Deceit. [COMPLETED.]

Chapter 54

"A little bit of hope."
[PART ONE]

I met up with Max in the main restaurant.

We chose a table away from prying eyes. I felt deflated. I wasn't in the best of moods. Max could see that. She was gracious and kept any conversation during the beginning of our meal to nothing more than small talk.

She eventually asked where my favourite place on earth was.

'Well that's easy,' I said happy not to feel the pressure of what had been happening of late. I moved my head around as I gazed at the decor around the restaurant. 'It's actually here in Singapore.' I shrugged a shoulder. 'No idea why. Maybe it's because of the history. You know,' I said smiling. 'Drinking gin on the terraces. Playing cricket. That sort of thing. All very colonial I know but it seemed kind of relaxing.'

I received a delicate frown.

'I'm serious,' I said. 'I love history. I love the olden times.'

I then confided that I felt out of place in this century and that my character was more akin to someone living in the Victorian times.

'Travelling the world,' I said. 'Seeing everything fresh. It must have been an amazing time.'

Max huffed. I guess for someone like her travelling around the world was nothing new but I couldn't help but wonder whether we would ever again have that golden feeling of elation at finding a long lost city or even what it must have felt like creating even something as basic as electricity.

Max in contrast loved Austria. She loved the mountains and woodlands.

'I still have an apartment there in Annaberg,' she said with a touch of glee. 'It really is quite a beautiful place. I bought it a couple of years ago during my recovery, it's so peaceful and if I ever have children, I know I would definitely take them there.'

Her comment suddenly made me think of my own family.

As a child I had very few friends but then I had open fields to play in and although I didn't tend to live with regrets I did leave my childhood wanting more, and I guess I have always felt as if I was missing out on something only I could never truly know what that was.

Meeting Cheryl made me whole and when I became a father I had a renewed focus. Both gave me satisfaction only now for a while and just tantalisingly out of reach was that 'something' again hovering and missing in the background.

I allowed a soft reflective sigh to escape.

I couldn't explain it.

Until yes perhaps right this minute.

Maybe now, sat where I was opposite one of the most beautiful women I had ever encountered; living in a world I had never imagined my 'something' was closer than I thought.

Was it passion that I needed? I didn't know.

Was it adventure?

I had gone from needing nothing to suddenly wanting everything and in that split second of realisation of what confronted me I found myself wondering just how far I would go to have it all.

I asked Max the same question only to see her lean forwards enthusiastically.

'That depends,' she said taking hold of my hands.

Her action send ripples of pleasure through my body.

'If it's worth the fight then I would do as much as I was possibly able.'

I sighed again.

I have never been a violent person. Until I changed jobs I had always been your typical Mr normal, Mr nice guy never saying a cross word and yet here I was, already a suspected  killer entering a whole new dimension where the actual thought of more violence not only seemed normal but was actually a real possibility.