“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” I cried. I couldn’t believe this was really happening.
A fresh start.
“I won’t let you down Dad, I promise.”
“I know you won’t sweetheart, you never could.” He pulled back from our embrace and searched my baby blues for a response. “And El? I want you to know there is nothing I wouldn’t do for you. I’m going to miss you like crazy, but I can see this is right for you. And that’s the most important thing to me.”
“Thank you Dad, your support means more than you’ll ever know.” I suddenly felt a bit emotional, but I did my best to push it back down.
“Meet me in my office tomorrow morning and we will finalize the plans from there, okay?” He nodded at me.
“Okay.” I nodded like a bobble headed dog, a huge grin on my face as I raced off to the changing rooms to get dressed and call Quinn. I couldn’t wait to start this new stage of my life.
***
I’d had to hold my phone out from my ear to avoid being deafened by the screams Quinn had let loose when I’d called her. It was pretty safe to say she was as excited about this as I was. Adding to her excitement was the fact that her brother Lawson was living in Boston too.
The elusive Lawson.
I had been friends with Quinn since she was hired at the company the year after I came on board. She was two years older than I was and I had loved her instantly. We had been best friends ever since. Quinn had stood by me and got me through the toughest time of my life. She was the rock in my life and I relied on her constantly. Yet in the five years of our friendship, I had never once seen or met her brother Lawson.
I knew very little about him – only that he was 32, and owned his own company, Pierce Contracting. I had seen pictures of him from their childhood, but those were at least 20 years old. I literally wouldn’t know the guy if I met him in the street. Quinn often joked that he was like lightening. Never striking the same place twice.
Apparently he had moved to Boston from their hometown in Texas years ago on a whim. He’d flitted around a lot, only recently settling himself down.
I called my brother next, but got his voicemail. “Hey Reeve, it’s El, I have news! Call me back as soon as you get this. Love you.” I couldn’t wait to tell him that we would be living in the same city. Reeve was going to be as excited about this as Quinn and I were.
***
The next morning, I showered and pawed through my wardrobe, I needed a killer outfit for this momentous day. I settled on a high waist black pencil skirt that hugged my curves, a light weight black and white striped blouse with a deep v neck, and black pumps. I looked myself up and down in the oversized mirror in my bathroom. My long, damp blonde hair hung down to the middle of my back. It was curly and thick when left to dry naturally. I decided that today, I would try to make an effort with it. I began with blow drying and then straightening the mane of hair before me. I then worked the strands into to sleek fishtail braid and secured the end.
I decided upon a light dusting of powder, a few swipes of mascara and a light gloss for my lips. I rarely wore makeup during the day.
That’ll have to do. I’m no Quinn, but it’s presentable.
Quinn was always perfect. She dressed like a runway model, and had the figure to pull it off. She had an Angelina Jolie sort of thing going on, she was gorgeous. I really did love my body, but it would just be nice to be able to wear anything the way Quinn could.
We were both the same height, about 5’9”. But where I was curvy, she was thin. I was about 148 pounds and Quinn was a tiny 129 pounds. She wore makeup on her olive skin immaculately, even though she didn’t need it. She had a grace about her that made others stop what they were doing and take notice. It was impossible to walk through a room with Quinn and not have people’s eyes on her.
I grabbed my bag, keys and blackberry as I exited my apartment. I shot a quick txt off to Quinn to let her know I would be there in ten as I headed down in the elevator to the parking garage. Pushing the unlock button on my key, the lights flashed on my white Jeep Wrangler.
God I love this Jeep.
I jumped in and headed out of the garage and down the street to pick up Quinn and make the plans for the next stage of our lives.
***
The meeting with my dad had been fantastic. He had handed over the reins for this project to me without thinking twice. I would be in charge, with a board of directors to support me. Some staff members would be relocating from LA and some we would be hiring in Boston. Quinn would be my right hand woman – I was thrilled that my dad had seen her true potential and offered her the position himself.
The other great news was that Quinn had spoken to Lawson, and he had a building that he thought would be perfect for our offices. We would have five floors of office space, and we would also have conference rooms, a spa, gym, and a few other facilities to share with the one other company in the building. Quinn had said it was the offices used for Lawson’s company. It sounded perfect and the photos of the space that he had emailed to Quinn only reinforced that. I was relieved that it would be one less thing to organise when we arrived in Boston only one week from today.
***
The next week passed in a blur. Quinn and I spent the time packing up our apartments, arranging for our replacements at the office, interviewing potential employees via Skype and shopping for our new winter wardrobes. We would be arriving in Boston to a cold, snowy winter. It would be a shock to the system since it was still warm enough to swim outdoors here in LA. But I was ready for the change, I was sick of bloody sweating all the time.
