The Great Australian Escape

Pretty Blue Eyes

“I’ve got to get back to work, but I’ll see you around” Harrison said, pushing off from where the pair of them had been leaning against the railing staring down at the beach. “Hey, and my offer still stands. If you need a mate, just call into the tower, yeah? I know what it’s like being new to a country and it’d be my honour to show you around.”

Once again, Felicity marveled at his niceness. Sure, she had friends that were guys back at home, but the first few weeks always seemed awkward, like they were all trying to establish the invisible line of how much it was appropriate to flirt. But Harrison didn’t seem like he was flirting at all, but was treating her like they’d known each other for ages. There was no awkward tentative flirting. Maybe he was gay, Felicity thought.

“Alright, well, I might actually take you up on that” she answered, smiling at him as he gave her a small wave and retreated towards the stately white lifeguard tower that protruded onto the beach from the promenade.

She sauntered down the ramp, taking her shoes off once her feet touched the sand. It felt cool and refreshing against her toes as she began walking down and along the water.

The normalcy she felt was jarring. Coming to Australia she thought would be a massive struggle, but actually, she felt she was taking it pretty well considering she’d only been there for a couple hours. Walking along the beach felt like the most natural thing in the world, but it didn’t come with that feeling of constricting mundanity that she had been dreading, just surprise. Maybe this wasn’t going to be the Robinson Crusoe-esque adventure she had been hoping for or expecting, but it felt just as refreshing as the cool sand did.

At some point she must have decided to sit down and contemplate her new life, which inadvertently caused her to daydream her afternoon away, of course. She didn’t know how long she had been sat there for, but when she snapped out of her reverie, the sun was starting to set against the glint of the ocean.

She heard a rumbling right behind her, and turned around to see what had caused the sound. There was Harrison, grinning at her from some form of dune buggy with a megaphone strapped to the top, and a fellow lifeguard sitting next to him, “Still here, eh?” he laughed, “Listen, a few of us are going out for dinner and drinks once we’ve closed up the beach, want to join us? We’re just going to The Bucket List up on the prom, nothing fancy, but it’s a local gem.”

Felicity decided she could definitely do with some food, it had to have been hours since her last meal on the airplane, but didn’t want to impose, “You sure you want the new kid in town gatecrashing?” she laughed back, standing up an wiping the sand from her butt in a self-conscious manner.

“Absolutely!” the other lifeguard said, “We make it our duty to know every new addition to the Waverly Area – Maxi, nice to meet you” he smiled, leaning over Harrison to shake her hand.
“Felicity”, she answered, “Alright then, if you insist, I could do with a drink or three.”

“Right then! Hop on!” Harrison signaled for her to get onto the back of the dune buggy, on a bit of free space next to a No Swimming sign. “We’ve jut got park this baby, and we’ll be good to go.”

They sped up along the beach to the tower, and Felicity jumped down from the back to allow Harrison to reverse into the garage in a space between a set of jet skis. She followed the two lifeguards up to the top of the tower and watched as they moved about the observation room, double-checking that everything was in place. “Give us just a minute to get changed, yeah?” Maxi said to her as himself and Harrison grabbed their duffel bags from a bench and disappeared into what Felicity assumed to be a locker room of some sort. It didn’t take them long to get sorted and lock up the tower, and before she knew it, Felicity was walking down the promenade flanked by two very well built strangers on her way to dinner with them and their colleagues. This was in no way how she had pictured her first night in Sydney that was for sure! Maybe this was the big adventure waiting to unfold…or maybe she was getting ahead of herself again and it would just be an ordinary old dinner.