Chloe's Cottesloe Beach E-Book

Julia, Mag. Metzl

• Herausgeber: novum publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 104

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The 31-year-old Chloe is a down to earth woman who lives in Perth, Western Australia. She loves her work as an elementary school teacher, stands by her curvy body and meanwhile also copes with the eternal teasing of her mother. She doesn't care too much about the failure of her last relationship; after all, she entertains the beloved cat siblings Bonnie & Clyde. Furthermore, Chloe meets the handsome and charming surf instructor Nick at Cottesloe Beach. She thus expects a harmless flirt, but Nick shows real interest in her. When he tells Chloe about his little daughter and she meets his beautiful ex-wife, first doubts creep in. Despite all possible obstacles, a wonderful time seems to begin.

Leseprobe

Imprint

All rights of distribution, also through movies, radio and television, photomechanical reproduction, sound carrier, electronic medium and reprinting in excerpts are reserved.

© 2024 novum publishing

ISBN print edition:978-3-99146-737-3

ISBN e-book:978-3-99146-738-0

Cover images:Brainstormoff, Jakkapan Jabjainai, Faithiecannoise | Dreamstime.com

Cover design, layout & typesetting: novum publishing

www.novum-publishing.co.uk

Chapter 1

“Chloe, what a lucky girl you are” I think to myself as I watch the waves at Cottesloe Beach. Finally, the Christmas holidays are here and I’m getting cozy on my beach towel. The Australian summer is really amazing, from December to February there is plenty of sunshine. I live in Perth, which is about 30 minutes away by train. I go to Cottesloe Beach as often as I can, mostly after school, because I like swimming there. I loved doing that as a schoolgirl and now as an elementary school teacher at 31 years old there’s no difference.

I take a look at my calendar, on the cover the “Cats of the Mediterranean” by Laurel Burch can be seen with small details in gold and silver. This makes me think of my sweet one year old cat siblings Bonnie & Clyde and that they are already waiting for me at home. Bonnie with her red and white fur, has an adventurous and playful nature and always reminds me of my childhood heroines Pippi Longstocking and Ronia the Robber’s Daughter. Her brother Clyde could be somehow related to Garfield, although he is not red like his sister, but brown, black, grey and white. As far as feeding is concerned, he is in no way inferior to Garfield. He is a sweet cuddle cat and enjoys making himself comfortable on my lap. Just like his sister, he is also playful and loves to chase his stuffed mice, fish and sheep, which always makes me laugh.

Today is 27thDecember 2019 and there are no plans for the day. This is wonderful, as it should be, at least until the end of my vacation.

“I put on sunscreen, enjoy a little daydream, now I’m going for a swim” I decide and immediately run towards the ocean.

The water is pleasant, not too warm and not too cold, refreshes me totally and I completely lose track of time. That’s why I think holidays are so great, just letting your mind wander without any time pressure. Suddenly a high wave surprises me, but I swim courageously in the middle of it, I just cannot resist and then I am carried away. I resurface splashing and laughing, that was really fun! So now I’ve had enough, it’s time for reading magazines and listening to music.

I return to my seat, grab the latest issue of my favourite magazine from my beach bag written “Summer” all over it and flip through it. While reading an article, I’m listening to “Last Day Under the Sun” by Volbeat on my mobile phone through headphones. My colleague and now best friend Britta, who is originally from Hamburg and has been living in Perth for 2 years now, always brings me this magazine when she visits her family in Germany. Since I am very enthusiastic about languages and have been trying to learn German for a year now with the help of Britta, which I am doing more or less well, browsing through the magazine helps me a lot. One of the articles is about a woman who raises sheep, together with her husband and their five children. I find sheep totally adorable and can absolutely understand that these sweet animals are her great passion. At the same time, it occurs to me that if I let my mother flip through the magazine, she’ll be rather ecstatic about these lovely five children featured in one photo.

My mom still hasn’t gotten over my breakup with Tom, even though I had already drawn a line under this relationship in spring. I was together with him for four years, but Tom just couldn’t and wouldn’t commit, which drove me absolutely crazy. We lived together, but he always said he never wanted to get married, that it was too old-fashioned for him. My mother said that I only needed to get pregnant and he would change his mind.

“Mom, it doesn’t work like that anymore,” I tried to tell her often enough, and my dad always agrees with me: “Linda, let her go! Chloe knows what she’s doing, and besides, the guy wasn’t good enough for my princess anyway!” In the meantime, I’ve gotten used to single life and enjoy my freedom.

I blink into the sun and want to put on my sunglasses, then I remember that I had sunglasses on earlier, when I was swimming in the sea. The wave has obviously carried away the sunglasses, now they remain forever in Cottesloe Beach, somehow a romantic idea. If I can’t be at Cottesloe Beach forever, at least my sunglasses will be. However, I take it upon myself to look for them later on the beach, after all, I don’t want to leave any trash in the ocean and besides, I also feel sorry for my beloved sunglasses. After I have grabbed my sun spray, of course with sun protection factor 50 – after all, I definitely don’t want to get bad skin – and have creamed myself again with sunscreen, I look out at the ocean again. Suddenly I discover a group of children with their surfboards and a surf instructor who teaches them everything they need to know about surfing.

“Ah, today is surf school again, that’s really impressive, what the kids can already do!” I think to myself.

