New York Rain

Since then Jade had given up on her lofty ambitions, and had been getting by on piecemeal freelancing work. New York City had entered winter, and everything was icy and gloomy. It was enough, Jade had been thinking, to give her serious motivation to move out of the city. She had already applied for a number of jobs on the west coast; Los Angeles, with its warm and sunny winter climate was seeming a lot more appealing to her at the moment. Now all she had left in New York City was Jenny – and Jenny wasn't exactly the best company around. All she liked to do was gossip – the very same gossip that had, essentially, wrecked Jade's life here.

Christmas would be approaching in the coming weeks, and Jade was wondering whether she shouldn't just leave New York when her apartment lease was up, which was going to happen in a few days' time, and go back to Florida temporarily so that she could at least spend the holiday season with her family. This particular question had been weighing for a while on her mind, and some days she leaned toward doing it, while on others she felt more inclined to ask her landlord to lease her place to her on a month-by-month basis when the contract expired.

It was as she was walking through a sleet of cold rain, in the falling dusk, that she heard her phone ringing in her purse. Her jumped for a brief second; it still did, four months later, as the hope that the caller would be Brenton still burned its fire within her.

It wasn't.

It was a number from Los Angeles, though. That at least was a good sign. She answered the call as she continued walking along the cold, grey street under the cover of her umbrella.

“Hi, Jade Gillie?” asked the voice on the phone, that of a middle-aged woman.

“Yes, this is Jade speaking. Who's calling?”

“This is Leslie Smout, personnel manager at Frands LLC. You emailed us your CV and applied for a position in our company last week, is that right?”

“That's correct, Ms. Smout.”

“Leslie, please.”

The woman sounded warm and pleasant, at least – just like that Los Angeles weather Jade had heard so much about.

“Jade, we've reviewed your CV and your qualifications and experience are exactly what we're looking for in a candidate. How soon can we set up a Skype interview with you?”

Jade's heart started to beat faster, and a broad grin spread across her pretty cheeks. This was the first good news she had had in a long time.

“Well, I'm actually on my way home right now. I'll be at my place in around half an hour, if that's alright with you?”

“Sure. We've got your Skype details on file, so we'll give you a call in thirty minutes. I've gotta say, Jade, you're head and shoulders above the competition. I probably shouldn't say this, but what the heck: you've pretty much got the job. The interview is just a formality I gotta get through.”

“That's... that's the best news I've had in ages!” exclaimed Jade, smiling broadly all the while. “It is really is! Thank you so much for the call, Leslie!”

“No problem! I'm looking forward to chatting to you on Skype shortly. Chat soon, bye.”

“Goodbye.”

Jade felt like dancing a jog through the cold New York streets. She was so happy at this moment that she could cry.

However, as she was waiting at a traffic light to cross the road, something else made her want to cry – for an entirely different reason. She heard the loud, booming engine of a sports car approaching the light at speed, and when she turned her head to see where the sound was coming from, she saw a red car approaching – a familiar red car, a Maserati. A car that she had once been inside.

Her heart jumped into her mouth as she saw Brenton pulling up to the stop light. This was the first time they had seen each other since that fateful morning four months ago. With her heart hammering madly in her chest, and an ice of cold sweat chilling her back inside her coat, she started to cross the road.

Right in front of his car.

Mere feet away from the man who had lifted her up so high, and then thrown her down with such violence.

She couldn't help it.

She stopped in front of the car, on the crosswalk, and stared directly into the windscreen.

What she saw tore her heart into a million pieces.

There, sitting next to Brenton in the passenger seat of the car, was his stunning secretary, Claire, dressed in a hot, tight, revealing white dress. Her hand was on one of his legs, and she was leaning over him, with one arm draped around his shoulders as she whispered something into his ear. Brenton looked up, and his eyes met Jade's as she stood stock-still in front of his vehicle.