New Life New Me: Urban Romance

New Life New Me

Copyright 2015 Christine Mandeley - All rights reserved

From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and approved equally by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.

In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

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About this book

Cynthia had now decided, she was going to start a new life. After yet an other disastrous relationship, this time with he boss with whom she got engaged, Cynthia packed her bags and moves away from it all. 
In the new city she has a new job, new colleagues but encounters the same problem: Men. Although this one particular guy who lives across her new house is kind, sweet and sexy, she had had enough of men. They were the source of all her problems, right? But how is Cynthia going to keep avoiding her attractive neighbour, who seems to be genuinely interested in her. And how will she survive in a new city with no friends. Was she still content with her choice to start over?

Table of Contents

Chapter  One

Chapter  Two

Chapter  Three

Chapter Four

Chapter  Five

Chapter Six

I
t is hard to define what finally pushed Cynthia to the crazy lunatic that she had become on that fateful day. She slapped the door shut and went out to wherever she could play out her madness. As she battered the pavement with her wide feet in buckled shoes she was sure not to ever go back to work again. She was quitting her job and the source of much strain in her life. The sun heat rose from the pavement and crept into her body from the legs. She was starting to sweat and her afro became heavy. She knew exactly where she would go as soon as she hit her apartment.

She got home and started to pack. She had no idea really what she was going to do next. She had just resigned from her job and she did not have any other. Although she had worked for her employer for the last eight years, she found that continuing to work for him was impossible.

You see Cynthia and her employer were in a relationship, they were engaged even. At least that is what she had thought for the last eight years. The arrival of a new office assistant drove a wedge between herself and her man Mike. In a few weeks the new woman, with her well-manicured hair and nails had become the main woman in the boss’s life. Cynthia knew that this was a war that she could never win.  Although she had withered many storms in her relationship before, there was no way she could win against a woman who was now carrying the baby of her fiancé.

All the good and bad memories that had defined the last decade in her life started flooding in. She had no life outside that of her work. She defined her work to be her life. She called her co-workers her friends. They were her social circle and her clock. Everywhere she went work was involved. When she went out in the evening, it was because she was going to meet co-workers to discuss a project. When she went to a wedding, it was either a co-worker was getting married or a family member for a co-worker. Funerals were no different and so were going to church and many other social events.

She had been the last to get the news about the identity of the baby daddy of the new office assistant. She felt cheated and betrayed by everyone she knew and loved. All her friends were in on it. Not a single soul had told her about it. They continued to eat, work, play and pray with her but they just omitted to tell her about her man and the office assistant. Her whole community had lied to her and there was no reason for her to stay anymore.

When the morning sun rose, she was exhausted. She had hardly slept. Her eyes were red shot from a night of much sobbing and deliberation. She finally made up her mind. She was going to leave. She was going to pack up her life and leave the place that she had called home for almost a decade. She wanted a fresh start. She wanted to go as far away as that place as she could get. She wanted to leave it all behind, all the fake friends and the unrewarding job. She was going to start over but where?

She dragged herself out of her bed to get some coffee. Half way through the cup, she decided that she needed to get the paper to see if she could get another job. She did not really care what kind of job she could get. As long as it would be out of town, she was ok with it. Without even as much as washing her face or pulling her hair back, she was out the door and pedalling the street on the way to the corner shop.

She returned home to an ice-cold half cup of coffee. She knew she did not even have to worry about that now. All she wanted was a one-way ticket out of town. A new job in a new town was all she wanted. She started making calls and found an opening at a freight company on a small coastal town. There she was going to take a position of a receiving clerk and that was enough for her to get started in the new town.  She started collecting her meagre possessions and packed them into boxes.

By the fall of sunset, she had organised the movers and she was finally leaving. It was only after the movers had loaded all her stuff into the truck that she realised that she had not washed herself in two days. She quickly changed and put on one of her drab suits and went to sit in the front of the truck.