For a while I watch the group interested and also the attractive surf instructor, as he patiently shows the kids what to do, he laughs a lot and seems to have the kids well under control. He is tanned, has an athletic body, wears a beard and dark curly hair, a wetsuit in black and blue and sunglasses, a good-looking guy, there can be no doubt. The surf lesson seems to be over, because the kids are storming the beach, but one kid is walking right towards me, together with the surf instructor…

“Oh, my goodness, please don’t come closer” I think to myself and tug at my red bikini with the white polka dots and toss my reddish-brown curly hair back. I wanted to lose 11 pounds, but after the breakup the ice cream was so tempting. Well, what can I say, there are only 15 pounds missing to my dream weight. “Never mind, I’ll just go swimming as often as I can and continue to enjoy my life, I’m just the way I am, a curvy girl who loves her life!” I remind myself and sit down cross-legged on my beach towel. Suddenly I recognize the kid coming towards me, it’s Brian from my school.

“Miss Johnson! Have you seen how well I can surf already? By the way, this is Nick, my surf instructor!” he exclaims excitedly.

“Yes, Brian, you’re doing great!” I encourage him.

“Hi, I’m Chloe Johnson, Brian’s elementary school teacher,” I introduce myself to the surf instructor.

“Hi, Miss Johnson!” he smiles. “Nice to meet you! Brian and I found something while surfing!” he explains, holding my sunglasses.

“Oh, wow, that’s wonderful!” I exclaim, immediately falling around his neck, then feeling myself blush a tiny bit with excitement.

To mask this embarrassment, I say to my 8-year-old student:

“Brian, thank you so much!” Brian proudly replies, “I saw you in the water earlier and I noticed the wave took your sunglasses. That’s when I said to Nick, we need to save the sunglasses and bring them back to Miss Johnson!”

“I’m thrilled, Brian! Thank you so much again for saving my sunglasses, it means a lot to me. Please buy yourself some ice cream, that’s for you!” I thank him with some money.

“We won’t tell your mom, okay?” I wink at him.

Brian beams all over his face, “I swear! Thank you, Miss Johnson!” Happily, he runs off to get some ice cream.

Nick, the surf instructor, now laughs heartily, “Oh, if only I had such a cool teacher back in school.” Am I imagining that or is he flirting with me? No, that can’t be, I’m certainly not his type. He probably has women chasing him and he just wants to be friendly because his surf student Brian insisted on returning my sunglasses.

“Well, Brian’s mom is such a health freak, if she finds out I let Brian buy some ice cream, she’ll give me a piece of her mind at the next parent-teacher conference.” I let him know.

“Well, Miss Johnson, see you around!” he smiles, waves at me, and walks off with his surfboard toward the other kids.

What kind of nonsense did I just say? No wonder that the guy immediately vanishes… I grab my headphones and want to listen to music again, then he actually turns around again and says:

“Oh, by the way, I’m Nicholas Wilson, but everyone calls me Nick. I have to get back to the kids now. I’ll be back here tomorrow, because the class is running all Christmas holidays.”

“Hey Nick, all right, see you soon then. Hang loose!” I try to reply as casually as possible, smiling at him. I almost regret saying this, because I read once that surfers greet each other like this, but I’m definitely not a surfer girl.

After Nick smiles back and does the shaka sign1 – it consists of extending the thumb and smallest finger while holding the three middle fingers curled – I am reassured and also greet him with the shaka sign as a farewell. Nick now concentrates on his surfing students and I jump into the ocean, I obviously need to cool down, it was definitely getting hot in here…

1 From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka_sign

Chapter 2

The refreshment was absolutely fantastic and I needed it after the exciting encounter with surfer Nick. I take a look at my mobile phone, it’s already 4 p.m. Well then, I’ll pack up and slowly make my way home, I miss my cuties Bonnie & Clyde, and I’m sure they want me to feed them dinner.

I pack my things, put on my jeans dress over my bikini and walk towards the station. By the way, I don’t see Nick any more, he’s probably already gone, I’ve been in the sea for quite a long time. It’s a pity, but who knows, maybe I’ll meet him again soon at Cottesloe Beach, at least I hope so…

Arriving at the train station in Perth, I take the bus to my flat. The buses in Perth are free for everyone in the city centre, both for locals and tourists, and people thank the bus driver when they get off, which is quite normal for me but tourists always love that. Britta said that in Hamburg, when people would actually thank the bus driver, he or she might show you the middle finger and would probably ask you what drugs did you take, which always makes me smile. I don’t quite buy that, she also seemed reserved at first and then as I got to know her better, she is the warmest and sweetest person I have ever met. Although Britta deserves the vacation with her husband Dennis in Hamburg, I miss her so much already! She has moved to Perth for Dennis, so he is accompanying her on holidays to her hometown Hamburg as often as possible. I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say about Germany when she returns, because I had planned to join them next year.

When I walk through the door, Bonnie & Clyde are already running towards me and caressing my legs. I love it when they do that and talk to them a lot and stroke them endlessly. Next, I give them fresh food and turn on the radio. They enjoy their dinner, and meanwhile I open the door to the balcony and take a look outside. Of course, the balcony is safe for the cats and they love it out there. Bonnie & Clyde enjoy their outdoor cat tree with a real tree trunk and a small hammock for cats – yes, I know I spoil them a lot, but they are my furry children and every cat mom would do the same.