Sailing Romance

By Jane Whitmer

Sailing Romance ,A story about two people who fall in love sailing around the world

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781312651104

Book preview

Chapter 1

Jack

The coffee pot makes odd pouring noises beside me as I try to write down what new hobbies I could try out in the next month. At the moment, I’m not doing very well at thinking, because this piece of paper in front of me is still blank. In my defense, it is six in the morning. Not a lot of people can do a lot of thinking at this hour. But I can't help but wake up this early. I’ve been doing it for years. I can say now, that the worst part of retiring is figuring out what to do with yourself.

The coffee pot stops suddenly and the room refills itself with an unreal silence. I reach up and grab a clean coffee cup out of the cabinet to fix my first cup for the day.

I wrap my hand around the cup and start pouring. I always do this, because I love to feel the warmth of the coffee on my hands. When it’s not hot of course. When I’m done pouring, I wrap my other hand around the cup as well and walk into my living room.

I sit on the couch, setting my coffee down on the table in front of me. It needs to cool down and I have all the time in the world to let it. Leaning back on the couch, I grab the remote that’s sitting on the cushion beside me and I turn on the television.

The news channel comes on automatically, and all I’m met with are pictures of three middle-aged men I look down at the subtitles on the screen and it says

Three men break into an elderly woman's apartment in Miami, Florida.

I could sit here and think to myself that these men look like the type to break into an elderly woman's apartment, though they don’t. They look like normal men to me.

Before I can think about it some more, the news reporter moves to her next story for this morning.

The sound finally turns on and the sound of the reporter’s feminine voice fills my silent living room.

Today, twenty years ago, Match.com was released on April 21st, 1995. As you may know, many were thrilled to find this new resource to love. Many people have found their soulmates through this site. If you are single and waiting to find love, I sincerely advise you to try this site out. You never know what could happen.

The reporter gives a sly smile to the camera and moves on to the next topic, but I am still stuck on this one. It’s not like me to want a companion; lately, I've been thinking about what it would be like to share my life with someone. I’m sure everyone does this. At my age, I shouldn’t be thinking about those things anymore, at least I don’t feel like I should.

I’m 52 now, I turn 53 in July. I’m newly retired, shouldn’t I have my life together by now? I wouldn’t know, because I worked it away for my family business.

Inside I still feel a hell of a lot younger than I should. I sometimes feel that constant worry about the future pushing its way into my mind. It used to happen more often than it does now. It’s not like I can plan out every point of my life. Though I wish I could, even when I’m past the peak of my life.

My phone rings and I get up and walk back over into my kitchen. My phone is on the kitchen table and I find myself leaning over the table to reach for my phone on the other side. I start to shake my head a little because I know well that I could have just walked around to get my phone.

The phone vibrates in my hand and makes quacking sounds as I try to read the name of the person calling me.

Darren.

We’ve been good buddies for the past nine years. Has it been nine years? I can’t keep count. It’s been a while I guess.

I make a sliding motion on my phone with my index finger to answer the call.

Man, are you actually up at this hour? Darren asks in a very high voice.

Well yeah, it’s not like I can sleep all day like you can. I answer.

Do you miss me too? It’s been a hard week at work without you. He keeps the conversation going with his fake high voice. He's a little annoying, but I wouldn't ever tell him that.

He does this when he’s in a good mood. He likes to mess with people; get on their nerves. He’s been trying to get on my nerves for years, but I’m not the type to get irritated easily. When I do get irritated, it’s usually with myself. Sometimes, once in a blue moon, I’ll actually laugh at one of his attempts to be funny or have fun. Whichever one he thinks it is.

How is everybody? I ask.

You were here a week ago, everybody is still as they were when you left. At peace and loving their job. He answers in his normal tone of voice now. He’s being serious now because he knows how important it was to me for my employees to love their jobs.

Okay. I say. I know I made a difference in our work environment, far as keeping contracts together and making sure that my employees were content with their work-life. But it doesn’t feel like I’ve made that much of a difference when I’m replaced by