‘Hi Hal? It’s Max here. Maxine Driscoll.’
‘Hey Max. Is anything wrong?’ He sounded concerned. ‘Is Sam okay, the kids?’
‘Everyone’s fine,’ she assured him. ‘I just have a favour to ask you.’
‘Sure.’ Hal paused. ‘What can I do for you, Max?’
‘Sam’s car is still up at Palmy. She asked if I could go pick it up, and I thought if you were headed back up there, I’d hitch a ride.’
Max heard him sigh. ‘She really doesn’t want to see me, does she?’
‘It’s not that.’
‘Oh, I think it is.’
‘Hal, she just doesn’t want to leave Josh right now,’ Max insisted. ‘You know what she’s like.’
He didn’t say anything.
‘Don’t go getting all broody on me, Handsome. I wasn’t the one who dumped you.’
He laughed then, a sort of feeble half-laugh. ‘Aren’t psychologists supposed to have empathy for other people?’
‘Fine, I’ll give you empathy if you give me a lift up to Palm Beach.’
Hal picked up Max on the street outside her apartment an hour later. He had no plans for the day and he knew he had to go back to the house sometime. It was better not to have to go there alone.
They made small talk as they travelled through the city to the north side. Eventually Hal cleared his throat.
‘How is she?’ he asked, looking at the road ahead.
‘Crazy.’ Max paused. ‘Like a fox,’ she added, with a lift of her eyebrows. Hal frowned at her.
‘Mad as a meat axe,’ she continued. ‘Nutty as a fruitcake. Around the bend, off with the fairies. As thick as two short planks. A few sandwiches short of a picnic.’
Max considered Hal’s blank expression. ‘You wanted empathy,’ she shrugged.
‘I’m not sure you have a real clear grasp of what the word means.’
‘Do too,’ she declared. ‘But in order to feel empathy you have to put yourself in the other person’s shoes, see how it is for them. And as I’ve never been dumped, it’s a bit difficult for me.’
‘You’ve never been dumped?’
‘That’s right. Not since my father,’ she added wryly. She glanced across at Hal. ‘Maybe this will help. She told me you were the right person at the wrong time.’
He shook his head doubtfully. ‘If you’re the right person, you’re the right person, wouldn’t you say, Max? There isn’t a wrong time.’
‘Like I said, there’s a kangaroo loose in the top paddock, if you get my drift.’ She saw the bemusement on Hal’s face. ‘Obviously not. I mean she’s crazy,’ Max explained. ‘Actually if you want to know the truth, she’s scared. Scared she’ll start counting on you. Scared you’ll go back home. Scared you’ll leave her like all the men in her life have done so far.’
‘I wasn’t going to leave her,’ Hal said seriously. ‘I tied up some loose ends while I was back in the States, signed divorce papers, that kind of thing. And I’ve made a business commitment that’s going to keep me here for a while. I wanted to tell her all that, but I didn’t get the chance. She never gave me the chance.’
Max considered him. ‘You love her, don’t you?’
He nodded.
‘I mean, you really love her,’ she persisted.
He glanced at her. ‘Yes, I do.’
‘Can you tell me why?’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘I’ve never understood exactly what you saw in her.’
Hal gave her a look of sheer disbelief.
‘Oh,’ said Max. ‘That came out wrong, didn’t it? Of course I adore Sam. I know how wonderful she is. It’s just, well, you’re a very eligible bachelor, Hal, and the reality is –’
‘We’re not in the same league?’ he finished for her.
She smiled, relieved. ‘You understand what I’m getting at.’
‘So you’re the one that’s been filling her head with that nonsense.’
Max looked blankly at him.
‘How come you can see how wonderful she is, and you don’t think I can?’ he asked her. ‘We’re not all the shallow bastards you take us for, you know, Max.’
‘I’m sorry, Hal,’ she winced. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. How can I make it up to you?’
He sighed. ‘Talk some sense into your sister.’
‘Hmm,’ she mused. ‘Easier said. But, okay, if I’m going in to bat for you, you’re going to have to give me something to work with, some consumptive poet stuff.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You know, deeper than the ocean, higher than the highest mountain . . . that kind of thing.’
He smiled, shaking his head as he pulled up at a red light.
‘Hal?’
‘I was just thinking about when we first met . . .’
‘Who, you and me?’
‘No, me and Sam.’
‘Oh, good, go on.’
‘I told her I wouldn’t dream of sleeping with her. Something like that.’
Max frowned. ‘This is your best material, Hal?’
‘The thing is, the next time I saw her, that was pretty much all I could think about.’ He sighed. ‘I wasn’t looking for anyone, Max. I thought the Wife for Hire thing was ideal. I could have someone show me around, no expectations, no strings attached. And then before I knew it . . .’
He was gazing off into the distance. A car tooted behind.
‘The light’s turned green,’ Max prompted him.
He took off again. ‘You know, my ex-wife and I were what you’d call the perfect couple. We had everything going for us, and it ended in disaster.’
‘I reckon,’ Max nodded.
Hal frowned at her. ‘You know about that?’
Max cringed. ‘I swear we had to hold her down and beat it out of her. It was ugly.’
He shook his head. ‘Nothing’s sacred, is it?’
‘Not between women, especially sisters.’
He breathed out heavily. ‘Anyway Max, you would have said that Lisa and I were in the same league. But I never felt this way about Lisa.’
Max was watching him. He had that faraway look again, staring fixedly at the road ahead.
‘I feel a connection with Sam I’ve never felt before.’ He paused. ‘I’m more myself with her than with anyone I’ve ever known.’
They were quiet for a while, until eventually Max cleared her throat. ‘Nicely put.’
He glanced at her. ‘Much good it does me.’
Max considered him. ‘Have you ever heard the saying “When you love someone, set them free”?’
‘Sure I have. I’ve seen it on those cheesy posters, with a sunset and a bird in silhouette in the background.’
‘Okay, you’re having a go at me.’
‘No, I’m not,’ he cajoled. ‘Well, maybe a little. But go on, what were you saying?’
‘Look, I realise it’s a cliché,’ said Max. ‘But it is true. If you really believe you two belong together, then you’re going to have to trust that she’ll come back to you. You just have to give her a chance to miss you.’
‘What if she doesn’t?’
‘Then like it says on the cheesy poster, she was never yours to begin with.’