by Alexa Davis
It had to be. Yesterday had turned out awfully, and if I wanted to turn things around and make this my year, then things were going to have to start getting better soon. I had to stop worrying and focusing on the negative – I wouldn’t get out of this hole with that attitude helping me along!
It was just January blues brought on by New Year’s resolutions not being completed right away. I was certain that everyone went through it, that it was perfectly normal, and that it was also very easy to get past.
Of course, the first thing I saw was the big stack of my bills sitting on the front desk, which attempted to derail me. I wasn’t going to give them the attention that they thought they deserved. That was what they wanted!
Why can’t I ever get robbed? I thought wryly, trying to make a joke out of the situation. And the thieves only take those bills from me? I can’t pay them if they’ve been stolen... can I?
But, of course, I was never going to get that lucky. I assumed that my streak of bad luck started the day that my parents were killed in an accident. I was nine years old, and a drunk truck driver rolled over their car, ending their lives in a heartbeat.
Before then, I couldn’t ever remember anything bad happening to me. Now it didn’t seem like anything good happened, however hard I tried. Life had been good with my grandma, but things had never felt easy for me. I’d always had that strong sense that something was missing.
Anyway, it was time to put my plan into action. I had fully committed to the idea to at least attempt to rent out the cabin, so I needed to advertise it online. I wasn’t totally convinced it would lead to anything, but it was the only plan I had. It was the only hope for making any money that I could see, so I had to at least give it a try.
I flicked my way through a few websites, trying to work out how to advertise it best. I had a few good images that made the cabin look amazing, but I wasn’t sure which website would be the best place to start.
“Hey, Eliza.” Laynee’s heels clicked through the doors not long after me. “How are you this morning? What are you doing? Updating the website?”
Ugh, God, that is just another thing that I need to be doing. I had to add that to my to-do list. What I needed was an expert to get it right for me, but that cost money I didn’t have. “Not yet.” I smiled up at her through my eyelashes. “I’m taking your advice and renting out the cabin.”
“Oh, good. I bet it’ll do well. It’s in such a lovely place.” She glanced at the pictures with me, losing herself in her own memories. Before Grandma passed, Laynee came away with us one weekend and had the best time ever. It was when she’d just been dumped, so she’d needed a time out from life, and it had done her wonders. By the time we came back, she wasn’t even thinking about the guy who had hurt her.
“I hope so, but I might need some help cleaning it if someone does decide to rent it out,” I warned her. “And since this is your idea, I might have to volunteer you. We all know how good you are at cleaning...” Luckily for me, Laynee was much better at cutting hair than she was cleaning. She just didn’t seem to have the right skills needed. I didn’t understand it – it seemed simple enough to me.
She laughed loudly and nodded, not caring about my little bit of teasing. “Okay, sounds good. I don’t mind. Then if this goes well, maybe we can revisit my party idea. I do think that will do well. I didn’t just come up with the idea. I talked to loads of people first and they would love to do it. Christmas parties, bachelorette parties, baby showers... And the tanning booth, people will love that.”
I held her hand gratefully and nodded at her. “Whatever you think,” I told her seriously. “You’ve stuck by me through so much. I couldn’t possibly refuse. Plus, it sounds like a whole lot of fun. The more events that we do, the more unique things we offer, the better we’ll do in the long run. We might not have much competition in Florence, but we need people to think of us first.”
Laynee walked over to the appointment book and started flicking through it absentmindedly, probably noting to herself how empty it looked. “Do we have anyone booked in this morning?”
“No,” I told her sadly. “But it is January, not many people book in during the colder months, and we might get walk-ins.” It might have all been excuses, but I did hope I was right.
Laynee looked down at the ground for a moment before a beaming grin spread across her cheeks. “So, why don’t we have a little fun? There isn’t much point in standing around doing nothing, and we don’t have any more cleaning to do.”
“What did you have in mind?” I asked her curiously. Knowing Laynee, it could be anything, from something small to something very silly. I never could tell. Usually, I did my best to avoid her plans, but today, I felt like throwing caution to the wind a little bit.
“Let me do your hair. Let me loose on you.” She pressed her hands together in a pleading gesture and cocked her head to one side in a way that she assumed was cute. Unfortunately for me, it was.
“Oh, God,” I groaned. “I don’t know if I trust you with my hair. What do you have planned?”
She jumped up and down, looking far too gleeful for my liking. “I could lie to you and tell you that I’m going to do something normal, straightforward, and beautiful, but I’m not. I’m going to see how wild I can make you look.”
I glanced in the mirror and examined my long black hair for a second. I usually wore it straight because I didn’t like to use too many products on it, knowing the damage that would cause, but it actually sounded like fun. Laynee was the one who experimented with her hair, so it might be funny to see what she could do for me. It might be nice to see myself in a very different light.
“Go on then,” I laughed and shrugged my shoulders, giving in. “Do your worst!”
***
“Oh, my God, I look like a poodle,” I squealed, growing increasingly hysterical with each passing second. “What did you do to me?” I had ringlets hanging down my face, then she’d piled some of it up onto my head, using far too much hairspray. The whole hairdo was practically rock solid, and it made me look like a crazy person. It wasn’t even worthy of a costume party; it was just insane.
