Kindle Edition
Amazon
Author Cherry-Ann Carew
Amazon.com
Category:
Romance
Publisher: CAC publishing
ISBN-10: B00PGASU10
Type: Fiction
Pages: 76
Copyright: November 9, 2014
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Leaving your past behind doesn't mean the past will leave you alone!
In this contemporary fiction romance novella, follow Adelina Morossi as she traipse through life enjoying her newly found independence and new job, where she’s working towards a career as a copywriter in one of New York’s biggest magazine houses. She doesn't really have much to complain about, well, apart from her love life, which stinks something chronic.
Then she bumps into Jonah Bellamy, whom she hasn’t seen since leaving Chicago five years earlier. Seeing him again brings to mind memories of events that Adelina has no desire to relive. She hardly has time to digest seeing him, when her roommate hit her with the news that she will be moving out due to personal reasons, leaving Adelina in a quandary as to how she would pay the rent on her own.
While pondering her dilemma, she and Jonah revive their friendship and to her astonishment, she finds that she is attracted to him; of course, he has a girlfriend! Nonetheless, he invites her to move into his apartment, an opportunity that is much too tempting to refuse, but trusting guys is not easy for Adelina.
Now she has to decide whether she can bear to be in close proximity to him knowing he doesn’t share the same feelings, yet, his offer will save her from leaving her job and giving up her independence.
Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
Adelina slipped the turquoise leather catchall that matched her skirt over her shoulders and steadied the warm cup of Starbucks coffee, which was desperately needed after one too many cocktails the previous night, in one hand. She stepped onto the subway platform after the train came to a stop, gripping her iPhone and a folder that housed work documents that she intended to go over during her lunch break.
The crowd rushed out of the train like an army of ants marching off to find food. Adelina kept her head down and stiffened her shoulders in readiness for the usual catcalls, whistles and ‘Hey gorgeous,’ comments she and many other girls had to endure as they walked the streets of Manhattan.
Verbal and physical street harassment was common, and in her view, it was almost like a gateway drug to other serious forms of violence connected to a culture that seemed to allow women to be assaulted.
Her slender body moved like a wave amid the occasional hissing as she merged with others on the sidewalk. On the road, there was a sea of a different sort; people sitting inside cars, SUVs and taxis in slow moving traffic. That was New York.
She looked at the time on her phone and quickened her pace. The morning meetings at the office of the prestigious magazine house where she worked were considered sacrosanct. Although Adelina was just a fact checker, she was still expected to attend, though she gave minimal input.
As she crossed the road, she wondered if anyone would actually notice if she missed the meeting all together. Of course someone would. If no one else, Sara, the senior editor whom she worked under would notice for sure, and this wasn't something Adelina wanted to get noticed for, especially by her.
She imagined her piercing black eyes staring down on her as she walked along 57th street. Though she was a relatively tall girl at 5'6’’, her slender frame made her look even taller, and Sara, though a good four inches shorter, had a way of towering over her. Still, Adelina wasn’t intimidated by her. She was for a while when she was an intern, but Adelina had since grown in confidence – though not with boys.
She had chosen the magazine house as her career starter choice because she loved that the publication was geared toward inspiring and promoting self-confidence and success in young teen girls.
For as long as she could remember, Adelina bought their magazine, not only for the fun stuff, fashion and beauty tips, or reading up on celebrity gossip; it covered the trials and tribulations of a typical teenager's life, for which she could relate, but what really appealed to her was the magazine's ability to act as a major source of advice for many different aspects of a teenage girl's life, and God knows, it helped her through some tough spots.
If she was totally honest, she also liked the camaraderie with her coworkers, plus Sara wasn’t all bad, she was fair. Adelina could tell she enjoyed pulling rank, but they had their moments of talking shop.
Outside of her best friend, Jet, she had many acquaintances, but no others really. The one real friend she did have back in high school dissed her after an episode. At first Adelina was hurt, but in time she understood. After all, she was Chad’s sister and blood trumps friendship, she guessed.
Someone bumped into her and brought her senses back. Of everything she was carrying, she instinctively held on to her phone and coffee, while her folder landed on the pavement spewing out the loose sheets of paper and a moleskine note pad. ‘Frig!’ she mumbled and placed the coffee on the sidewalk, her head swooned for a second as feet after feet side-stepped around her.