Quinn and I sat on the floor of my nearly empty apartment eating takeout Chinese food straight from the cartons. We had packed up everything she owned about two days ago, and she had been staying with me and my few remaining belongings since then.
Our flights were booked for tomorrow. Our furniture and vehicles would be arriving the day after.
Since we had decided to share an apartment in Boston, we had two of nearly everything. We had sold a lot of furniture and appliances and would decide what else we needed to get, or get rid of when we found a place to live.
Reeve had called me back – to say he was looking forward to our arrival would be an understatement. The man was like a tornado. He had taken tomorrow and the following day off from work, so he could pick us up from the airport and show us around Boston. He had also found an apartment in the building he lived in that was up for lease and he was already pushing us to take it so we would be close to him.
“More wine?” Quinn waved the half-empty bottle of wine around. She handed it to me and I took a swig from the bottle. We had packed glasses and cutlery yesterday.
“I can’t wait to see Reeve” I looked at Quinn. “I bet you’re looking forward to spending some time with Lawson too?”
Quinn grinned. “Yea if I can narrow the man down. He swears he stays in one place a lot more now, but yet he’s out of town for a month right when we happen to arrive.” She huffed.
I laughed. “If I didn’t know better I would swear he wasn’t real. I’ve never even met him, you know that right?”
Quinn gaped at me. “Are you serious?” She shook her head. “No. You must have El, he’s not that flighty is he?”
“Yip” I said, popping the ‘p’. “Never met the guy”. Laughing, I tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry Q, there’s plenty of time for that. We should be all settled into a new place by the time he gets back. We can all go for dinner and get acquainted.”
Quinn knew my brother Reeve really well. They were close in age and had spent quite a bit of time together when Quinn had joined my family on numerous holidays. She really was like one of the family. I had actually thought that there might have been something going on between Reeve and Quinn at one stage, but they had both scrunched up their noses in disgust and insisted that they were too much like siblings for any of that.
“What are the twins up to these days? I haven’t seen t
hem in forever.” My baby brother and sister, Kyle and Molly had just turned twenty-one and were off exploring the world.
“Last I heard, Kyle was in Tuscany chasing after some girl. And Molly was in Paris, immersing herself in the fashion world.” I rolled my eyes.
The latest career path in the life of Molly.
My younger siblings were a lot like my mother, carefree and easygoing. Reeve and I were more like our father, a little more grounded, responsible and hardworking.
Quinn snorted and grinned. “Oh for the pre-paid life of the Rush twins.”
“They certainly know how to spend.” I sighed. I loved them to bits, Quinn did too – I hoped that in time they would both learn to take responsibility for their own lives and stop acting like spoiled trust fund babies.
The rest of the evening consisted of the remainder of the bottle of red, the entire contents of another bottle, music blasting from the portable speakers, laughter and stories about the good times in LA. It was almost as though the not so good times had never happened. I had drifted off to sleep that night with the words to James Bay’s ‘Let it go’ floating through my head.
***
I woke earlier than usual the next morning and slipped out of bed, attempting not to wake Quinn. There really wasn’t much of a hurry for her to get up. Our cross-country flight didn’t leave for hours yet. I padded down the hall to the almost empty living area. I glanced over to the baby grand piano that was still sitting in the corner. Quinn had wanted us to take it to Boston. I voted to get rid of the thing.
I don’t even play the fucking piano.
I couldn’t even remember what possessed me to buy it. I’d have to put that one in the stupid decision pile. In fact, we could pick it up and drop it right into the stupid decision pile, and hopefully right on top of my asshole ex-husband.
2. Quinn
I woke and found the bed already empty. I felt around for my phone to check the time.
Jesus. 7.30am. El’s up early.
I rolled back over and tried to let sleep take me again – I had no luck. I decided to get up, and get dressed and ready. Today was a huge day for us.
I put on my high waist tight black jeans and a green lightweight long sleeve blouse that tied in the front. I paired it with black peep toe sandals and my black diamond studs. I left my long brown hair loose around my shoulders and ran my hair straightener through it. I applied my usual daytime makeup, light powder, blush, mascara and eyeliner. My eyes looked even greener than usual today with my blouse making them really pop.
I looked myself over in the mirror. My dark brown hair would have a slight red tint to it when we went out in the sun later today. I was glad that my slightly olive skin tone would stick with me when we left LA and the sunny weather behind.
I really am my mother’s daughter.
