Those 365 Letters

by Ford, Mia

  I had to stop it. My mind was running into some crazy places and I was going to drive myself nuts over it all. It was a stupid mistake and it would go away. As soon as the media got wind that there was no real story, other than some embarrassment, it would go away.

  Why was I letting myself get so freaked out here? I just had to relax.

  I didn’t get any more sleep on the plane. By the time I got to the hotel, I was exhausted. But I had just two hours to get ready for the meeting and I had to put on my professional face. I took a quick shower and shaved. Then I ordered a solid room service breakfast and prepared for the meeting.

  The meeting with Cormac Mitchell went well. I gave him an official pitch of the idea I’d come up with to start a chain of nightclubs in several of the biggest cities in the country. We’d do one or two locations in Los Angeles, Chicago, a few in New York City, and Miami. These would be great testing locations and if proven successful, we’d expand onto a few others. It was the first official expansion idea I’d implemented since taking over the company from my father and I was very excited about it. It was exciting, but nerve racking. I had to play it cool and just keep a level head about things.

  None of this was easy to do with all that had happened to me in the past twelve hours.

  “Well, this sounds like a great idea to me,” Cormac said, giving my hand a hearty shake as our meeting ended. “Let’s set something up.”

  I left the meeting feeling on top of the world about everything. Cormac was going to put a lot of money into this deal and it appeared to be something that would be very lucrative for all involved. I didn’t actually need the investment, but I’d learned from my father that it is always best to use other people’s money when investing in a business. If it goes sour, then you haven’t lost anything that belongs to you. All of that weight lies on the shoulders of the investors. They were essentially high stakes gamblers. It was a fly by the seat of your pants type of situation.

  When I slid into the back of the car that was taking me back to the hotel, I pulled out my phone to dial Cora about the meeting and to talk to her about last night. I dialed her up and the phone rang several times before going to voicemail.

  “Hey honey, it’s me. I just got out of the meeting and everything went splendidly. I can’t wait to talk to you. Give me a ring when you get a minute. Love you.”

  I ended the message and put my phone back in my pocket. I thought it odd that I wasn’t having any luck getting in touch with Cora and she had left me no voicemails or texts about anything. I figured she would have been just as eager to talk to me about what happened. Maybe we could put our heads together and figure out who was behind this silly anonymous tip the cops had received about me.

  When I got back to the hotel I ordered up a quick lunch and scarfed it down. I was planning to fly back in a few hours. I was exhausted and desperately wanted to take a nap, but I was also a bit wired up from the meeting and when I really thought about it I was still fired up about being arrested and having those asinine allegations flying at me.

  I decided to take a walk to clear my head. I was in the middle of Los Angeles after all and there was always a lot to take in and see there. I made my way out of the hotel and started walking down the sidewalk. It was always such a culture trip when I got the chance to explore a city like Los Angeles, or New York. I’d grown up close to Cincinnati, which is a wonderful city, but it isn’t one of the exciting entertainment hubs like L. A. or New York.

  After walking a ways, I found my way into an out of the way, small music shop. I browsed through the guitars and bass guitars a bit until I came to the room that housed the acoustic guitars. I’d played guitar since I was fourteen. Music had always been a huge passion of mine and for a brief period in high school, I’d played with the idea of becoming a rock star. I even formed a band with a few friends of mine. We were terrible, of course and I quickly realized that music was probably better left for me as a hobby.

  But the love had never changed.

  I was thinking of getting Cora a nice acoustic guitar for her birthday in a few months. She had talked about how she’d always thought about learning to play some guitar and I told her I would be glad to teach her, or at least teach her what I knew which was fairly basic. But I could strum through a lot of my favorite songs.

  After trying a few in the store I came upon a sweet looking cherry, red colored acoustic with a maple fingerboard. It sounded fantastic and it looked like the type of guitar that would just suit Cora perfectly. I could imagine her playing it and singing some of the favorite pop songs (she actually had a great voice, but she would never admit it) and I could picture just how beautiful and sexy it would be. Hopefully she would play for me sometime.

  I bought the guitar with a strap, and a hard shell case with a gig bag as well. Then I took it back to the hotel where I finally took a nice long nap. I knew it was going to throw off my whole sleep schedule, but I didn’t really care. I was beyond tired. I was asleep before I even hit the pillow.

  I checked my phone again right before I laid down, but still no word from Cora. I was getting a bit worried. It wasn’t like her to not respond.

  What could she have been doing? That was the last thought before I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 15

  Cora

  “A letter came for you.”

  My mother’s voice echoed to me from the kitchen as I stepped through the door. I’d woke up early that morning and I’d barely slept all night long, despite being exhausted. I wanted to talk to Landon, but at the same time I didn’t want to disturb him while he was preparing for that all important meeting. I knew what a big deal it was for him. He didn’t say it, but this was his first big deal since taking over his father’s company, and he really wanted to prove himself to his father and the company’s large number of employees. It would put him on the map and solidify his staying power and ability to lead.

