[Aidan has landed in Sydney, leaving his wife after her infidelity. He's met Hardy and Flint, two friends on a road trip around Australia, finding his feet in a foreign city. He also crossed paths with Kat in the pub, and she's on his mind.
The background to Aidan's story can be found in
Oxygen Games
by oneagainst, continued here with permission.]
---
ALONE, TOGETHER
For some reason he can't quite understand, Aidan finds himself tagging along behind Hardy to the beach. It's early morning, and Hardy's talking it up like he's personally invented surfing. Flint had just rolled over in his bed and told Hardy to fuck off.
"Feeling a bit dusty there, are ya?" Hardy says as they wait for the crossing light.
Aidan blinks, trying to work out what Hardy is asking.
"Too much of the grog last night?" Hardy continues.
"Yeah, maybe."
"I'm surprised. A unit such as yourself, I would have expected that would have just been par for the course."
Aidan shrugs. "I've been off drinking for a while. I guess I'm just out of practice."
They cross the road, but Hardy's looking at him. On the other side, he resumes the conversation.
"So, what did you stop for? Crook?"
"What?"
"Uh, ill?"
Aidan shakes his head, but Hardy's not done.
"What then?"
Aidan could say that he had just decided not to drink, but that feels like lying. He has the distinct impression that Hardy is just going to keep probing.
"Trying to get pregnant. We laid off alcohol."
To Aidan's surprise, Hardy's attitude changes.
"Oh, shit. Sorry. And I guess you're now here, right?"
The bluster has disappeared, and Hardy is genuinely concerned. Aidan looks out at the surf, but he can feel Hardy's attention on him.
"Yeah. It didn't work out."
"That's real shit, mate. Life is fucked, eh."
"I guess," Aidan replies, then changes the subject, "Where do we get boards?"
Hardy leads them down the beach to a van. They hire a couple of longboards after a brief discussion. Aidan has been on a board exactly twice, so Hardy has volunteered to give him tips. He picks the rip out and they launch into it, getting pulled quickly out to the back of the breakers, beyond the surf zone. Aidan watches the other surfers and feels out of place.
"Nah, it's all good," Hardy tells him, "We'll just sit here and keep out of the way of the local boys. We probably don't want those waves anyway. This is quieter."
Aidan paddles up next to him and sits up on the board, his feet dangling in the blue water.
"You look worried," Hardy comments.
"Just, uh, I feel like we're a long way out."
"It's all good. See that bloke on the beach in the red and yellow? Jetski'll come and pick you up if you get into trouble. Safe as houses," Hardy replies, then smirks, "Apart from the sharks."
"Sharks? Are you fucking...?"
"Hey, cool your jets. All good. Don't need to worry about the sharks."
"Well, now I am. Why are we safe?"
Hardy nods up the beach. "Tourists will protect us. Old Whitey will have a crack at them most likely. It's a numbers game."
"And what if the shark comes in further down the beach, like here?"
Hardy's already down and paddling, looking behind him as a wave begins to build.
"Then we're fucked," he calls, "You just better hope you paddle fast enough."
The wave rears up, obscuring him as it sweeps forward, carrying Hardy with it, and there is a crash of foam, but then Hardy's head appears, slicing across the wave at speed. Aidan can just make out a manic grin before he disappears in a froth of white. Aidan glances behind and sees a set is starting to roll in. He looks down at his feet, dangling in the water, then at the deep, featureless blue beneath his board. Hardy is just fucking with him, but it's in his head now, the idea of an unseen killer lurking below.
Aidan lies on the board and begins to paddle. His timing is off and he hasn't quite straightened up when the wave lifts his back end. For a single, brief moment, he feels the board surge forward, propelled by the momentum of the water, before it slides left and rolls, throwing him into the roiling surf. When he pops back up, he hears a voice calling his name.
"Fuck, mate, you weren't lying. You really are shit," Hardy calls out from a distance.
That goads Aidan, but when he climbs back onto the board, Hardy's already turned, paddling out for the next set.
They stay out for over an hour, until Hardy is satisfied that Aidan has caught a few respectable waves. Unlike Hardy, Aidan just heads straight towards the beach, pushed forward by the water. By the end of the session, he's even managed to get to his feet.
All the while, they're talking, or more accurately, Hardy is talking, asking questions. It should annoy Aidan, but there's a directness to his new friend that is disarming. He's articulate and intelligent, and away from the ceaseless banter with Flint, Hardy has proved to be insightful. They talk about the boys' plans to circumnavigate Australia in their trusty vehicle, how they both quit their jobs on the back of Hardy's modest lottery win to go on an epic adventure around their vast, empty country.
Aidan finds himself talking about Rosa, for the first time since he left. He tells Hardy about trying to get pregnant, giving him an abridged summary of the clinic visits and the drugs and the medical procedures. They're sitting out the back, waiting on one last set, just watching the ceaseless rise and fall of the ocean in silence, when Hardy turns to him.
"So why are you here, and not there? It sounds like you went through hell and high water. What happened?"
Aidan's eyes are on the waves still, but all he can see is Rosa's face, in their kitchen on that day, replaying the conversation in his head.
"She decided to fuck someone else."
"Ah, that's shit."
"Yeah."
Hardy is quiet for a while, content to rise and fall on the waves.
"Do you still love her?" he asks.
"That's really complicated."
"It's a yes or no. What does your heart say?"
Aidan doesn't answer. He shrugs and lays down on the board, paddling into a wave that he knows he won't catch. It's an escape from the uncomfortable truth. Hardy's right, Aidan still loves her. That's why it's so hard, knowing what she did, knowing that there's no way to rewind history and fix the missteps. He can't forgive her, even if he acknowledges that their situation was fucked, that the relentless cycles of IVF had just about destroyed them.
Being in the water now reminds him of how they had met, competing in an Ironman contest, the way she looked in her race bikini. He can still recall her crazy, wild grin as she flashed her first-place medal in his face, taunting him with his bronze, how cocky she was, how absolutely gorgeous. Now, he's back in the water again, but this time without her, on a foreign shore with an unknown future ahead. He paddles back to Hardy's position.
Hardy just gives him a nod. "Way too small," he says.
"I guess."
"There's a set coming in now. Maybe try these."
Aidan looks out to the horizon, seeing a wall of water rising up out of the deep, larger than the rest.
"Any plans, tonight?" Hardy calls over his shoulder, but he's watching the wave roll in.
"Dunno. What about you guys?"
"Mayhem somewhere local. The usual. But you, did you want to catch up with, uh, what was her name?"
