Summer
"Why are you always so cynical?" Verbal banter in the break room got Allie and the others laughing, this time a political discussion going religious.
She
couldn't believe how lucky she was, landing this job. Her colleagues were
great, the work fun, the customers pretty much always happy. Life doesn't get any
better.
Well, of
course, a nice man to spend the rest of the day with would make life slightly better.
She found herself at her desk, between customers, day dreaming about her first
real love.
Andrew
Zimmerman, the most handsome boy ever seen. Well, to her anyway. Her friends
said things like "You know he's Jewish, right?", as if that made any
difference. They were in love, seriously in love. She thought they were getting
married, until he told her he was going to college about a zillion miles away.
And that was the end of that. She refused to do the long distance thing, and he
refused to go to a school closer. She hadn't heard from him since, ten years
now, but a friend had reported as late as just the week before that he was
married and was expecting his third child. Good for him, she had thought.
Allie was completely absorbed in her thoughts of Andrew
and how she was pregnant, expecting her third child and him sitting in front of
her talking to the stomach. They were laughing, happily. She smiled.
"Hello,
excuse me!"
She woke
from the dream, realizing someone was trying to communicate with her. Looking
up at him she realized this day suddenly climbed the list of good days of her
life.
"Yes,
oh... I'm sorry! I was ... uhm, daydreaming a bit." She smiled.
"You
looked miles away." The man giggled.
"You
have no idea... Please, sit!" She pointed at the customer chair.
"I
want to go on vacation. Any suggestions?" He tried to make himself
comfortable on the otherwise rather uncomfortable chair.
"Well,
sir, it all depends on you and what you'd like to do on your vacation.
Sir."
"Oh my
goodness, please, don't call me Sir! You'll make me feel like my grandfather!
The name is Sam." He smiled. "Samuel Davis."
He had a
beautiful smile. Sam. And those eyes. As blue as the ocean. She nodded smiling.
"Okay,
I'm sorry, sir... Oh, I mean... Sam."
They looked
at each other and laughed.
"So."
He looked at her name tag. "Allison. I would like to go somewhere where
the palm trees sway in a light breeze, the sky is blue, the sand is white, the
water is turquoise and the drinks are delicious. Somewhere where time doesn't
matter and tomorrow doesn't exist. Somewhere where one can take it easy and do
absolutely nothing for a week. Or, forever."
She starred
at him. "Are you a writer, Sam?"
He laughed.
"No, why?"
"That
was ... beautiful. I want to go there! It sounds like an amazing place!"
"Well,
tell me where it is and we'll go. How about that?" He smiled.
She was
glad she was sitting down, because that smile made her weak, she would have
gone straight to the floor about ten times already.
They had
such a great time talking about his trip that when he got up to leave he asked
her if it would be okay to ask for her number. Surprised she gave it to him and
he didn't go further than out the door before calling it. They were talking on
the phone, looking at each other through the window and before she knew it, she
had a dinner date for the evening.
Sam met Allie outside her apartment building. They
hugged and she felt it like they had known each other for years. Of course, she
had seen him before. He was one of the good looking faces of the town. One of
those people she had always wished she would have the opportunity to talk to,
but never thinking it would actually happen. And here they were. Walking down
her street together. On their way out on a date. She pinched her arm to see if
it was real or a dream.
"Ouch!"
She didn't mean to say it out loud.
"What's
happening?" He looked startled.
"Oh, I
was just... Oh, nothing." She smiled and felt her cheeks changing color to
a more reddish tone.
They got to
the restaurant and was seated in a booth by the window, overlooking the river
and the rest of the town on the other side. They spent almost three hours in
that booth, laughing and talking about all aspects of life. They covered past
partners, school, work, family, political views, religion, and they even
touched the subject of favorite sexual positions, before getting up to leave.
"I
don't want this evening to end yet." He whispered in her ear while they
were waiting to get their coats back.
"I
don't want it to end either." She whispered back.
Ten minutes
later they stepped into his flat and another hour after that, the night caps
was drunk. They looked at each other. Nothing more needed to be said really.