  Landon was putting up a good front, but I knew he was scared to death. He was so confident that I wasn’t used to seeing him look the least bit scared about anything, but I could see it in his eyes that he was so worried about this. I found it adorable, actually. It was nice knowing that he was a normal guy down, beneath it all.

  I decided to hit the gym and get a hard, morning workout in. And I’d made it brutal. I’d done some cardio, then hit a full body weight workout, and then finished with some more cardio and some light yoga. I should have been exhausted, but instead I felt ready to take on the world.

  “Ok, mom,” I said as I closed the door behind me.

  When I arrived in the kitchen my mother and father were sitting at the kitchen table enjoying their morning coffee. My mother pointed to the stack of mail sitting on the kitchen counter. I combed through the stack until I came to the bottom letter. My heart stopped. I wasn’t looking at a letter in a small envelope; I was staring at a large, thick envelope that looked like a packet of some sort. I knew right away that this was a good sign. Typically, rejection letters were just letters in business sized envelopes with the school’s stationary.

  Not thick, heavy welcome packets. And this packet said The Ohio State University in the upper right corner.

  My legs began to tremble.

  “Mom…” I said. My voice was barely above a whisper. My throat was tight. Tears were streaming in my eyes.

  My mother and father rose from the table and walked over to where I was standing. My father’s hand laid across my shoulder gently.

  “Open it, honey,” He said.

  I quickly held the end of the packet and opened it up. The first thing I saw was a thin sheet of paper. It was a letter. My eyes quickly began reading, but by the time I finished the first sentence of “..we are happy to admit you to our freshman class for the fall quarter 2019”, I couldn’t read anymore. Tears were now pouring down my face.

  I turned to hug my parents who scooped me up in their arms and comforted me as I bawled my eyes out. All of the fear, all the torment, a
ll of the wishing and dreaming that this would happen—and now it finally had. All of my dreams were coming true. I’d gotten into my dream school. A spot had opened up and I was in.

  “I can’t believe it,” I said.

  “Believe it, sweetie,” My mother whispered. “You deserve it.”

  I read the rest of the letter and then began to look through the amazing welcome packet. The school was everything I’d ever wanted. It was where I wanted to go and I knew going there would be instrumental in shaping me to be the person I’d always wanted to be.

  I’d made it.

  After the shock started to subside and I could actually use my brain again, I instantly wanted to call Landon and tell him the great news. I reached for my phone in my pocket—but it wasn’t there. Odd… had I set it down somewhere?

  I looked on the counter and the kitchen table, but still nothing.

  “What are you looking for?” Mom asked.

  “My phone. I could have sworn I just had it.”

  “Hmmm, I didn’t notice it,” she said.

  “Maybe it’s in the car,” I said. I might have put it on the charger and forgotten it, but thinking back, I didn’t remember putting it on the charger.

  I ran out to the car and quickly scanned around, but I saw nothing. I looked on the floor, under the mats, under the seat, behind the seat—nothing. My phone wasn’t there.

  “Shit,” I said. I must have left it at the gym.

  I ran back inside and asked my mother to let me borrow her phone. Then I phoned the gym.

  “No, we don’t have any reports of missing phones…” the receptionist said. “Let me check around.”

  She left for five minutes and when she came back she had nothing new to tell me. “No, I’m sorry; I don’t see any phones around.”

  I ended the call and gave my mother her phone back.

  “Great. I’ve lost my phone. My life is in that phone.”

  “Well, you’d better call the phone company and have them deactivate that phone and the number.”

  “Ugh”, I groaned. “I have to log on to all of my social media and apps to change my password now.”

  “Well, your phone is password protected, right?” My father asked.

  “Yeah, but I’m sure if someone took it they will eventually figure it out. Oh, why did I have to have this headache now?”

  “That’s life, honey,” my mother said. “Right now you need to focus on getting things ready to move to Ohio State. You are late to the party; classes start in two weeks.”

  “You’re right,” I said. “You are absolutely right.”

  * * *

  “Wow, you were practically living here, weren’t you?” My father asked.

  I gave him a snarky look and a fake laugh. He knew how much it irritated me when he reminded me of how much it irritated him to know that I’d been spending all of my free time the past few weeks at the house that Landon was renting. I’d left several items of clothes there that I needed to get back, a few video games that we played, several Blu-rays, and even my tablet. I sometimes had trouble sleeping, so I would wake up in the middle of the night and watch some television shows on it. It was easier than getting out of bed to come down to watch television.

  My parents and I were on our way out to eat dinner to celebrate the good news when I said that I wanted to swing by Landon’s really quickly to grab those things. I could have waited, but honestly I was hoping Landon would have left a message there trying to reach me or that I might have left my phone at his place. But I could have sworn I’d had it since then. It was one big mystery. Did someone really steal my damn phone? Ugh…

  I grabbed the items I needed and I was just about to leave when there was a knock on the door.

