Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Still, it was time that I got back on my own feet again. Time to forge a new path, time to get comfortable in New York again.
Time to move on.
2
Harper – Nearly Four Years Later. Saturday.
“Harp? You ready?”
I looked up from the floor of my childhood bedroom and saw my brother, Topher, standing in the doorway. In his arms was my daughter, Ada, who was clutching her favorite stuffed bunny.
“Almost,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “I feel like there’s something I’m forgetting.”
“Ada, you’ve got to lay off the snacks,” Topher said teasingly. He pretended to groan as he set my daughter down on her little feet. “You’re getting to weigh a ton!”
Ada, three years old and unfazed by fat shaming, giggled.
I glared at him. “You’re going to give her a complex,” I said. “Like that’s the last thing she needs.”
“I was just kidding,” Topher replied. He squatted down to Ada’s height and ruffled her brown hair. “You know, your uncle Toph is really going to miss you. You’ll have to blow your mom off and come visit sometime, won’t you?”
“We’ll be back all the time,” I said. “You know Boston isn’t that far from New York.”
Topher laughed shortly. “Yes,” he said. “And I also know that people in New York love to pretend like no other city exists.”
I laughed, for real this time. “Yeah, well, it’s the best,” I said with a shrug. “That’s why I’m moving back, after all.”
Topher scooped Ada into his arms and I heard him carry her downstairs. Then, I looked around at the bedroom that I’d once found so huge. When I had been a kid and my dad moved Topher and me to Boston, I’d hated it – the city had frightened me. But it hadn’t taken long for me to get curious, and soon I’d loved exploring the streets and alleys. Growing up in New England meant that it would be in my blood forever ... but I would have been lying to say that I hadn’t missed New York City with every fiber of my being.
Now, almost four years after leaving, I was finally moving back. It had taken me a while to get back on my feet again – even with savings, pregnancy and childbirth had been insanely expensive. And then my dad had fallen head-over-heels in love with being a grandfather. He had spoiled Ada rotten, and I was looking forward to making sure my daughter once again knew what a vegetable actually tasted and looked like.
I had found a new job at a fashion magazine, HAUTESCENE, that had just put its first online issue out six months before. The editor, Nell, seemed like the perfect boss: no-bullshit, competent, and a champion of women in the workplace.
All in all, I couldn’t wait. And even though I was feeling a slight nostalgic tinge from looking around my old bedroom, I knew it wasn’t like I was going to the moon. Dad would kill me if he didn’t get to see Ada at least once a month, and I knew that even with a great new job and an apartment in my favorite city, I’d still want to come back home.
Finally, I tore my gaze from the walls and went downstairs where my father, brother, and daughter were all waiting for me.
“Ready to go, Mommy?” Ada asked. She blushed as she looked up at me, and her big sapphire eyes wide with excitement.
I nodded. “All ready,” I said. “You have your bunny?”
Ada smiled and held up her toy.
“Good,” I said. “We’re all set.”
My dad and Topher took the U-Haul and I buckled Ada into her car seat before climbing behind the wheel and starting the engine. As always, car trips made Ada conk right out so I drove to New York accompanied only by my thoughts. My mind started to spin – I’d only been back once since leaving almost four years before, and that had just been for my interview at HAUTESCENE.
It was a huge city – one of the biggest in the world – and yet I couldn’t help but feel a flash of trepidation at the thought of running into Nico. My new office was right around the block from the building where Ulrich Sports had rented their offices ... not that I’d checked to see if he was still around, or anything.
Get a grip, Harper, I told myself as I sped up and merged onto the highway. This is a new chapter – time to act like it.
Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic, but it still took most of the afternoon to get to my new apartment. It was in Brooklyn – nothing fancy, but it would do for the time, and there was even a playground right down the street where I hoped Ada could play. My daughter was shy – sometimes it made me laugh as I wondered where on earth that had come from – but I was hoping that when she started pre-school, she’d break out of her shell a little. I’d only been a little older than Ada was now when my mother had died and my dad had moved us to Boston, but thinking about that now made those years feel as distant as Pluto.