The truck arrived at the coastal town at dusk. There were hardly any people on the streets. She and the movers started to offload the boxes and began to put them in the tenth floor apartment she had found. With boxes prawn all across the floor, exhaustion finally caught up with her and her body gave in. She fell asleep on the floor next to the boxes before she even put up the blinds on her windows.

She was woken up by a knock on the door. A neighbour from a building across hers could see her through the open windows and thought that she was unconscious.  He came over to investigate what he first thought was a dead body of a woman in a storage room.

Cynthia woke up to answer her door. She did not open but kept peeping at the stranger through the bulls ‘eye. She continued to answer back and forth but wished that the interrogation was over already. The stranger was not convinced. He could not be satisfied that there was nothing sinister going on in the apartment across his. She finally managed to convince him to leave. She certainly was not going to let a man into her apartment. She was not ready to trust men again. Men were the reason why she had left her life and her town behind. She was not about to ruin her new start by trusting them again. Besides, it was time to finally wash up and stroll around in her new neighbourhood.

When she finally stepped out, she noticed the many cargo ships that were lined at the port. The sound of horn from a large steam ship that was approaching was the welcome that every new citizen experienced from the coastal town. For the first time in a long time, she breathed in air so cold and clean, it could have come from the arctic. She wanted to get some supplies and some food. She was careful not to walk too far and save some energy for the unpacking. When she returned home, she decided to first have a bath before testing the oven.

The hot water from the shower bashed her face as she moved her head on a slow motion upward to take it all in. It was only then that she noticed the large spider that was hanging from the corner of the shower enclosure. She was afraid. She wished that there could be someone that she could call out to for help with the spider. She knew that there was no one she could call and she should toughen up.

With eyes closed, she swooped her face towel over the corner and struck the pest dead. She hopped over it and flushed it down the drain with the increased water pressure. She had just managed to get obstacle number one. She took the time to slowly dry her afro as she had a towel around her waist.

After that it was time to finally get to unpack all the stuff into the cupboards in the kitchen and the bedroom. She was nowhere near being done when she realised that it was dark outside and that she had missed the six o’clock news. She sat down in front of the television to eat.  She stared at the television as she took large spoon-full of cereal into her mouth. In a short while the bowl was empty and she felt like she still needed some, so she got some more. Her mind was really not on what was happening or being said on the television. She was thinking about the day ahead. She was thinking about her new job.

What was it going to be like? Would the people at her new place love her, would the boss be cool to her, would he try to take advantage of her like her ex-fiancée had done? Was she going to stay long? All these questions that flooded her mind reminded her of the life that she had left behind. She was determined to shut it all behind her. She did not want her past to determine or even ruin her future. She was going to be happy here, she tried as best as she could to convince herself that she would. She made up her mind that she was not going to cry again. That was about the same time that a tear escaped though the corner of her eyes.  It pulled with it a few other tears and soon, she was in a pool of tears once again. She again reminded herself of what she had promised herself. She wiped her tears off her face and cleared the second helping of cereal from the bowl. It was time for bed and tomorrow would be a good day.

B
right and early as she always was, Cynthia was getting ready for work. She walked a few blocks to her new workplace. She got to the gate and greeted the security guards. She was delighted to know that she was already expected as she was led to meet the boss.

After all the formalities were done, it was time to get to work. She sat down in her modest office and opened the books in front of her to familiarise herself with the job at hand. She started reading about the ship loaders and conveyer belts. It was all interesting to her and it felt like learning a new language all together. The industrial feel of this town was all very interesting to her. The front end loaders, back loaders and vehicle weigh-ins and all infrastructures were explained to her. Her new boss, a man in his mid-sixties was introduces as Mr Trey Baltimore.

Mr Baltimore was strict and she knew she would love working for him. She felt that the twenty-odd year age difference between them made her feel like he was the father figure that she missed in her childhood. He took her around the company yard and showed her how everything worked. As the clerk, it was going to be her job to ensure that all incoming and outgoing cargo was well documented. If that was to be done well, it was to be done using the machinery and resources available to her and this was the perfect opportunity for her to learn.