‘Are you okay?’ a man asked.
‘I'm sorry,’ she said. She didn’t look up and hurriedly gathered the papers then wondered why she was apologising.
‘No, I’m sorry. It was my mistake. I wasn’t looking where I was going.’
She straightened up murmuring another unnecessary apology and rushed off.
‘Adelina!’ he shouted, catching up to her.
She spun around. Her hazel eyes widened and she felt as if she had hit an invisible wall when she came face-to-face with Jonah Bellamy. His eyes lit up in recognition. Was it really him or was she having some sort of after effect from overdoing the cocktails?
‘Adelina Morossi?’ he said again, smiled and handed her the cup of coffee she had totally forgotten about.
She wanted her mind to go blank there and then, to suppress old forgotten memories that seeing him conjured up to the surface of her mind. It failed and she was flooded with images of five years ago. Chad with evil in his eyes and a sadistic smile on his face; arms pinning her, cold metal pressed against her back, her torn dress, bruises on her arms and wrists — and Jonah Bellamy. These weren't images she wanted to see; neither did she want to see him in the flesh.
Her emotions were stirred; she felt a catch in her throat and a cold sweat ran down her back in the mid-July heat.
‘Adelina! Wow! It’s great to see you,’ he gushed.
His enthusiasm brought her back to the moment. No, she wasn’t imagining him.
Regaining her composure, she accepted that it was indeed Jonah Bellamy, taller, still handsome as ever and unusually confident against the background of the moving crowd. He was clearly happy to see her and she felt sick.
‘Adelina? No. That's not me,’ she said, turned and walked away.
Adelina was shaking in her skin. Her run of luck was about as long as a piece of string on fire. Would her past ever leave her alone?
‘Shit!’ Things were going so well for her and Jet. They recently settled into their flat after returning from a month long tour in Europe. It was one of the best holidays Adelina had had to date. She felt like a bohemian at heart, and if things were different, would spend her time travelling across the world with a backpack on her back writing about her travel experiences. Her mum would be none too happy about that though. She was rather protective — sometimes in excess.
Adelina was overcome with a longing to be care-free, to go someplace else at that very instant so she allowed her mind to transport her back to more pleasant memories; to London, England where she and Jet made it just in time to catch the train to Paris before heading to Cannes.
She was excited even though she had been travelling for several days, Cannes was the highlight, because they would be attending The Le Festival International du Film de Cannes, better known as The Cannes film festival, the most prestigious and publicised film festival in the world.
Jet had participated in a TV film documentary, which was being previewed there and she invited Adelina to a join her. That was when they decided to make a European holiday of it before settling down into adulthood by living away from the protection of home and family and starting careers.
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she remembered the journey. The train chugged through the night and they arrived in Paris Station at an ungodly hour. They were so tired that when they spotted a strangely empty waiting room, they grabbed a row of chairs, curled up and fell fast asleep.
A few hours later, Adelina awoke to the sound of a man clearing his throat. She opened her eyes to see he had a clean shaven face and short salt and pepper hair. He was probably in his fifties or sixties – Adelina wasn’t sure. She was rubbish at guessing a person’s age. He wore a shirt with pale pink stripes that rather suited his bronze complexion.
Her eyes drifted to the woman who sat next to him, who was maybe in her late thirties – she was no doubt wrong about her age, too. The woman looked chic from head to toe. The hand that rested over the throat clearer’s lap was covered in diamonds and her nails were painted a shocking red. She looked tired and stifled a yawn.
Adelina blinked and looked at the man again. He winked at her. Embarrassed, she looked around the waiting room and noticed that other people were dressed in similar garb.
‘Jet, wake up,’ she whispered.
After a few seconds of not budging, Adelina shook her a bit more violently than intended and she nearly fell off the chair.
‘What is it? Where are we?’
‘I’m not sure, but we don’t belong here.’
‘Oh,’ she said, rubbing her sleepy eyes before taking in the surroundings. ‘Oh.’
‘Let’s go,’ Adelina told her, as she grabbed her belongings, smiled at the man and dashed towards the exit. There, she realized that they had stumbled into the waiting room for first class passengers.
She couldn’t believe it and neither could Jet. They burst into giggles and headed out of the station to find a hotel and breakfast.
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