Prologue
MACY
“What?” I asked as I stared at my apartment door hanging off the hinges. It was like something from a bad cop show. Or a bad reality show.
“He was arrested this morning,” Max said.
“B-ut why?” I asked. David in trouble? He was so straight and narrow. Always telling me how irresponsible I was. Like I didn’t really line my ducks up in a row or something like that. Now he was in jail?
Max shrugged. “All I know is they pounded on the door, saying ‘it’s the police, open up,’ then David didn’t open the door, obviously.” The super pointed to the ruined door as he got out his drill. He paused and stared at me with pity in his eyes. “I’m sorry Macy.” He dug out a card and handed it to me. “The detective gave me this. Maybe call them and try to find out what the hell happened.”
I took the card and stared down at it. Detective Howard… Fraud Division.
Fraud?
And that was what David was… a total fraud. False name, different aliases. White Collar Crimes…as Detective Howard had put it when he explained the charges over the phone. Embezzlement, false bank accounts, a con artist. I just couldn’t have gotten that lucky could I? I knew he’d been a dream too good to be true. And so he had been…Just a dream.
My boyfriend. The one guy I had allowed in. Into my apartment, my bed and my life.
After that, I packed all his things and put them in storage until I could find out where to send them. If he was never David Long, then I didn’t know anything about him. Well, of course I didn’t.
I also refused his collect call from jail. I wanted nothing to do with him. He was never what he said he was. How could he think I would want him in my life at all?
Then…
I found that my savings was gone.
I was now broken hearted AND broke.
I felt so stupid. How could I be taken in by such a con man? Apparently, he was just about to skip town and using my money to do it. He had been the one to insist I had a savings. Telling me, I couldn’t live day by day. Paycheck by paycheck the way I’d been doing it all this time. Then he just took it all?
Now, I winced when I thought about what my mom would say. I’d messed up again. The fact that he was good looking with loads of charm, wouldn’t matter to her now.
Getting involved with David or whoever he really was… changed my life for sure.
I would have start all over again from scratch…
I decided to stop wallowing in self-pity and complaining. It wouldn’t get me anywhere.
Then…
It got worse….
Chapter One
Four months later…
“Damn! Late again!” I exclaimed as I rushed down the rain slicked sidewalk. If not for that stupid bus passing me by, I would’ve been on time. I could’ve sworn bus 30 was the right one. I could never catch anything, not a stable job, or even a bus to work. The Temp agency warned me about my tardiness already and this time, I would get fired. I gazed down at my brand new watch I bought to ensure I would be on time for once in my hapless life.…Oh, man, 2 minute warning. I just can’t get a break!
My mom always said I just wasn’t responsible enough. For my entire life, I just couldn’t seem to stay with anything. A job, a friend or a man. I rolled my eyes, like David. How was I supposed to know? Then after he left me broke, it just seemed to go downhill from there. Oh boy, did my mom roast me on that one. A criminal, she had shouted. Her daughter had been taken in and was shacking up with a smooth criminal!
Yeah, like the old 80’s song.
Then jobs, they were even worse. When someone did give me a chance, I would somehow blow it. Never right away though, there would always be a sequence of strange events leading up to ‘blowing it’. Like it hadn’t been bad enough when David what’s-his-face took all my savings. That led to depression then me being late to my job one too many times, so I lost that job. Then I lost my apartment. I had to then move in with said judgmental mom, until I could get my own place again.
I got a small studio and it already looked like I would be getting kicked out of there too. I just couldn’t make enough to cover it.
I finally realized I was actually Forrest Gumping my way through life. Yeah, Macy Gump. I let out a humorless laugh as I hurried around yet another mud puddle on the sidewalk. Only, I wasn’t about to go on some wild, cool adventure, meet Bubba and become filthy rich. It’d been twenty-five years of one thoughtless mishap after another and it would be funny, if it wasn’t so stupidly disastrous. I could barely balance a job, a freaking savings account, or even a simple bus schedule.