  I answered the door and was a bit unnerved to see a sultry looking woman standing there. She was about five feet nine, with a shapely body, wearing a seductive looking dress, and an expression on her face that said she was not the typical girl next door. I couldn’t help but feel slightly intimidated.

  “Um… can I help you?” I asked. Somehow I did not think this woman was selling anything…

  “I hope so,” she replied. “Landon Glatt lives here, right?”

  “Um… yeah,” I said.

  I glanced over at my dad whose eyes were wide as saucers right now. He was trying to look away and pretend that the same thoughts that were swirling around the back of my mind weren’t already swirling around the back of his.

  “Great,” she said. “Um, is he here?”

  “No. He is away on business. Is there something I can help you with?” I asked. I was getting impatient. Who the hell was this woman? I had a bad feeling in the pit of my gut. I was doing my best not to be paranoid and to start thinking the worst, but that nagging feeling was pulling on me.

  “Well, my name is Claire. Landon left this at my place the other day and I was just returning it for him,” she said.

  She handed me a neck tie that I recognized as belonging to Landon. Except this tie clearly had several smudges of lipstick on it.

  “Thanks,” Claire said before she turned away and walked towards her car which she’d parked in the driveway behind ours.

  I wanted to call out to her and demand she explain this, but she was already pulling out of the driveway by the time the shock had started to subside in me of what was actually happening.

  “Honey…” my father said quietly.

  “Don’t…” I said.

  I did not need my father trying to tell me that he told me so and that he and my mother knew this would happen. That was the last thing I wanted to hear.

  I closed the door and then sat down on the couch. I couldn’t stop staring at the tie. The lipstick was all over it, smudged by passionate kisses no doubt. How… when? I just couldn’t accept it. This wasn’t really happening.

  Landon was cheating on me…

  How could he do that to me? What we had was real. He told me he cared about me. Why would he lie to me? I’d given him my heart and soul. My life, my plans—all of it now involved Landon.

  I sat there for several minutes crying, trying to deal with the blow I’d just been dealt. After a while I stood up, grabbed my things, and left Landon’s place.

  My father drove me home. I did not feel like eating anymore. I just wanted to sit in my room and be left alone. I didn’t want to see anyone or talk to anyone.

  But I couldn’t just sit there and fade. Things had changed in my life. I was going to college. I was going to move on.

  And I was never going to speak to Landon Glatt again.

  Chapter 16

  Landon

  Two Weeks Later

  I was glad to be back home. The past two weeks had been a whirlwind of business meetings and negotiations. Once Cormac and I had decided on moving forward with the project, the real work began. We had to scout locations, we had to decide if we wanted to build or lease a place, and then we had to talk to contractors, landlords, see about getting a liquor license when we were set up, and several other aspects of getting this first club off the ground in Los Angeles. It was going to be epic, but the work was crazy tiring.

  But the seeds had been sewn. Now it was time to move forward to the next step. But first I was going to get a bit of a breather to be home again for a week or so.

  I hadn’t heard from Cora at all during the past two weeks. I’d called her several times, I’d emailed her, and I’d reached out to her and some of her friends on social media—nothing. She wasn’t responding to me and I was starting to get worried. Was it something I did? Something I didn’t do? What was happening?

  Our relationship was rock solid. We were in love. We had a bright future together and we were working towards it. I knew I was going to ask her to officially marry me very soon. I’d started thinking about rings and several different ways of proposing to her. I wanted it to be romantic, but I wanted it to be original as well. And I wanted to make sure it wasn’t corny or lame. That was the most important thing. It
was easy to take romance to a weird, awkward level.

  When I got back home to my place, I quickly got settled in, and checked my landline phone for messages. I still kept the landline for emergencies. There was nothing there.

  As I grabbed a beer from the fridge and popped it open to take a few swigs before I headed over to Cora’s house, I noticed that something in the house seemed different.

  It took me a moment to realize that a few of Cora’s things weren’t there. She’d come over to get her stuff? What was going on?

  I sat the beer down and hopped in my car. Ten minutes later I was at Cora’s parents’ house knocking on their door. I didn’t see Cora’s car in the driveway, but I was hoping at least that they could give me some answers.

  It took them several minutes to answer the door. Finally, Cora’s mother answered.

  “Is Cora here? I haven’t heard from her since I left for Los Angeles. I really need to talk with her.”

  Her mother was a bit despondent, a grim look on her face. Was she upset or angry about something?

  “Landon, Cora no longer wishes to see you,” she said.

  I almost laughed. “What? What are you talking about?”

  “Well, she didn’t go into details, but she made it abundantly clear that she does not wish to see you. She isn’t here.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “When is she coming back?”

  “She isn’t,” her mother replied. “Well, not anytime soon at least. She has made other plans with her life and has moved on. You would do well to respect her wishes.”

  She started to close the door.

  I quickly stepped in between the door and the door frame.

  Mrs. Blair looked severely agitated.

  “Move your foot. Act your age.”