Chapter 3

I step up to the door to my new home and take a shaky breath. I had been so brave up until this point. I can't believe I uprooted my entire life.

I knew I wouldn't be able to stay in my hometown, not with everybody knowing all my business. They felt pitiful for me, sorry that I lost my parents, bad that my best friend betrayed me, and apologetic that my man cheated on me with my best friend.

I couldn't take the sympathy look any longer.

Even though I was not in the wrong, everybody was treating me like I was made of glass. I could tell they all had wanted to speak up about what had happened, but they avoided it like the freaking plague.

Sometimes I wish they had, then maybe I wouldn't have felt that I didn't have any other choice but to move to just be able to live my life freely once again.

With a shaky hand, I dig my new house key out of my pocket and unlock the door. Regret settles inside the pit of my stomach when I think about what the state of the interior may look like.

I was so excited and grateful to buy this house outright with the money I had gotten from selling my parent's home that I never even thought to question what the interior could look like.

If I'm being honest, I didn't care. I just needed to get away as fast as I could. I guess whatever the interior looks like, I will have to deal with it and be happy.

I do not really have much of a choice now, do I?

Nope.

None at all.

I take a deep breath and push open the door.

The musty smell is the first thing that hits me as I go through the front door. The house has been sitting for a few weeks, and with no airflow; I expected this. I will just have to open some windows, and that problem will be resolved in no time.

Walking through the short hallway, I make a turn to the right and step into the kitchen. It's a simple kitchen, nothing too fancy. The dishwasher, oven, and fridge are all white, and the countertops are brown marble.

The wall paint color is a real eyesore though it's a light yellow, and it's the only thing about the kitchen that I do not like.

I couldn't have gotten better, though. The owner's son, as I was told, is the one that put this house up for sale, and he let everything come with it, and that was nice of him.

For someone like me, anyway.

I didn't have any help to move the bigger things anyway and would have had trouble moving my bed and dresser, things like that. The yellow paint can be covered up. Just like the smell of must, that can be fixed too.

I walk through the house for the next thirty minutes, just getting familiar with the floor plan, and I don't see any damage to anything that I would have to end up fixing right away. The carpeting in the two bedrooms looked like they had been recently steamed cleaned. They were spotless. The carpet is a light cream color.

I'm not fond of carpets.

Like at all.

I would much rather have wood floors in my bedrooms, but that's something I can change over time, and I'm just happy that the carpets are cleaned.

The living room was decent as well, had a brown leather couch, and a nice size screen TV over the little fireplaces. It was small, but it gave off that cozy feeling that I loved. I can see myself binge-watching some TV series here with a fire going in the winter months.

I love it.

It's nothing fancy, and it's not big, but it's all mine, paid in full. I do not have to worry about house payments, and that's one thing I appreciate currently because I don't have a job yet. I will go tomorrow for a meeting. The man I spoke with told me I was just about to have the job thanks to my qualifications, but I was still required to pass the background check and the interview questions.

I'm good at my job.

I had worked in my town's 911 center for years. I was pretty quick with my solution to the caller's problems and always got them the support they needed without becoming a flustered mess. It's not a job for everyone. You have to be able to deal with high-pressure situations.

The callers won't regularly be in the right mindset to get you the information you need, and you have to be prepared to pull them through the crying and screaming moments to send help.

The only thing I'm not happy about is that the 911 center is right next to the police station, and I'm not really rushing to see Officer Chandler.

He was so rude.

I understand I was speeding.

I know the laws and always follow them.

I just didn't know the speed limit had been reduced, and he could have given me a warning, but you know how some cops can be. They just want to give out as many tickets as they can to make money, or however, they get paid.

Hours later, I finally sit down at my kitchen table and enjoy my little meal. I didn't have time to run to the grocery store today, and I don't want to go outside in the dark in a new town. I will just have to go tomorrow after my interview.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

That is about all that I had packed to bring with me, and I had stopped miles back at a gas station and gotten a bag of Cheetos puffs and a diet Dr. Pepper.

Shit.

I also forgot that I will need to stop at a phone store and pick me up a different phone with a different number. I don't want any contact with anyone from my former town. When I say I wanted a fresh start, I meant fresh, brand-new.

I didn't want any memories of my past life, and Brandon and Carla, my now ex-boyfriend and an ex-best friend, both have my old number, and I never want them to reach out to me.

I'm exhausted.

The drive was a few hours, but all that going back and forth from my car to my new house with boxes over and over has my arms and legs sore as all get out. I want nothing more than to just lay in my bed.

I wanted to avoid using the sheets that were already on the bed, so I changed them when I bought one box from my old bedroom.

My bed set is a black plaid pattern and so thick that it's comfortable in the cold months. The sheets are a little too big because back at home, my bed was a king, and this one looks to be a queen, but that's okay.

It's just me, so a queen size bed is big enough.

I let sleep claim me, with my schedule for tomorrow running through my mind and hoping I can land this job. It would make my life here a lot easier if I could already be employed and don't have to stress about that, along with being the new person in a small town.