When fate calls

But the next day Donna began working in the vineyard alongside her older brother Tom, who had travelled to Australia with her, and soon she was enjoying herself. Besides, she knew the work would be for a brief period and that soon she and Tom would be heading to Melbourne. The siblings planned to travel in the campervan they had bought while still in Sydney, but a week after they arrived in Molong their plans went awry – the van had broken down.

“Luckily there was a mechanic’s workshop directly across the road from the caravan park where we were staying,” says Donna, “so Tom went over there and asked if someone could fix it.”

Donna didn’t say anything to her brother, but secretly she hoped a particular mechanic would be the one to repair the van. She knew nothing about him, but for some inexplicable reason he had caught her eye, and more importantly, her imagination. “I had to walk past the garage to get to the supermarket and this guy was always outside working on the cars,” she says. “I had noticed him… definitely. Actually, I was always looking at him. I had wanted to say hello but never had the courage.”

That man was Bryant, and to Donna’s delight he worked on the campervan. To repay him for his work, Tom invited him to drop by for a drink, which Bryant accepted. The following night Bryant came around again… and the night after that and the night after that.

Bryant, it turned out was as taken with Donna as she was with him. The only problem was neither was willing to make the first move. Donna was smitten and in the worst kind of way, but she was fighting her feelings as hard as she could. “Within a few days I was falling for him, but I kept reminding myself I was only in Australia for twelve months and I didn’t want to be getting involved with anyone,” she says. “But the more time we spent together, the more chemistry there was. There was just a spark between us; everyone noticed it.”

Bryant was feeling the attraction, too, but he was unsure of whether to do anything about it. For one thing, he had come to consider Tom a friend and he didn’t want to upset him. And he wasn’t certain Donna was interested. For a while the pair danced around one another, but then, about a week after meeting, Donna and Bryant were sitting in a car waiting for the lights to change when their eyes met. The kiss that followed lasted so long that drivers in the cars behind them honked their horns. It was a kiss that changed lives and turned worlds upside down, a kiss that made Donna reassess everything she thought she knew about herself.

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