CHAPTER 1
Ruby
“Ruby, you look like hell.”
“Yeah, I just got back.”
It’s not much of an exaggeration. I’ve spent the last five and a half months picking fruit in Australia on a working holiday visa. Although I have no complaints, I have been outside under the scorching sun working my tail off all day from before sunrise to after sunset.
I’ve got a mean farmer’s tan. I’m covered in bug bites, scratches, and cuts. I’m going to need an ultimate trip to the day spa when I get back…and I’m not sure this tan will ever even out. If the skin on my neck was a flavor of KFC it would be something about five levels beyond extra crispy. It looks about like the crocodile lace-ups I saw passing some high end shop today.
Today our group was welcomed back into civilization. We’re out of the field and have our last couple weeks here in Australia to use the money we made and travel the country. I can hardly wait.
But I’m even more excited to finally talk to my boyfriend.
The phone reception was hit or miss out there in the middle of the boonies where I was. And Wi-Fi? Forget about it.
But now that we’re back in Sydney we can finally start to remember what it feels like to live as real humans do.
I stare into my computer screen so happy to finally see my boyfriend’s face again. It may just be a Skype call, but the video’s running so it feels somewhat real. But I can’t wait to get back home and throw myself in his arms.
“Excited to come back home?” he asks.
“Of course! I can’t wait to see you again. I’ve already got a wonderful night planned. Straight from the airport to a little surprise I just put together.”
Before I called Daryl I did some quick looking around at hotels online. I booked a five star place for two nights. It has an incredible view, a bathtub, marble floors, Jacuzzi, California King bed with a retractable skylight…pretty much the works.
And after all the work I’ve put in here I can not wait to put some of that money to work for a little enjoyment. I haven’t spent a dime since we were taken to the worksite. I’ve managed to save quite a bit and am more than happy to drop a few hundred dollars for one night on me and the man I plan on marrying one day.
“Yeaaah. About that.”
My entire body is suddenly still, thrown off by his strange reply. How could he already know what I have planned?
Wait? Did he miss me so much he planned out something of his own? Something that might involve a very beautiful ring and him getting down on one knee?
He has had five and a half months to bring up the idea with my mother and get her blessing.
I just hope he doesn’t do it over Skype right now. If he tells me to cancel I’ll be happy to in lieu of something much, much bigger and much, much more important.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something, but I preferred to do it face to face.”
Oh my god, is he really going to go for it right now?
“Since we’ve been apart it’s made me realize just what’s most important in my life and how much I value that importance and want to take the steps to ensure it lasts forever.”
Forever? My eyes come off the screen and scan the Internet cafe. All around me are backpackers typing away feverishly at old PCs, trying to get the most out of their browsing time as they can’t. Internet rates aren’t cheap down here, and apparently my boyfriend’s not either. He’s been saving up for a rock! I know it. He just can’t wait anymore. He has to show me now. He wants what we have to last…forever.
Being apart made him realize just how special I am, not that he needed it. He always was a great boyfriend, but now he knows just how great of a girlfriend I really am. How much of a catch I am.
“Is this really happening?” I say.
I feel my hands start to shake and I lean back in my seat, my eyes intently focused back on the screen.
I know I’ve got the biggest smile ever plastered across my face, and I know he can see it. He deserves to after all. He’s the one who put it there. He’s about to make me the happiest girl in the world right now.
“It is,” he says. “I’m just so surprised you’re okay with it happening this way.”
“This is one of those moments in life that you cherish no matter what…well unless it’s on one of those big screens at a sporting event and you’re not a sporty kind of girl, but even then I’m sure any girl would still be overcome with positive emotion.”
“Positive emotion? Wow, well this just got a lot easier.”
“That’s how we do it, right? Teamwork!” I high five the screen and somehow smile even wider. “You know we’re always on the same page and I’ve always got your back just like you’ve always got mine.”
“Definitely. No matter what we can all always stay as friends.”
“Right!” I turn my head to the side as my eyebrow raises. Wait. What did he just say? “I don’t get you.”
“Friends. We’ll all always be friends.”
“Of course we’ll always be friends. You’re my best friend, silly.” He must be nervous and his tongue is tied. Why is he stumbling to say always. All always? He’s so cute when he’s nervous like this. I’ll just help him out with the final part. “Okay! I’m ready!” I clasp my hands and look into the screen wide eyed waiting to see him kneel in front of me.
But instead I see a pair of…panties? And it’s attached to a person who’s currently walking in the background of his side of the call.
“Ummm. Daryl? Who is that you’ve got with you?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. We’re all always going to be friends.”
“What do you mean all?”
“Hi Ruby!”
Suddenly another face appears on the screen next to a waving hand, but not just any waving hand. Her waving hand. My bff Veronica.