“I don’t know, I like it,” Laynee teased. “Mine, too. I think I look like a rock star.” I’d gotten carried away in the fun, too, and crimped Laynee’s hair. She looked like an extra in a terrible eighties high school movies. “Maybe I’ll go out like this tonight.”
“Oh, yeah, you’ll pull in a heartthrob,” I laughed. Laynee was four years younger than me and still into the partying, having the time of her life. I felt jealous about that. I did miss that part of my life, but I wouldn’t have gone back to it.
What I wanted was something more. It just didn’t seem to be happening. “Who do you have your eye on these days?”
Laynee shot me a look, as if she wondered how much of this was about Josh, which it wasn’t.
I mean, yes, it hurt that he’d kissed someone else, but I was totally over that now. I didn’t even care about him in the first place, so why would this bother me? Maybe I had moaned about him quite a lot in the beginning, when we first started to fall apart. About his laidback attitude, which meant that he was lazy, and the fact that he never listened to me really. When I first saw him with someone else, I went crazy, but now I could see that we were never going to make it work anyway. It didn’t matter.
Except, I’d wanted to be the one to move on first. When we drifted apart and stopped bothering to contact one another, I wanted to be the one who could show him what he was missing out on. I hated being the person left behind – it made me feel sad and pathetic.
“Well...” she started slowly when she realized I wasn’t about to rant. “I did kiss Marc on New Year’s Eve, at midnight.”
“Marc?” I couldn’t picture him for a second. “Which one is Marc?” She had so many admirers, due to her cute heart-shaped face and bright-blue eyes. Plus, she had curves in all the right places, the sort of body that would make anyone jealous, but I couldn’t recall he
r ever talking about this one before.
“The guy from the supermarket.” I noticed a huge grin spread across her cheeks and a light blush, too. She liked this guy, and from the look of it, she liked him more than she ever had anyone else before. What is it about him that makes him so special? I couldn’t deny that I was intrigued.
“The one with dark hair,” she continued. “He told me that he’s liked me for ages. It was sweet, actually.”
“Wow!” I gasped happily for her. “That’s great news. Have you heard from him since?”
“Well, no...” She stared down at her phone as if some magical coincidence was about to happen. “But I’m sure I will. It hasn’t been that long, anyway, and don’t guys have some three-day rule?”
This all sounded a little suspicious to me. I instantly wanted to warn her off this guy, but I also didn’t want to pass my fears on to her. If this guy was going to be an ass, I hoped that would come to light before she got too emotionally involved, but just because things hadn’t worked out for me, it didn’t mean I had to make Laynee second guess things. Marc could be totally different.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Everyone has been busy. I’m sure things will pick up.” I didn’t let her see, but I did cross my fingers for her behind my back.
“Hello, girls.” We spun around to spot our first customer of the day, Mrs. Almased, walking through the doors. As she glanced up to see us both, her face turned a funny shade of white. “Oh, I’ve come in for my appointment. But please... don’t do my hair like that!”
We both laughed hysterically at that, realizing how stupid we looked, before setting back to work. As Laynee’s hair wasn’t quite as bad as mine, she took over the appointment and I got myself a little bit organized. I had to force my hair back into a bun just to keep it out of my face, but at least it didn’t look quite as bad as it had before.
Then, I finished uploading my ad about the cabin to a few more websites with the hope that at least one of them would work out for me. I figured that the more I got the word out there, the more hope that I had of someone booking it.
I hoped that this would be the start of a brand-new chapter of my life – one that would be much more successful!
Chapter Five
Milo – Thursday
I looked at the website of the hotel that Justin had suggested to me with mild disdain. I wasn’t sure why, but the whole idea totally bored me. I stayed in hotels wherever I went; I’d been to some of the best places in the world.
What I wanted from this vacation was something different, a real breath of fresh air. Florence itself actually looked all right; I just wanted something a little unique to go with it.
Wait! Just as I was about to give up, I stumbled across something that caught my eye: a small log cabin on the outskirts of the town. One with peace, quiet, and most importantly, space for Veil to run around in. It would give me access to the town without putting me right in the center of it.
Yes, I might have been bored of the quiet at home, but my trip to Vegas had shown me that I wasn’t yet ready for the noise, either. This would be different anyway – this would be me choosing the silence.
Annoyingly, there wasn’t an option for me to book online, so I grabbed my cell phone and called the number before I could change my mind. I needed to do this before something cropped up and distracted me from my plan.
“Hello?” Admittedly, I was a little taken aback by the very friendly young voice that answered the phone. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but it wasn’t that. “How may I help you?”
“Erm, can I book out the cabin? Starting Saturday?” There wasn’t much point in hanging about now.
“The cabin? Really?” she gasped, as if she wasn’t expecting anyone to call her about that. She did put it online, so what the hell did she expect? “Oh, yes, of course, let me just... check my calendar.” As I heard papers rustling around, I couldn’t help but grin to myself. That was so obviously fake; was I actually the first booking ever? “Yes, we can do Saturday. For… erm, for how long?”
