Chapter 89

Harry McFry. A washed-up, emotionally empty, forty-something guy with a string of failed relationships behind him. Quite a catch, then, for an attractive, articulate, academically-bright, woman like Ana. But yet...

When he walked in the bar and she saw him for the first time in five years, an emptiness inside her suddenly filled itself with a yearning she thought she’d conquered. Ana had solved the problem of Harry McFry by moving on with her life. Why should it be a shock to her to think that maybe Harry hadn’t?

Looking at him now, she tried to mask the unexpected passion she felt for him. How dare he think for a minute that he could just ‘arrive’ in her life like this, when there had been so many changes? And for him to seem so disinterested in those changes – that was the most galling thing of all for her.

Was he really just here on ‘business’? She couldn’t help but be intrigued by the fact that ‘her’ Harry was involved in helping solve a mystery that had perplexed some of her country’s finest minds – finding the owner of the mysterious, unredeemed bond.
But, Harry – how could you be so insensitive as to ignore (to seem so callous, so diffident about) something as important as him?

Despite his apparent disinterest in how her life had changed, she knew she still desired Harry, in a way she had never wanted another man. It was painful for her to acknowledge, but merely looking at him brought back the feelings she'd had for him those years ago, like the wash of a wave. None of this had seemed possible to her when she’d agreed to meet up with him again.

Then, when he mentioned DNA tests, her defensive instinct had taken over. Where did he imagine he was even coming from, with an idea like that? He still had a hold on her, she realized, when he had (magically?) re-assured her it was this ‘business’ of his, again. Finally - and she was almost grateful to see it - she had worked out he didn’t really know anything.

Alan hadn’t told him. It was impossible that Harry had known. Nobody – not even Harry, five years down the line – could have seen it as unimportant, if he knew. He hadn’t lost his sensitivity, after all. He was just ignorant.

She watched him order more drinks. The bar was getting busier, and he had to wait a while to collect them. She thought about when he had walked out on her. He’d said he couldn’t give her what she wanted, had worried about his debts, had no confidence that he could make a new life with her in a country which he said he loved, but in which he was a stranger. Why, Harry? She had wanted to ask him that question so many times since then. Your brother did it! Couldn’t you? She’d realized, eventually, that she was stronger than him, and each passing year had made her stronger. Looking at him now, she wondered whether he had regained any of his strength, or was he still lost in the past?

Harry McFry wasn’t nearly as smart as he liked to think he was. When he came back from the bar with the drinks, Ana already knew something he didn’t. Whatever else Harry might be doing beforehand, at the end of the night she’d be taking him home.