August 27th, 1991
Pacific Shore Hotel, Santa Monica
With the eight-hour time change, I was wide awake before five am and stuck a note under Josephine’s door, asking her to ring me when she woke up. No sooner was I back in my room when the phone rang.
“How’s this for a speedy response,” she chirped, making me laugh.
“Impressive. Oh, and morning.”
“It’s still dark out.”
“Which means we still have time to watch the sunrise.”
We met in the lobby shortly after and with only a spattering of cars on the road, we shuffled across the street, down towards the beach.
“Should we sit, at least until the sun comes up? Might be a bit dodgy otherwise.”
“Good idea,” I said, my mind thinking back to the amount of times David and I watched the sun come up while we canoodled on the couch on his rooftop deck
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“Ah,” I sighed. “Lost love and all that.”
“Oooh, I love a good love story, do tell.”
“This one doesn’t have a happy ending.”
“When do they ever? What was his name?”
“David,” I uttered, as she motioned for me to continue.
“I met him on a flight. I was working in Club, he was a passenger. A gorgeous one at that. We chatted and I really liked him, so I left my contact info in his jacket pocket.”
“You did not?”
I nodded. “A few days later, on the same trip, I bumped into him in the market in Delhi.”
Josephine’s mouth fell open. “Then what happened?”
“We spent the day sightseeing, then I had to leave but we stayed in touch.”
“That’s amazing. Where does he live?”
“About thirty minutes from here.”
“No way,” she shrieked. “That’s mental! Will you be seeing him?”
I opened my mouth to speak but it was easier just to shake my head.
“Not this time, or not ever?”
“Never,” I uttered.
“It ended that badly, huh?”
I nodded again.
“Sounds really sad. Can I ask what happened or is that too much?”
I dug my toes deeper into the sand. “He’s gay.”
Josephine’s hand shot to her mouth.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “It was a shock for me as well.”
She swore. More than once. “You were obviously in love with him?”
“Very much so,” I croaked.
She swore again. “Sorry, I’m just really shocked. Are you ok?”
“I think so, yes. I used to absolutely love coming here and I thought it would never feel the same, but here we are, sitting on the beach and, oh look.”
Josephine threw her arm around my shoulders. “Here comes the sun.”