My mother was stunning. She was elegant and beautiful. I had and would always strive to be just like her. I looked a lot like her, our faces nearly identical. The only real difference being her grey eyes and slightly lighter skin tone.
God I miss her so much.
I packed up my stuff and threw it into my suitcase. I was really glad that we had sent everything else ahead of us, this way it would all be arriving in Boston not long after we did.
I headed down to find El and came across her softly singing to herself.
Bitch can sing too.
She was still dressed in her PJ’s, but she was absolutely gorgeous. I was always telling her that her body rivalled Kate Upton’s, she had killer curves in all the right places, a tiny waist, and long legs. She had her stunning blonde curls piled up on top of her head and her face was free from makeup. El had no idea how gorgeous she really was, she turned heads everywhere she went. I think it was her lack of awareness was the real beauty of it.
“You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go, and see what happens.”
- Author unknown
3. Ellerslie
I had been up for about an hour, packing up the last handful of things into one of my suitcases, when I heard Quinn making her way into the living room.
“Morning!” Quinn was already immaculately dressed and made up. I sighed as I looked down at my slept in yoga pants and fitted tank top.
“How the hell do you always look so good?” I complained.
“Sweetie, I’ve been putting this together for the last half hour. You always look cute.” She looked me up and down. “Some of us have to try El, we can’t all be as stunning as you.”
I snorted out a disbelieving laugh. “You are crazy in the morning.” I mumbled. I gestured around the empty kitchen. “We haven’t got anything here for breakfast. I was thinking we could just head to the airport a bit early and grab something on the way?
“No worries, I figured as much anyway.” She looked around the room. “Is there anything else to pack?”
“Na, just my clothes and stuff once I’m showered and dressed, just relax and we’ll head out as soon as I get back down. The movers will get the rest of this furniture later today and drop it to the charity store.” I skipped to the bottom of the staircase and grinned back at her. “Oh and Q… I am so glad that piano is gone.” I took off up the stairs before she could argue with me about it again.
***
Quinn and I were waiting outside my apartment building for my parents to pick us up. They had insisted that they drive us to the airport – we were happy to take a cab, but as per usual, my mother had gotten her way.
My mother was something else. She was short, curvy, blonde and full of life. She was every inch the blonde bombshell. She also had a wicked sense of humour. I had inherited my curvy body from her.
Although they look a hell of a lot better on her.
And my blonde hair and golden skin was a gift from her too. Her short blonde hair was dead straight and always looked sleek and flawless – my unruly curls came from my father’s side.
The silver Land Rover pulled up to the curb, and I watched my father step out to help us with our suitcases. “Good morning ladies.” Dad easily lifted our heavy cases into the boot and threw an arm around each of us. “Beautiful day for a new start.” he grinned.
We made small talk with my parents as we travelled slowly though the morning L.A. traffic. We were approaching my old neighbourhood, and just seeing the familiar area made me shudder.
Quinn must have noticed the shift it my mood.
“New start remember.” she whispered, squeezing my leg.
I met her gaze and instantly relaxed, she was right. We were starting something amazing, and I wasn’t going to let some old memories bring me down.
“Hey Dad, would you mind stopping at that little café up here? You remember the one with the bagels?” I had visited this spot at least three times a week when I’d lived here.
And I wonder why my ass is so big.
They made the most delicious cream cheese bagels, and Quinn had always drooled over the takeaway mochas I brought her.
Dad pulled up outside the shop and Quinn and I both jumped out and headed inside. We still had plenty of time to get to LAX, but you could never be too sure what the crazy traffic was going to throw your way.
We had ordered our drinks and bagels and were waiting near the condiments station when I got the feeling that someone was looking at me. The realisation had me feeling like my stomach was dropping out of my ass.
How did I not remember that Quinn was not the only person I came here with?
He couldn’t be here.
Of all the gin joints…
That would be some seriously bad luck on my behalf. It was then that I noticed that Quinn’s posture had stiffened and she was looking extremely uncomfortable.
Fuck.
I nudged her. “Is he here Q?”
She slowly nodded.
“Where?”
“Back corner, booth seat”
“Is she-?”
“No” Quinn interrupted me. “Just that lit
tle fucker.” I couldn’t help the nervous giggle that escaped my lips. Quinn had taken to calling Baxter ‘that little fucker’ for quite some time now.
It does have a bloody good ring to it.
I continued to look everywhere but in the direction that I knew he was sitting. I glanced back at Quinn, who had turned an angry shade of red and was shooting daggers at what I could only assume was an approaching Baxter Dent.
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