"Oh Zac! Promise me you'll never learn the words to that song. Promise."
I break away, with her wailing in response. "So long as you tell the costume place that this outfit got ruined in the wash."
After pinging the tops of her stretchy boots to reinforce my wish, I go back to forgetting the words to the song she so loves.
It isn't until the following morning that we're ready to face the world, although even then it's wearing caps and dark glasses. We needn't have bothered. Coogan's Break was too small to hide for long.
Sure enough, we've grabbed takeaway coffees and are walking along the boardwalk when the cat calls start up. "Hey, Rocket Man!" Kelly is lucky in that she only gets referred to as Princess Leia twice.
"We can go hide if you like, but I reckon we should brazen our way out of it. We may as well get it over with."
Kelly doesn't appear convinced by my plan, so I instead go for a diversion.
"If you've turned down the LA job, what will you do? What about the pet food place? Can't they give you some more work?"
As we continue along the boardwalk, Kelly tells me about an email she'd received from Caroline Burt, the owner of the pet food company.
"When she told me about the other company needing someone, I knew it would be enough to keep me going until I could get started."
I have to think about what she's said for a second. "Hang on? Get started? Get started on what?"
Kelly stops and looks at one of the many parking lots next to the beach. "You see that van over there, the one with the satellite dish on top?"
"Yeah. What of it?"
"Digital nomads." She then walks off, as though this has explained everything, rather than nothing.
"I'm gonna need more than that, Princess."
It turns out, unbeknownst to me, that every summer, Coogan's Break was home to scores of digital nomads. People who worked out the back of a van, sometimes for themselves, often for big corporates.
Just as Kelly's agency had done away with a couple of floors in a high rise, so had other companies. Why pay rent when you can have people working remotely? With a good internet connection, people could work from anywhere.
"That's not to say they don't want an office to work out of now and then. To access copiers, scanners, and the like. The kinda stuff you can't fit in the back of a van."
As we pass another parking lot, I see yet more vans. There's nothing low-tech about these tiny houses, with many tricked out with satellite dishes, air-con, the works.
Being a digital nomad must pay well.
"I can even offer them stuff like showers and a laundromat. The kinda thing that'll have them visiting, even in the winter. I was thinking of calling it The Oasis. Because, you know, where else would a digital nomad stay?"
It's obvious she's thought it through. The thing she hasn't covered is where she'll set up shop. "How much space do you need?"
She stops again, as if calculations and walking are mutually exclusive. "A couple of thousand feet, with plenty of parking. I've put the word out. But there's nothing suitable right now."
I don't speak, because the proposal I'm thinking of is a big step for both of us. It's also one that will involve one hell of a lot of work.
My having fallen silent, she turns to look at me. "Zac?"
"Okay, so here's the thing…"
The relief that Kelly is on board with my solution is immense. Much as I love staying with her at her family's vacation home, it doesn't feel right. I'm used to making my way in the world, not sponging off others, especially not the woman I love.
"Once we fix the house, we can move onto renovating the barn."
I say this like it's easy, when it'll be a huge undertaking. This is thanks to my plan to lift the house twelve feet in the air so it's not taken out by another flood.
The barn, being on higher ground, had been left untouched by the floodwaters, so converting it into office space and facilities should be straightforward enough.
