One Night

Memories

On the way back to the hotel, we went for a drive past Tamarama and Bronte Beach.

"Did you know I was named after that beach?" I said, pointing to Bronte Beach.

"No, I didn’t actually. You learn something new every day." He smiled.

"Yeah, Mum used to live down here as a kid and she absolutely loved it!"

I continued to stare out the window, watching the waves roll over one another. We eventually found our way back onto Bondi Road and headed back to the hotel. There was a lot more traffic than before because at this time everyone was going home from work.

At 7:30pm, we were back at our hotel room and ordering room service. Tom and I weren’t really hungry so we only got a bowl of wedges and a bowl of chips. While I finished watching television and eating my wedges, Tom ran us a bath.

"Bronte, the bath is ready." He called, just as I was about to eat my last wedge.

I walked in to the bathroom to find him already in there with the jets on and just waiting for me to join him. I stripped down and he held my hand as I stepped over the edge to get in.

"Thank you so much for today. It really was the perfect day!" I leant over to kiss his lips.

"I just knew how much you love Bondi and that you haven’t been there in a while, so that was kind of why I organised this trip."

"So, we could go to Bondi?" I clarified.

"Yeah, I knew how much you missed it. It was pretty much your home when you were little. Do you remember when our families would come down at least once every month even in winter?"

"Haha, yeah. I remember when we were probably seven and you got stung by a bluebottle and you freaked out. It was so funny." I laughed.

"Shut up! I was seven. But I remember the time when we built that massive sand castle near the baby pool but some asshole came and knocked it down and you ran off crying to your Mum." Tom recalled.

"Hey, that was a pretty impressive sand castle for a six year old!"

"Sure, sure! What about the time we found that baby Port Jackson shark in the kid’s pool? You shit yourself for sure." He laughed.

"And again, I was seven!"

We spent ages in the spa talking about our memories. I miss all the times we had down here.

"Tom, when Matilda is born, we have to continue this tradition. I want her to have the same memories as we do. Bondi is like a second home to us and I want it to be like that for Matilda as well." I announced.

"I would like that too." He said, kissing my forehead. "But we have to get everyone involved, just like old times, except we have one extra." He smiled and rubbed my stomach.

We laughed together and I huddled into his chest. I am pretty sure I almost fell asleep because I could feel Tom tapped my shoulder and saying;

"Bronte, are you still awake?"

I whispered back, "Yes."

"C’mon let’s get out. I don’t want you to drown." He said, getting out, then lifting me up and wrapping a towel around me.

I let my eyes open just enough to dry myself and put my pajamas on and then Tom laid me in bed and pulled a sheet over my body. I fell asleep straight away to the faint sound of Tom’s heartbeat.

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of heavy flowing traffic just outside our window. I looked at my phone that was placed on the bed side table. I clicked the centre button and the picture of Tom and I popped up on the screen with the time in white bold numbers, displaying it was 9:18am.

Tom was still snoring his head off, lying on his stomach with his bare back and bum showing because it looks like I stole the sheet while we were sleeping. I thought of ways to wake him up but resulted in draping my arm over his shoulders which woke him straight up. Obviously it startled him.

"Oh Jesus!" He screamed.

"Morning sleepyhead!" I smiled. "Did you know you get freaked out so easily?"

"Well, you’re the only person that seems to like freaking me out." He shook his head and his eyes opened wide, declaring he was finally awake. "Good morning, beautiful." He kissed my lips gently.

"What time do we have to leave today?" I said, with a frown.

"About 1 o’clock."

"Aw, that only leaves three and a half hours. What are we going to do?" I let my face drop. I didn’t want to go home yet, I was having too much fun.

"Well, we can pack our suitcase and go down for breakfast, then check out and I was thinking we could go to the Opera House and walk through the Botanic Gardens. Maybe even have lunch in the ARIA restaurant." He said slowly.

"You mean, Matt Moran’s ARIA restaurant!" I sat up, shocked.

"Yep," He smiled. I have told him so many times how much I wanted to eat in that restaurant because a couple of years ago, I wanted to be a chef but that idea kind of went out the window when I realised I could only make desserts. But I always loved the celebrity chef’s.

I wanted to bounce up and down. "Oh my God, YES! We have to go there."

"Ok, well, let’s get ready!"

We both went for a quick shower and packed up our suitcases. We took the rest of the soap, shampoo and conditioner from the bathroom that the hotel supplies because that’s what you have to do when you go on holidays. After I had picked up all my clothes, my bag seemed to be three times bigger than it was when we first came here. I think that proves I bought too much.

We checked the room one last time to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. I had one last glance out the window to see the amazing view and then we said ‘goodbye’ to our room and took our bags down to the car then headed to the restaurant for breakfast.

I ate a plate of fruit, two slices of raisin toast and a banana and honey muffin while drinking herbal tea and Tom even had the same food except he had hot chocolate instead of the tea. We didn’t want to eat too much because we wanted to save room for an amazing lunch at ARIA.

After breakfast, Tom checked us out of the hotel and we drove off to Circular Quay. We parked at the car park in the Botanic Gardens and strolled along the path towards the Opera House. We held each other’s hands and walked along the water’s edge.

It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the Opera House but once we arrived, we both took turns posing on the stairs and we snapped some photos. Then we sat down and watched as ferries and other boats left and pulled into the dock. We saw people climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Ferris wheel spinning around at Luna Park and thousands of people cluttering the boardwalk.

At 11:30am, we walked into ARIA restaurant and got seated straight away from the booking Tom made before breakfast. The service was absolutely amazing but I was expecting that from the outrageous prices on the menu. We both ordered a coke to start off with while we continued to scan through the menu.

When the waitress came back, for my entrée I ordered the Salmon and Tom ordered the Pork Belly. For the main course, I got the Duck Pie and the Barramundi for Tom. While we waited for our meals, we talked about what an amazing time we had in Sydney and that when Matilda was born we planned to come back and it could be our official first family holiday.

We only waited about 15 minutes for our entrée and it was so amazing. The food was absolutely to die for and we hadn’t even got to the mains yet. After 10 minutes of finishing our entrées, our mains arrived and again it was delicious. There was no room left in my stomach to fit dessert which was a bit of a shame but it was a beautiful lunch. We thanked the waitress and asked her to pass on the message to the chef’s.

By the time we left the restaurant, it was time to head home. I pretty much sulked all the way to the car because I didn’t want to go back although I really wanted to see my Mum. We hopped in the car and drove through the busy streets of Sydney until we got onto the highway. I laid my head back on the head rest and dozed off.