“We?” I wasn’t sure why, but I felt like winding her up a little bit.
“Well, yes, me and erm... yes, that’s it. Just me.” She was bristling now, I’d gotten under her skin. She must have been one of those girls who chatted when they felt nervous. “So how long did you want the cabin for?”
How long do I want to get away for? If I was doing this under the pretext of checking out an investment opportunity, then I needed a while. Plus, there wasn’t anything holding me back. “Two months,” I eventually replied decidedly. “I want to stay for two months.”
“Wow, that’s quite... That’s something. We, I, can definitely do two months.”
“The price isn’t an issue.” I suddenly felt the need to reassure her, just in case that was worrying her. “But I do have my dog. You didn’t mention pets on your website; will that be an issue?”
She was silent for just a beat too long, proving that she wasn’t too keen on the idea. The only problem was I had my heart set on it now. “Veil is very well trained. There won’t be any issues,” I reassured her. “If it helps, I will pay you double what you’re asking for.”
“Oh, wow, well, I... I might just need to think about it. Maybe I can get back to you once I’ve taken a moment to think...”
“How about I triple the price?” I shot back wryly. There wasn’t any way that she could refuse that. “I want to stay at your cabin, and as I’ve already assured you, Veil won’t be any issue. You won’t even know that he’s been there.” I patted my dog’s head as I spoke to her, knowing I was telling the truth.
“Okay,” she eventually replied, albeit a little reluctantly. “I guess I’ll see you on Saturday, then.”
“Seven a.m. sharp,” I told her smilingly. “And, I will pay you when I get there. Thank you. Oh, and before you go, what is your name? Just so I know who I’m looking for when I get there.”
“Eliza,” she said back quietly. “You know where the cabin is, right?”
“I do, and my name is Milo.”
“Well, Milo, I look forward to seeing you on Saturday. Goodbye.”
As I hung up the phone, I felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from my shoulders. There was nothing like a vacation to make a person feel better, and to know that I was escaping my real life was a relief. I needed that.
In all honesty, there might have been another reason why I was so down, why I couldn’t yet get over being ill and move on with my life, but this was something that no one but me knew about. Not being able to talk about it was part of the reason it had all stuck on my heart quite so painfully.
About six months before I got sick, I had met a woman. Of course, that was always how these awful stories started – with a woman – but this one was incredible. I couldn’t have even begun to imagine it would turn out the way that it did.
Veronica was her name, and my goodness was she beautiful. She had long, wavy platinum-blond hair, bright-red lips, and legs that went on forever. When I first spotted her across the bar in a rival casino, my heart flip-flopped in my chest. She was my one for the night, that much was obvious. I would have done just about anything to get her in a hotel suite with me.
But there was something more there, too, something I hadn’t quite expected. It felt different.
Intrigued, I had spent the rest of the evening buying her expensive drinks and wooing her. Veronica was very responsive; she seemed very into me, making the whole thing so much better. She couldn’t seem to keep her hands off me, which blurred my vision completely. All that I could see was her.
Eventually, we made it to that hotel suite, and we had a drunken night of fun, followed by a week where I fell harder and harder. I’d thought that we were actually going to become something, the sort of thing that I hadn’t even been looking for, and I allowed myself to be open and vulnerable... and then I’d discovered that she was married.
Actually, what had happened was she took a very lovey-dovey
phone call with her husband, then when I questioned her on that, she’d dared to suggest that I was an idiot for not realizing earlier.
Of course, she was married; did I think that she was an idiot?
I didn’t tell anyone, partly because I was embarrassed and mostly because I found out a bit later through my own research that he was linked to a large drug gang and was very powerful and violent. I didn’t see the need for drawing any unnecessary attention to myself.
Anyway, I had spiraled from there. I took it hard and went into party mode. I assumed that I could drink my troubles away, which didn’t work at all. I thought a different girl on my arm every night would boost my self-esteem, but it didn’t really. I’d just felt numb.
Then, a few months later, just before everything had happened, she showed up on my doorstep out of the blue, with tears flooding her face. Like an idiot, I let her inside where the sob story all came spilling out. Her husband beat her and mistreated her; he’d taken everything from her so that she couldn’t escape. She’d tracked me down and run to me looking for asylum because she was so afraid.
And like a big idiot, I believed every word. I allowed myself to fall for her all over again – only this time it was so much worse. This time, I let my heart have it. I was scared, too. I still feared that man greatly, but I naively believed that love would conquer all. I thought that, somehow, we would find a way to make it through. In a way, the romance of that notion made it all the more exciting.
After a few passionate and romantic days, she vanished with one little note, a letter explaining to me that she hadn’t meant any of it and she was just bored of her life.
I wasn’t sure what was true. Did she have a crappy life and she was scared, or was she just bored? Only once I’d finished wondering, had I realized what she’d done to me. Twice. Then I got mad and bitter. I got all caught up in my emotions, but I didn’t deal with it. I just felt stuff.
Then I got sick, and my brain zoned in on that.
