Your Grace - Burak Çelik

CHAPTER 1

It was a warm summer's evening in the city of Istanbul.

The sun was shining upon the port city, and her rays were reflected off the dancing waves in the sea and the glass windows of the buildings. People were bustling around, greeting each other in the streets and sharing warm smiles as the day began to turn into dusk, which will then turn into night.

Somewhere in the District of Fatih, Istanbul, stood a white-brick house amongst many others of different colors. And inside that house, seated at a window-bed was a young woman in her early twenties, gazing out the tall glass window with a book in her hand- Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She was on a page that looked more worn out than the others in the book, as if she had skimmed through the pages many times just to get to this one. She wasn't paying much attention to the book at that moment though, but was looking out the window, and her eyes had a faraway look in them as she gazed up into the slowly reddening late afternoon sky.

All of a sudden, a fat grey cat jumped onto the window-bed, startling her. He mewed and rubbed himself against her jeans-wearing legs that she had drawn up to her chest. "Oh hello, Stormy," she greeted him, and stroked his furry forehead. "Didn't see you there." Stormy mewed up at her and sprawled out next to her, his claws extending as he stretched his furry limbs. He mewed again, and she read his expression as a questioning one, as if he were asking what part of the story she was reading. "This is where Elizabeth Bennet rejects Mr. Darcy for the first time," she whispered in an enthusiastic voice, as if expecting the cat to react back with the same enthusiasm. "It's such a juicy chapter...she rejects him in such a way that he is left baffled!" She turned her gaze back to the book in her hands, whilst her cat's expression remained vacant and rather lazy as he lay there next to her.

"Gosh, what a literal icon...makes me want to reject the next person who asks me out in the same way!" exclaimed the girl, and Stormy's eyes widened a little, as if slightly stunned and rather reproachful. The girl noticed her cat's expression and waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, you know what I mean- she's a badass, c'mon," she said airily, though Stormy continued to gaze at her with the same expression on his furry face, his large, amber eyes rather protuberant. The girl sighed, and gave his head another quick scratch before getting up and closing the book before making sure to add a bookmark on the page she left off on. She placed it on her desk utop her laptop and stretched slightly, before straightening out the wrinkles in her long, knee-length t-shirt. Stormy didn't move from his place, his eyes slowly drooping as he fell into a slumber.

The girl smiled at her cat, her bright, almond-shaped eyes the noticeable color of roasted hazelnuts crinkling at the sides softly. She grabbed a hair-tie from her desk and tied her dark-brown hair in a messy braid as she walked downstairs to the kitchen. She took out a cookbook from one of the shelves and browsed the cupboards and fridge for ingredients that seemed to be the kind to use in a pasta, or Italian dish. "Ah," she muttered with a frown, as she checked in a cupboard that was full of cans. "No tinned tomatoes- I guess I got to go and get some. Can't make lasagna without tomatoes." She sighed, as her shoulders slumped lazily. I really don't feel like going out... Her eyes suddenly trailed to a whiteboard chart on the fridge, where she read 'STORMY'S STIMULANTS' in one of the little boxes under the day 'Saturday'. "Oh, of course!" she exclaimed. "Damn it- I forgot that."

She rushed back to her room upstairs, did her hair more neatly, hurriedly wrapped and pinned a headscarf around her head and grabbed a jacket off the coat hook in the hall. She made sure she had her keys and put a surgical mask on before exiting the house, shuffling into her black sneakers. She walked down the sidewalks before getting to the street, and waved down a taxi. "Fevzipaşa street please," she asked politely after greeting the driver as she got into the car. "Of course, Hanım'ım," he said with a smile, and took off down the street.