Afterwards
they lay on the bed, drowsy, but happy. She looked up at him. They smiled, and
knew this had to be the start of something incredible.
The Perfect Life
Part 3 - Fall
"We need to talk." Sam lay next to Allie in the bed looking at her with a serious face.
Still
half asleep she sat up straight in the bed, looked over at him. "What? Did
I do something wrong? I thought we were having a great time and now... You want
to break up?"
"No!"
He laughed. "No, babe, what gave you that idea?" He pointed at the
pillow to get her to lay down again. "I don't want to break up.
Relax!"
"Don't
do that to me!" She hit him on the shoulder, heaved a sigh of relief and
lay back down again. "You're giving me a heart attack. I don't like
that!" She smiled.
"I'm
sorry, babe. I just wanted to talk to you about something." He kissed her
cheek. "You know how you've been staying here a lot lately."
"Yeah,
and I kinda like it." She raised an eyebrow and smiled.
"Me
too, darling. That's why I thought maybe... I mean if you wanted to, you could
perhaps, if you want... sort of, you know..."
"No,
I don't know." She teased him. "Just say it already!"
"Move
in!"
She was flattered by the question, and of
course she had thought about it too. She couldn't decide if it was too soon.
They had only known each other for three months. But then, on the other hand,
she knew a couple that had a child, totally planned too, only ten months after
they met. And they are still going strong.
Perhaps
she could keep her flat. Just for a while at least. Until they knew for sure,
if it was going to work.
"But
why? If you're not sure about us by now maybe we should just forget about
moving in for a while. Keep going as we are and see what happens down the road.
I mean, I don't want to pressure you. It's fine the way it is." He turned
to read the newspaper.
"No.
I don't want to wait. Let's do it."
He
looked up. "Really?"
"Yes."
She nodded smiling. "Yes. But not here. I don't want to share my life with
you in a place you shared with someone else."
"So,
what have we been doing so far? If not share our lives."
"No,
I've just been visiting." She looked down at her breakfast cereal.
"You know what I mean."
He
turned the pages of the paper as if he were looking for something.
"Here." He put the paper in front of her.
"Real
estate listings?"
"Yeah,
if we can't live here we'll have to find somewhere else, don't we? We could go
today. I'm sure some of them are showed today. Come on, it'll be fun!"
"Of
course it is, you just startled me a bit. I'm trying to get used to the thought
here, bare with me."
He
smiled. "We don't have to buy just because we go look." He put a
reassuring hand on her arm. "We don't have to go today if you don't want
to."
She
looked at him for a while and suddenly realized how stupid she was. "We'll
go today if we find something to look at. Let's see, what do we have
here."
After circling ten ads in the paper they
got in his car and drove all around town and residential areas around. They
made stops in between showings, one to get a hot dog in a park and a couple of
stops to use a public restroom. They had a lot of laughs and it was a great day
out.
Exhausted
they got back in the car after the last showing and headed back to his flat.
They spent the first minutes of the trip talking about the houses they had seen
and it was clear they both loved the same house.
"See,
how easy that was." He laughed at the wheel.
"So...
Are we really doing this?" She looked over at him.
He
met her eyes, nodded slowly as he looked back on the road. "There are few
things in my life that I have been more sure of than that I want to spend the
rest of it with you. And every day I get with you I get more sure."
She
found herself staring at him in the same way she did that day when he came in
to book a vacation.
"You
really should be a writer. You have such a great way with words." She
smiled. "Oh, and by the way, I feel the same way." She glanced out
the side window, teasing him.
"Well,
good. Then we'll call the bank Monday."
They
drove for a while, quietly pondering on the future by themselves.
Getting
out of the car and walking up the steps to his flat she suddenly exclaimed:
"Why don't we go to Vegas and get married."
He
laughed, but stopped when he realized she looked as though she was serious.
"You mean it?"
"Yes,
I do. I love you. I want to be with you forever. Let's just do it! Be crazy!
Come on! What do you say?"
