Grrr….
The alarm blares in Bella's ear, waking her from her deep sleep.
"Why is it morning already?" she mumbled.
Bella sat up and took the alarm clock off the top of the bedside cabinet. Throwing it onto the floor, she lay back on the pillows and looked up at the ceiling.
She'd had another dream about her ex-boyfriend Gerard and that always threatened to ruin her day. But this time, as she lay looking at the cracks in the ceiling, she was determined to let it go.
“I have to let him go,” she whispered a mantra to herself over and over.
As she started to climb out of bed, she turned her attention to how far she had come in the last three months - one thousand, four hundred and fifty-three miles to be exact.
Since moving to New York City, she marveled every day about how daring she'd been. She'd always been so conservative and didn't like taking risks. As a child growing up in Oklahoma, she had point blank refused to even climb a tree, fearful that she would probably be the one who would fall and be crippled for life.
“I have to let that life go,” she repeated to herself.
The reason why she had arrived in New York City wasn't anything to marvel at. In fact, it made her feel sick to the stomach at the very thought of Gerard.
Sitting at her dressing table, Bella looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair had seemed to have more luster since she arrived here. It also appeared to have grown at least an inch and her natural brown wavy locks now sat on her slender shoulders.
“Forget about him,” she whispered to her reflection in the mirror. “Let the past go.”
She had to keep reminding herself that she wasn't unattractive, that she was still desirable to the opposite sex and that one-day her fragile ego would be repaired and she could even possibly find love again.
She just had to figure out the quickest way to boost her self-confidence.
She read an article yesterday that suggested one-night stands were the quickest way to boost one’s self-confidence after a hard breakup.
But ironically, she didn’t feel she had the confidence to do it…
“A one-night stand…” Bella continued to stare at her reflection. “Maybe…”
Bella had always thought Gerard was the one.
He was everything she looked for in a guy and he'd literally knocked her off her feet when they had met at university. She had been dancing on the dance floor minding her own business at the Fresher's ball one minute; the next she'd been pushed so hard and with such bodily force it had felt like someone was practicing a mortal combat move.
They hadn't, of course.
It had just been Gerard very drunk after drinking too much punch that had been meant to be for the new arrivals. By the look of Gerard it had seemed that he'd practically drowned himself in it.
He would have apologized no doubt but as well as being legless, his speech had completely disappeared and turned into a slur.
At least the next day, he had the decency to seek her out and had found her in the cafeteria where he apologized.
In the cold light of day, Gerard had been a lot better looking than Bella had remembered.
His jet black hair had flopped over his eyes that were a remarkable blue that were framed with Clark Kent style glasses.
He'd looked so suitably mortified and uncomfortable Bella couldn't help but accept this apology with good grace; she also couldn't ignore the steady thump that had started to beat in her chest as Gerard put down his tray and pulled out a chair.
Sitting down he'd grinned sheepishly at her, “I've always wanted to sweep a girl of her feet as opposed to literally knocking them off them.”
That one line had Bella well and truly sold - completely and utterly sold for six whole years. Six years of what she'd thought had been true love, a love nothing and nobody could destroy.
Standing up, Bella threw on her white bathrobe and padded across the apartment to the bathroom and began her morning routine - shower, teeth
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