step three,” Austin chided as he stepped back into the change room. “The most important step, you called it.”
“And I stand by that – now hurry up. We need to get this stuff sorted already. We’re losing daylight.”
The day had started at ten o’clock sharp, and it was already well into the afternoon. Strange too that Austin felt as if it had only been an hour, maybe two tops? No way it had been an entire day. For a man that hated shopping like he did, he sure was upset to find the day coming to an end.
Thirty minutes later and the day was truly done. The sun hung low in the sky as Austin and Finn exited the department store and crossed the open parking lot toward Finn’s car. It was then that the life coach finally began to explain what step three was, and why it was so darn important.
“Step three is really what this whole thing is all about.” He held his arms wide, indicating the world in general. “Everyone has a goal in life, even if they don’t know it. For some it’s their career. For others it’s their love life. And for a few more, it’s something simple like being a better husband or cook or friend. We all have these goals that drive us... but getting to them is something else.”
“Right,” Austin nodded, thinking that he understood. Truth be told he was currently having a hard time concentrating; his arms already ached from carrying the dozen or so bags of clothes. “So, for me, it’s about getting Freddy back—”
“Wrong!” Finn took a hurried step forward then turned on Austin, forcing him to stop in his tracks. “Freddy isn’t the goal –not by a long shot.”
Austin frowned, but used the pause to put the bags down. The relief was instant. “But Freddy is the reason that I went to your seminar in the first place. I told you, he’s the reason that—”
“And I’m telling you, Freddy is not the answer.” Finn was looking serious now, perhaps the most he had all day. “Look, you might get Freddy back when this is all said and done, but if you do, it won’t be because I showed you some moves to trick your ex into bed. It’ll be because Freddy will see the new you and want to come back. Fuck, he’ll probably beg... if you even want him back by then.”
Austin had to resist the urge to laugh. Not want Freddy back? He couldn’t imagine a scenario where that would be the case.
Finn took note of the disbelief on Austin’s face and continued, “You’re a writer, yes?”
“Technically.”
“And how is the book going? You told me you’ve been working on the same one since you graduate two who years ago, correct? Twenty-seven months.”
“It’s... it’s going...” Austin dismissed. “Kind of...”
The book was not going at all. Of late, he had done so little work on the book that he actually felt like he’d regressed somehow. But it wasn’t Austin’s fault! Truly, it wasn’t.
Austin actually loved to write and always had. This was the reason he was so convinced that one day he would become a famous writer. He’d known it since he was a kid. And this wasn’t some flyby fantasy either. You wouldn’t know it to look at him now, but when he was younger, he actually put a lot of work into achieving this dream.
When he graduated high school, Austin studied creative writing at university for four years. During this time, he wrote dozens of short stories for his teachers, all of which were praised. And he also spent a lot of time coming up with and then out ling his first novel. And it was ready to go too! The outline anyway. All Austin had to do was write the damn thing.
It was a good idea. The novel was a genre that he had got to calling Historical-Fantasy. This was a sub-genre of fantasy that was set in a particular world, over a period of time, rather than following one character and his journey as was usual in fantasy novels. His novel was set over about fifty years and tracked the events that led to the rise of a new system of government within the world he had created through the eyes of a handful of characters. It took elements from Japanese-feudal history and Roman history, combining the two into what would one day be a true epic... when it was finished, of course.
“Kind of?”