Story A
John just couldn’t take it anymore. Every day was the same bland purgatory to him. He woke up, and off he went to work where he spent eight hours punching numbers into a calculator for some snooty client while watching his younger coworkers move up the latter by schmoozing up to his boss. He then came home to subtle yet barbed comments from his wife, ate a bland dinner that he would pick at, wishing for something different. Then he would go to bed with nothing more than a terse good night.
His wife, Angie, and himself hadn’t been getting along for the last few years. Everyone thought they were a happy couple because they never argued. John wished they would argue. That either of them cared enough about the other to argue. But it was always just pointed comments, followed by a pursing of the lips and silence. Until one morning that changed everything.
He had the same routine before work every morning. Wake up, get the paper, pour himself a cup of coffee, eat breakfast, then go to work without even a kiss or a “Have a good day!” from Angie. He had given up trying to get her attention a long time ago. But today, when he opened the newspaper, an excerpt from the personal columns caught his eye.
"To my future fellow traveler,
I like piña coladas and long walks on the beach, followed by a night of cuddling together on the dunes in intellectual conversation over a bottle of champagne. While I would think of myself as being fit, I'm not very active so don't expect me to start taking up a Pilates class or a diet to "trim my figure." I want someone who sees me as an equal to travel the world with, not a trophy. If this sounds like your type of woman, write a letter to me through here, and I'd love to meet with you and plan our escape to new horizons!
Love,
Your Eager Petitioner
The entire day, he couldn't get that letter out of his head. The idea of escaping the emotionless void his life had become, laying on a beach somewhere deep in conversation was just so foreign and unusual that it appealed to a part of him that he had thought long buried. Returning from work, he sat down for dinner, and when his wife sat at the table across from him, he asked her:
"Hey, Angie?" John asked.
"Hmm?" Angie asked, her face expressing disinterest as she looked up at him between bites of food,
"Have you ever thought about traveling?"
Her face immediately became guarded. "Traveling? To where exactly?"
"I don't know. Anywhere really, just somewhere different, you know? Like a beach, or a cruise, or something..." he trailed off as her lips pursed and she looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"We don't have the money to travel anywhere except the grocery store, John. Has your job given you a raise?"
"Well, no," John admitted sheepishly. "It was only a thought..."
Angie stood up and began clearing the plates away to signal the end of the discussion. That was fine with John. He wasn't hungry anymore.
After the two of them had gone to bed with nothing more than a terse "good night" to each other, John lay awake, listening fo Angie's snores and wondering: Did he love her? Surely he did. He remembered when they had met at a bar in their early 20s, both attending the local college for different degrees. He was studying finance to get his CPA, she was in art design to become a fashion designer. He had walked up to her friend and offered to buy her a drink, only for the girl to laugh in his face and call her boyfriend over. As he left shamefaced, Angie had followed after him and tapped him on the shoulder, telling him she liked a bar down the street called O'Malley's.
A few drinks later, he knew he had to see her again. With a pang, John remembered those years when the two of them looked at every second they didn't spend in each other's presence as a moment wasted. But then John remained an entry-level accountant, never getting a raise or a promotion while watching countless others pass him by. The job that he had thought would bring him financial security was now his prison. Angie had gotten her degree, but after being continually rejected due to being 'bland and unoriginal,' she now had to work part time planning and decorating special events like birthday parties and anniversary celebrations. Her best paying job had been painting a senior citizens home in a desperate bid by staff to lower the suicide rate.
In time, this discontentment and frustration had bled into their personal lives, and the spark that had once been there had fizzled out. As John sifted through his memories, he realized that over the years, him and Angie had gone from being madly in love to being strangers in their own home. He missed the days where he had someone to talk to and actually enjoy life with. The strange woman's letter appeared in his mind's eye. The idea of an escape sounded like just what he needed to feel alive again.
It wasn't like he was going to run away to Jamaica with this girl. He would meet with her, talk to her for a few hours, maybe make arrangements for a second meeting. That wasn't cheating, after all. He was allowed to have friends, right? With an uncomfortable pang, he realized he didn't have any friends. Between Angie and his job, he had lost contact with all his old friends years ago. Making up his mind, he got out of bed, padded down the stairs, and dug this morning's paper out of the trash. Once he had read the information as to where he could send his own personal ad, he began to write:
Dear Eager Petitioner,
I also enjoy piña coladas and long walks on the beach. I haven't seen the ocean in a long time, and it calls to me just like your letter did. I'm not really a big fan of healthy food myself, and I'm certainly not one to judge your body type. I do enjoy interesting conversation over a good bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice. There's a bar called O'Malley's on High and Third Street. It has a nice ambivalence, and the drinks are incredible. Would you be interested in meeting me there for dinner this Friday at half past four? I'll be sitting in the back booth, waiting with a couple of piña coladas. I hope we can have a great time, and enjoy a brief escape from the rest of the world.
