Chapter 26: Future Plans

The following Monday, Anna received a message. Unfortunately, she had forgotten yet again to switch her phone off in class and as it was the third time, she was given a detention. She had to wait for morning break to read it.

Julia <You are not going to believe this but my Mum is going away for the whole summer to stay with her boyfriend in his villa overlooking some lake in Italy>

Anna <Do you have to go with them?>

Julia <No – and here’s the best bit – After much arguing, Jose can come and stay with me! He was going to have to go home to Valencia as he couldn’t afford the rent over the summer because he hasn’t found an internship>

Anna <Wow! Lucky you! So jealous! Isn’t Jose doing an IT degree?>

Julia <Yes and he’s super good. He was the top first year student>

Anna <I overheard my Dad talking to Dylan the other day and he’s short of web designers in his Barcelona office. If you send me his CV and maybe a link to some website he’s done, I will show it to my Dad>

Julia <That would be brilliant!>

Anna <No promises. I need to get to my next class? Bye>

Julia <I’ll get his CV to you tonight. Bye>

That evening, the CV, link and access passwords arrive in Anna’s inbox. After a very brief look, Anna was impressed and went to see her dad. He sounded interested but asked her to get Dylan to look at the website, so she forwarded the email, explaining about Julia and Jose. He had a quick look and phoned her.

“Hi Anna, can Mat and I come up to see you both?”

“Sure, Erika and I are both in post exam, no homework mode” Anna replied.

Dylan and Mat walked the short distance up to the girl’s house where Anna let them in, with a hug and kiss from both of them.

“After I messaged your grandpa to thank him and tell him how much I enjoyed the weekend on his yacht, he invited us to sail with him any time we’re free!” Anna said as they entered the lounge.

“Not sure when we can fit it in, but I’d love to” Dylan replied

“We talked to Mum and Dad about you two joining us for the Atlantic crossing and they were quite positive, especially when I told him you were planning to do some courses and try to get more sea time” Mat told the girls “He wants you to crew for him at half term when he brings the yacht back from Italy”.

“Fantastic!” Erika enthused.

“Super! We talked to our parents too” Anna added “They were a bit sad that we would not be with them over Christmas, but Mum said it was an opportunity not to be missed”.

“I also asked them if you could come and live with us if your Mum were to start working on the yacht full time” continued Anna “They didn’t look happy at first, had a long chat on their own, then Erika told them she would be happy to have a little brother. Eventually, Dad said you would be welcome, but you must have your own room and we could only spend the night together on non-school nights.”

“Cool, I’d love to sleep with you every night but that would still be great and thank you Erika” replied Dylan “Now I just have to persuade my parents”.

“Now for the difficult bit” Mat continued, looking a bit worried “An older guy Dad knows at the marina wants to sail his boat back home to Stockholm next week. He was planning to sail with his wife and get an extra crew for the passage, but he’s not had any luck finding crew and his wife has decided she doesn’t want to do it. Dylan and I have to meet the guy tomorrow and if he agrees, we want to crew for him.”

Both of the girl’s happy faces immediately disappeared to be replaced by frowns.

“How long will you be away?” asked a glum looking Erika.

“Probably about 4 weeks” Dylan replied.

“I’ve so been looking forward to spending the holidays with you Dylan” said Anna, close to tears “Do you have to go?”.

“I wanted to be with you too” Dylan replied, “but it’s a great opportunity to get sea time in tidal waters and visit Portugal, France and Sweden”.

“You are off to Uni in England soon Mat and I won’t see you for ages” Erika moaned “I was hoping to spend all summer with you first”.

There was silence for a while then Anna was the first to speak.

“I’m upset that I won’t see you for so long, but I don’t want to be the sort of girlfriend who tries to stop you doing the things you love”

“Thank you Anna, I love you” Dylan replied “If you had threatened to break up with me I would have cancelled it”

“Don’t be silly” Anna replied, cheering up a little “I love you too much to do that and we do have exciting things to look forward to.”

“Anna’s right” Erika said, “I don’t want to hold you back either Mat and I know you will be disappearing on yachts in the future, so I had better get used to it”.

“Thanks Erika, hopefully you will be able to join me most times” Mat replied.

“The good news is that I spoke with Dave at the sea school” Mat continued “and you can join a group next week in the classroom and the week after on board their boat for the practical part of the course, so you will be busy for the first two weeks we are away.”

Both girls cheered up a bit and said they really wanted to do it.