She did not really have trouble walking around the vast yard as she was in flat pumps as she always did. Her drab wardrobe meant that she did not take a long time to get ready in the mornings and therefore she was always on time. Moreover, she was an early bird that took about an hour every morning to just sit and plan out the entire day ahead of hear. From the to-do list to the to eating section, it was all well planned.

Cynthia was in a steel jungle. It was a world filled with cargo containers and cranes. It was also very noticeably male dominated. Although she had never thought of herself as a beauty queen, she suddenly felt like one. Her ugly clothes did very little to prevent or even stop the wolf whistles which she got from every corner that she turned. From African Americans to Latinos and even Caucasians, they all gave her signals that they were interested.

It mattered very little to this sister whether a man was driving a truck or a Bentley, she was simply not interested. The idea of getting close to a man again was very daunting for Cynthia. She had just come out of a tornado and she was not ready to get herself into a blizzard. Because she was the only girl at her work place, she was suddenly the talk of the boys as they offloaded cargo from containers. They openly discussed everything about her even during their matches and after work drinks. It was not very long after she started at her new work place that she was invited to join the boys for after work drinks.

She preferred sitting alone watching late night movies at home to going out with the boys. She was careful not to mix work with pleasure. She was hell bent on keeping the relationship between her and the boys strictly business. She was only too aware of the dangers of making work friends become socialising friends too. Every invite that she got to go out was turned down.

Although the majority of the population were largely Latino, there were a few brothers in town and they were all quite fond of her and she noticed. Back at her residential area, she provoked a few interested stares as well. From the cashiers at the cafeteria to the petrol attendant at the station as well as some tenants from her apartment, they all seemed to take notice of her. Meanwhile her neighbour from across did not forget about her and decided to come over to check on her again.

She did not know many people in the building and she already suspected who it might be standing behind her door. The stranger that came to check on her when she lied on the floor with boxes around her was back! He kept knocking and this time she decided to open the door.

“Hello, I am James”
he said.

“Hi
I’m Cynthia. Nice to meet you
, She replied. The two of them shook hands.

The handshake seemed to last forever until Cynthia pulled her hand away from James. 

“
I am sorry. I just wanted to pass by and say hi”
, he said.

“I
wanted to see if you are alright.”
he continued.

“I am fine”
she replied.

She slightly shut the door as a signal to him that their brief meeting was over. Although disappointed, James offered to cook dinner for the two of them and to help her unpack all the remaining boxes. He already knew that this new girl was not interested in getting too acquainted and that she was probably going to say no. He however went ahead and made the offer. Evidently, she refused.

James went back to his apartment and Cynthia remained behind and continued to unpack as many boxes as she could into the cupboard spaces available to her.

It was when she absent minded stared out her lounge window when she saw what she thought was the silhouette of a man in the shower. The silhouette was that of her neighbour whom she had refused to spend the evening with. She had just found the entertainment of the evening to make up for the missed dinner and a chat. She was going to stare at the half-closed window until he was done. She did not do it deliberately, no. In fact she tried as best as she could not to fixate her eyes on the figure outside her window.

She caught herself a couple of times stealing glances from the corners of her eyes. She felt embarrassed by this. Why did her eyes stray onto the very object which she had just refused a few minutes ago? Was it because she was a bad girl? She certainly did not fit into that pigeonhole!

So she now had a new goal to achieve. The new goal was not to ever get interested, or even show James’ that she had some sort of interest in him. She did not like the idea of developing an interest on anyone in town.

Worse still was the idea of being caught as she developed an interest in anyone in town. So she did not want to develop an interest in James and she did not want him to know that she could be interested in him. She knew that she could get whatever she set her mind to and she could to that well. Since she had set her mind in not falling for James’ she believed that she could succeed in that goal as she always does many other goals in her life.

