Xavier
One month later
I reach the top of Lion’s Head in Cape Town, South Africa and take in one of the world’s truly most spectacular views. I look out over the area where the South Atlantic Ocean and Indian Oceans meet.
I’ve got Camp’s Bay to my left and Robben Island to my right. I marvel at the courage of Nelson Mandela. I can’t believe the man was imprisoned for twenty-seven years and didn’t let it come close to breaking his spirit. What an amazing person and legend.
And as much as he serves as an inspiration and makes my own problems seem trivial by comparison I just can’t stop thinking about them.
I begin the path down Lion’s Head back into the “City Bowl” as they call it.
All I can think about is how much better this would be to share it with someone. And not just anyone. There could be only one.
Leah.
I snap a quick selfie and send it off to her just hoping maybe I’ll get a response this time.
It would be a first and keep my hopes up, not that I have any intention of stopping my pursuit to get in touch with her.
I won’t. I can’t. I’m literally possessed.
I tell myself she just started a new job and she’s probably super busy right now.
I’ve been texting the number her parents gave me, but who knows…maybe she changed it.
Maybe she wants a fresh start. Maybe she doesn’t want what I want.
But I know she does. That’s the thing.
Half way down and I hear the sound of an incoming call. Maybe it’s her. Please be her.
My hand darts into my backpack looking for my phone.
My booking agent. I answer it and immediately reply as I have been since I arrived.
“Any jobs in L.A. for me?”
“Xavier, you don’t have that L.A. look. They’re doing the heroine chic thing again, which I find disgusting by the way. They’re not into the All-American boy with muscles, a great smile and global marketability…but guess who is?”
I really don’t care. I’d drop the weight just to get a job there. Just so I could get closer to her. I’d show up at her office just to see her and talk to her. It sounds borderline stalkerish, and I wouldn’t do it in front of her co-workers, but I just have to see her again or I’m going to lose my mind.
“No clue.”
“Dude! Cheer up. Remember the reason you came down? How I told you this could be the golden ticket? Well it happened. I’m looking at the offer right here. And let’s just say the number is huge and it includes royalties. It tested through the roof across all of Africa. All demographics loved it. They ran it in some big markets in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France…it was a hit everywhere. Ev-ery-where!”
“So I might have a chance to go to L.A.?”
“Man you are really hung up on that place. What is it about that place?”
“I…I just need to be there,” I say. It’s nobody’s business but mine what my reasons are. In a world of instant hook-up culture I’ve got the one thing that’s real. A real connection between two people. And most importantly it’s the only person I’ve ever wanted.
Cape Town has been called heaven on earth, and it’s easy to see why. But without her it just can’t ever be. No matter how majestic Table Mountain is, regardless of the Malay-fusion or other amazing foods in town, or the surfing and outdoor activities that are offered it just can’t be to me what it is to everyone else. Not if I can’t share it with her.
“Swing by the office. All you have to do is sign the paperwork and it’s done.”
Then it hits me.
“What kind of number did they offer?”
“Eight hundred thousand U.S. dollars plus the royalties.”
“And it was submitted through the ad agency, right?”
“Of course.”
“Can you go back to them and ask them for five hundred thousand, but…and this is the most important part…one full-time ad agency position paying a quarter a million a year, guaranteed for two years?”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“And I don’t need the royalties. I just want that ad agency position, fully guaranteed. The money in an escrow account. They can pay me two fifty two if they really want.”
“Xavier. What kind of drugs are you on?”
“When have you ever known me to take any drug?”
“Never.”
“Exactly. And that’s how it is and how it always will be.”
“So what’s gotten into you.”
“Life. Life’s gotten into me. And the true definition of success. One I’ve only recently come to fully discover.”
“The boss isn’t going to like this.”
“Just ask, ok? It doesn’t hurt to ask. And it saves the client money, or you can put it to the agency’s bottom line. I really don’t care. Just whatever it takes to get that ad agency slot opened up.”
I hear a sigh on the other end. “All right. Let me see what I can do.”
“Oh! And one other thing.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“How long is the offer good for.”
I hear some papers shuffle. “Seventy-two hours it says.”
“And it just came in?”
“I called you right away.”
“So we’ve got seventy-one hours and fifty-five minutes?”
“What we’ve got is a crisis! We need you to come to your senses and get down here and sign this darn thing.”
“Oh, I’ve come to my senses all right. I’ve got just enough time. I’ll have to call you back.”
I hang up the phone and sprint down the hill passing other hikers and tourist who are looking at me like I’m crazy.
And I am crazy. Completely crazy. Crazy for her.
And it’s now or never.