Kiss On The Bridge Read Free

bottle to find my hero.”
    “Fairytales, sis, you have to stop believing
in fantasies, it won’t happen.”
    “The only thing you have to do is
believe.”
    “I believe in the money. It’s going to keep
me happy,” hinted Meredith, confidently.
    “Will the millions of dollars keep you warm
at night when your husband, instead of being home making love to
you, he’ll be somewhere else in the arms of another woman.”
    Meredith glared at her sister through water
filled eyes before setting herself to walk off.
    Anneli grabbed her sister’s arm. “Please help
me,” she confirmed.
    Both girls swayed where they stood. Meredith
reluctantly nodded. Arm in arm, they walked off snaking their way
through the sea of strangers who were bobbing to the rhythm of the
music. They walked down a long narrow corridor and entered the
kitchen. They stood watching the closest cook. The man looked up
from decorating trays of small deserts.
    “I don’t suppose you have a pen and paper?”
asked Anneli.
    The man wore an expression of a cyclone
etched on his forehead. He viciously shook his head, marched across
the room, rudely shoving the girls out through the open door.
Slamming the door shut he went back to work.
    “The cook is a strange man,” chuckled
Meredith.
    Anneli choked on her half drunken
snigger.
    The girls ventured into the room adjacent to
the kitchen. The room resembled an office. A small portable TV sat
inside a narrow wood grain unit. Books were crammed into what space
remained. A mahogany coloured antique desk filled a third of the
room. The large chair covered in dull red leather sat neatly under
the desk. The only other piece of furniture was a flimsy white
plastic chair in one corner.
    Anneli sat on the large leather chair, opened
the top draw, lifting out a gold plated pen and a pad of yellow
paper. Glancing at Meredith pushing her ear against the door she
slapped the pad on the desk top and commenced to write her
letter.
    “Sis, hurry up, I hear footsteps.”
    Anneli replaced the pen, folded the note five
times before hiding it in the palm of her hand. The girls were
almost at the door when it opened.
    The man who took up the entire doorway looked
down his nose. “What are you two up to?” he growled in his baritone
voice.
    “Father, we wanted five minutes of peace. We
both have a headache,” whispered Anneli.
    “Meredith, when you’ve found your fiancé I
want you to escort him back to the deck. On your way grab something
from the medicine cabinet in the kitchen. Anneli, I want to have a
word.”
    Anneli waited for Meredith to leave before
shutting the door. Turning to face her father, she said innocently.
“Yes.”
    “Pull up the chair,” he barked.
    Anneli dragged the small white plastic chair
across the room and sat opposite.
    The man looked over the top of his glasses.
“There’s been a slight delay on your marriage. At next year’s
new-years-eve party your-husband-to-be will be introduced to you.
Three weeks after your introduction there will be an engagement
party. Four weeks further on you’ll be standing at the altar saying
I do.”
    Folding her arms, Anneli glared angrily at
her father. “Your idea is way off the mark on what I’m
thinking.”
    “I don’t care what you think,” he growled
hammering the desk top using a tight fist. “From the moment I
married your mother the deal regarding the man you will marry was
set in concrete.”
    Anneli stood, throwing her hands onto her
hips. “You are not my real father.”
    “Sit down.”
    “I prefer to stand.”
    “Hearing you feel so strongly about your idea
I’ll do the same.” Darryl stood, folding his arms across his chest.
“Let me start by saying a lot of water has flowed under the bridge
since your real father died at sea in a storm. If I remember
correctly a cyclone took his life; Tragic tale. Two years I waited
in the wings for your mother to put the loss behind her. When she
finally married me I could tell she never felt