Sincerely,
Your Fellow Traveler
As John sealed the letter inside an envelope, he felt a fresh pang of guilt at the thought of meeting this woman at the bar he had taken his wife to when they first met. But that was ridiculous. Right? After all, it wasn't like that bar was sacred ground. They hadn't been there in years. And really, what was the harm in getting a couple drinks with someone? It was no different than going out with his coworkers, he reasoned. Granted, he never went out with his coworkers, or at all. But that was going to change. And if he changed his mind or didn't enjoy himself, it was only a random woman in a newspaper ad. It wasn't as though Angie would ever find out about any of this. Feeling better, he went outside and dropped the letter in the mailbox.
That Friday, at 6 in the evening, John was sitting at a back booth in O'Malley's Bar, wondering why he had ever thought of such a stupid idea. The warm piña coladas sat before him, untouched since the bartender had brought them over two hours ago. Shaking his head at how stupid and impulsive he had been, he got his coat and left the bar. As he stepped outside, he bumped into a woman entering.
"Sorry, miss." he mumbled. Then he took a good look at the woman. "Angie?!" Sweat began to run down his palms and the back of his neck.
Angie stared at him like a doe in the headlights. "John? What... what are you doing here?"
John decided right then there was no point in hiding it. He couldn't go another day without saying something. With his head lowered, and a note of shame creeping into his voice, he explained to her the letter, the fact that he was supposed to meet another woman and got stood up, and his reasons for doing so.
He looked up. Angie stared at him for several long seconds, her head tilted as she gazed at him. And then, without warning, she burst into laughter, doubling over as patrons looked at her in surprise as they walked in and out of O'Malley's.
"You're not mad?" John asked quizzically.
"How..." Angie gasped for air, trying to compose herself. "How could I be mad at you for doing the same thing I was doing, you massive idiot?" She burst into another peal of laughter. "I was the one who put out that personal ad, trying to meet somebody. I'm your eager petitioner!"
Despite himself, John felt a twinge of anger bubble up. "You were looking around? Why would you do that?"
At this, Angie cocked an eyebrow. "I don't know, John? Maybe for the same reasons you did?"
"Fair enough." John mumbled, slightly embarrassed. With a moment of silence, the two of them looked at each other.
"So... what now?" Angie asked.
John observed her for another moment, and for the first time since he could remember, she looked just like she did the day she tapped him on his shoulder and asked him to buy her a drink.
John smiled. "Well, I do have a couple of piña coladas just laying around. It would be a shame to let them go to waste. Maybe we could have dinner here over a bottle of champagne?"
The smile that lit up across Angie's face was radiant and playful. "Why, John! I never took you for a man of culture. You actually like piña coladas? We never tried them together before."
"There's a lot of things we haven't tried together, Angie." John replied. "I'd like to change that, if you're with me."
Angie offered her hand. "Always."
John took it.
Two years later
"So how are you finding your promotion, John?" Angie asked as she snuggled up against him, the two of them lying on the warm sand as they watched the sun gleam over the horizon.
"Being the head accountant of Sullivan's Travel Agency's finances has its' perks," John chuckled. "I guess I should be happy that their most successful travel agent stormed right into my boss's office and made it clear that he'd only be retaining their business if I was the one handling it."
"Well, of course they did." Angie smirked playfully. "You are the best after all."
John rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "The fact that the agent was my wife had nothing to do with it?"
Angie pouted. "Perish the thought!"
They both laughed. One thing that made Angie's new job as a travel agent worthwhile, besides John's immediate jump up the corporate ladder, was the fact that every year, the two of them got a week-long vacation package to almost anywhere in the world.
As the sun set over the horizon, turning the ocean into a fiery red that matched the sky, the two of them expressed their love in a more physical way, hidden among the dunes. John had to admit that as long as the two of them were fellow travelers, he would be happy wherever he was.