We were supposed to come to Australia together, but she couldn’t make it last second. Something came up she said, which was too bad. The entire trip was her idea. I mostly just wanted to come along and support her, but I knew we’d have a good time at the end when we got to travel up the coast together making memories that we could look back on when we were old and gray and in our rocking chairs laughing at all the silly things we did.
“Thanks for being so cool with everything,” she says.
“What is this everything that I’m so cool with?” I say.
They both laugh.
“Surprise!” they say together, raising their hands to the screen showing me their rings.
“Daryl, why are you wearing a ring on your ring finger?”
“I told you. We’ll all always be friends. This time apart made me really come to realize just how perfect Veronica and I are together and also how you were telling me that by going to Australia that you needed space. I mean Australia is a really vast and open country. It’s a new frontier in a lot of ways. And you wanted to explore that frontier by yourself. I didn’t get it at first, but Veronica explained it to me in “woman speak” and then it all made sense. It was strange to deal with at first, but you know…I respect that, just like I respect you. And the ultimate show of respect is to let you spread your wings and fly, just like you’re doing now.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Veronica and I are engaged!”
“You’re what?”
“We’re getting married next month. We weren’t sure whether to invite you or not, but seeing how awesome you’re being about all of this we’re going to reserve you a seat now. A lot of my friends will be there too. Single ones just like you.”
“Oh helllll no! You have got to be kidding me! You’re breaking up with me and you’re making this about me? You cheated on me you jerk! And Veronica…you…you…whore!”
“Oh, I thought you said she’d buy this reasoning,” Daryl mumbles to Veronica.
“Buy this reasoning? More like buy this bullshit and there is no way in hell I’m buying any of it. You two…uhhh!”
“Ma’am on computer forty-four, please keep your voice down.”
And now the attendant is going to scold me? You have got to be kidding me.
“Oh my god, you two. I swear—“
“You’re breaking up,” Daryl says. “Must be the connection.”
Suddenly the screen goes blank.
“Uuuh!” I yell.
“Ma’am, in the interest of others we going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Interest of others huh?”
I drop my headset and storm out of the lab.
I stand against the outside of the wall and feel my legs start to crumble. My back slides down the wall and suddenly I’m sitting on the corner like I’m homeless. I need to talk to someone.
I pull out my phone and type the little code the girl gave inside and log back into their Wi-Fi.
My Facebook feed instantly loads.
“We needed a trial run free of criticism and judgment to decide. Fortunately everyone is in agreement and we’ve decided. He asked me. And I said yes!” It’s a picture of Veronica’s ugly hand and even uglier finger with that stupid engagement ring on it.
And it was posted, “less than a minute ago” according to Facebook. “Fortunately everyone is in agreement?” They’re trying to spread fake news that I’m cool with this?
Not only that, but they call it a trial run? What in the hell were Daryl and I? A pre-trial run?
That’s funny because I was all in from the first time I looked at him.
And now here I am down here halfway around the world picking fruit and getting bit by spiders and battling all kinds of other strange and exotic animals that can pretty much kill me just by looking at me, and what for? Because Veronica tricked me into getting me out of the picture while she made her move.
And speaking of move, when I got back we were going to move so he could go to law school while I got a job and worked to support both of us. The direct deposits for my payments down here in Australia were being automatically swept into his account each month!
I hear a notification and look back at my screen.
“Pics from our new place.” Another post from Veronica.
Their new place? It’s tagged as being in Boston. They can’t afford that. Oh my god. They took that money and got a new apartment with it. I don’t know much about law but I do know that if I gave the money willingly to Daryl then there’s not much I can do to get it back. He tricked me into being the one to set up the deposits!
This can’t be happening. I’ve lost my boyfriend and most of the money I busted my butt to get these last almost six months.
What in the world did I do to deserve this? To get betrayed by both my boyfriend and my bff. Make that my ex-boyfriend and my ex-bff.
And now when I get back I’m going to be the laughing stock of the town. And to make matters worse I’m going to pretty much look like a guy. Bad farmer’s tan. Unkempt from working outside all day long. Increased muscle from all the lifting and twisting and manual labor.
This cannot be happening.
“There you are.”
I look up and see Jessica. She was one of my friends from our fruit picking group.
“We’re all going for a surf lesson. It starts in fifteen minutes. Want to go with?”
I don’t know a thing about surfing, but I do know I’ve got two choices. I can spend the next two weeks crying my eyes out or do what I came here to do. That means enjoying a country and culture that I’ve been fascinated with since I was a little girl.
There’s nothing I can do to undo what just happened. If my dad was alive and he was here right now I know what he’d say.
“Pick yourself up. Dust yourself off. Get that chin of yours high and walk tall. It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. It only matters how many times you get back up.”
He’s right.
“Yeah,” I say. “I’ll go. Let’s do it!”