While she was thinking about that, the doorbell went again. James was at the door. He was now carrying some DVD’s and popcorn. Before he could even ask to be let in, his cologne had long let itself in and almost took Cynthia’s thinking abilities with it right out through the open window. She inhaled the sultry smell of this beautiful man standing at her door. She had sent him away. He was relentless and he was definitely irresistible. Cynthia shook her head violently as though she was scolding herself for having strayed from the goal.

She did not let him and closed the door in his face, while she sat down against it at the entrance. She was thinking about the promise that she had made to herself. She had a goal to achieve but that was proving to be a failure.

She had a dilemma. She wanted to keep herself from a mistake that had made her leave her city and move to the harbour. She also wanted to move on and leave all fear behind. But how was she going to do one without hurting the other? How could she forget her past and move on when moving on would be tantamount to repeating the very same mistake that led to her ultimate heartbreak. None the less a decision was to be made. She thought about it for a while and she decided that the best thing to do was to allow herself to get to know new people.

Among the new people was James. She was only going to befriend him. She was not going to show him that she could be having any sort of feeling towards him whatsoever. So the next day she would come back at work and go over to his place just to see it and have some tea or soda. On second thoughts, that would be a tell-tale sign that she had thought about him long after he had left her door. She did not want to give him the idea that he thought for him any longer than when he was before her eyes. Anything beyond that would make James think that he was special and that was just it: he was not!

The next day at work she did not even hear the sound of the five o’clock cargo ship coming in. She continued to work until the security guard came to check her office. He was surprised to see that the lights were still on and decided to see if there was still anyone in the office. Cynthia was embarrassed. She had been thinking about James all this time that she even did not notice that she was the last person left at the office when everyone else had gone home over two hours ago. She hurried and grabbed her purse before she said goodbye to the security officer and sped home. While walking home she was thinking about why she spent so much time thinking about him. She had done the very thing that she aimed not to do. To make matters worse for her, when she got home she had long forgotten about her decision not to go to James’s place.

She shoved her shoes under her pine bed and slipped on some pretty sandals before going over to the next building.

Just as she was going up the lift, she remembered her decision and once again a sinking feeling of embarrassment came over her. She felt like kicking herself and indeed she would, had it not been for the fact that there were other people in the lift with her. As the lift got to the tenth floor, it opened wide and people started to disembark. She caught a glance of a figure that matched that of James and the quickly pressed the shut button. The two guys that were still left in the lift noticed just how awkward the moment was. They stood quietly as the lift ascended. As if she was reading minds, she explained that she had forgotten her floor but she knew fairly well that they did not buy it. She had pressed the button just when someone was about to get on it and it was obvious that she was trying to avoid him. After hitting the twelve and last floor, the two other passengers got off and it was time to descend. At the tenth floor, the lift motion ceased and she just died with it.

As she stood facing backwards and looking at the floor, she noticed that it was not just one person coming in.  A couple of passengers got in and she felt an immediate relief. That relief was soon killed by the familiar smell of cologne. She almost stopped breathing, as if when the scent disappeared so did the man. She did as best as she could to hide behind the other passengers. The lift went from the tenth floor to the bottom floor with her still facing the wall. When everyone alighted and she was the only remaining figure in the lift her cover was blown. She almost bit her tongue trying to explain to James the reason why she had been in his building but he stood there without a word. The more he did not answer was the more she made another excuse. There was not a single person ready to go up with the lift but she still shut the door and pressed twelve. Now she was alone in the lift and James was walking on the foyer going outside. As he stole a glance at the monitor in front of the security guard desk, he saw Cynthia kicking the lift walls so hard she could have stumped her toes.

She was back at her place again. Shame and embarrassment was written all over her face. She did not even bother to make herself dinner. All that she wanted was for the day to be over. She had let herself down on many levels. She was falling for the man and he was aware of it. She buried her face in her pillow as though to hide it from the world. She clasped her teeth so hard together they could have stayed locked for a thousand years. She kept murmuring under the pillows and she was glad that no one could see her current state. She was a disaster! A loser! A hopeless woman and all she wanted to do was fall asleep. Morning came and she was off to work again.