"Yes!"
The Perfect Life
Part 4 - Winter
The plan suddenly made sense. They'd been struggling with how to get everything done before heading to the airport. But it looked like they had sorted it out, finally.
"So,
I will call my uncle and have him pick me up and we'll go get Katrina. You'll
go to the house and meet Mr. Anderson and get the keys, and then pick up your
friends, and then we'll meet back here." She looked a tad confused.
"That is the plan, right?"
"Yes.
And then we have time for two rounds in your uncle's truck before he'll give us
a lift to the airport." Sam got up and started to clear the breakfast table.
"We'd better get going."
They
bought the house and the previous owner was suddenly able to vacate much sooner
than first planned, which sort of put their Vegas plans in the middle of
things. Sam organized so his flat was being taken over just a couple of days
after they were getting back, so most of his stuff needed to be moved before
they left. And that only gave them a couple of hours.
"You're
finished packing for our trip, right?" She put her arms around him from
behind.
"Of
course I am. Are you?" Sam turned around in her arms and kissed her.
"Yes,
yes." She kissed him. "I love you. Did I tell you that?"
"No,
I don't think so. What was that again?" He kissed her neck.
"Can't
remember..." She moaned and enjoyed the attention, but realized it
couldn't go any further right now. "Hey, mister, we don't have time for
this sort of behavior, we have to go! The clock is ticking, man!"
"Okay,
okay." He put his hands up in a disarming gesture, and smiled.
"Later."
They
stood for a moment, looking at each other, thinking of what was happening in
Vegas. They were getting married. They were actually going to do it. Allie's
and Sam's best friends Katrina and Mark was coming as witnesses. And also
because Allie had decided they were meant for each other. They just didn't know
it yet.
Working in the travel business had its perks, neither Sam,
nor Allie, could deny it. Allie had, with the assistance of her manager, been
able to book seats - for her and Sam, Katrina and Mark were sitting somewhere
in the back - in a far more expensive part of the plane than they could ever
afford, for no extra money. Larger entertainment screen, a wider, much more
comfortable seat, and a lot more leg room.
"Do
you think the bathroom is bigger, too?" He whispered in her ear.
"Of
course! I'd be disappointed if not." She smiled.
"Have
you heard of the Mile High Club?" He raised an eyebrow, looking at her
with something mischievous in his eyes.
She laughed
and slapped his thigh. "Do you ever think of anything else? My goodness!
We are on a plane!"
"Hence
the question!" He got a magazine out of the seat pocket in front of him.
"No, you're right. We can't do that. That would be... weird."
She looked
at him. He looked at her.
Ten minutes
later they returned to their seats. His shirt not tucked into his pants anymore
and her hair a little messier than before.
"So...
That wasn't so bad... was it?" He stroked her leg.
"No...
Not bad at all." She slowly sank down in her chair with a silent moan.
"Would
you say it's fair to expect a re-run on the way home?"
They
giggled.
The four of them jumped into a taxi and told the
driver where to go. They had a great time talking and laughing on the way to
the hotel.
Such a good
time that neither of them realized what was about to happen.
They were
too busy singing at the top of their lunges when the driver started to scream
in panic.
The moment
they realized was the moment they hit.
The head-on
collision took four friends' lives in a fraction of a second.
Head-on collision kills 8
A collision
occurred on Interstate 15 in Las Vegas at 6 pm last night. The accident
happened as a car was driving in the opposite direction and collided with an
oncoming car. Two more vehicles were involved in the crash.
Two women and four men were already deceased
when the police arrived. Four men were taken to hospital by ambulance - three with
severe injuries and one with lighter injuries. Two died later in the hospital,
taking the casualty total to eight. Two are still being treated, both are believed
to be stable.
Next of kin of all involved have been
informed of the tragic events.
The police do not at the present time know
why the car was driving on the wrong side of the highway. The investigation is
ongoing.
An accident is always tragic. To make this
one even worse, it seems a man and a woman, were in Las Vegas to get married.
Both lost their lives in the accident.
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