A Long Way Home

A Little Southern Charm

"So why'd you move here?" Mia and Drew were seated on his back patio watching the sunset. They had spent her first day in town doing a tour of the neighborhood. She'd been introduced to countless neighbors and friends, all of whom seemed to love Drew. She was having a hard time reconciling the Drew she had known the last few years with the beloved Drew of this town.

"I got tired of the city. Plus my mom grew up around here." Mia vaguely recalled that his mom had passed away when he was in his teens.

"Do you still have family nearby?" She sipped her wine. He had put out a spread of fresh cheeses and local bread. She was in heaven.

"Ahuh, some aunts live a few towns over. My grandma's house is actually right across town. But outside of that it's pretty much just me. Which I don't mind honestly. It's a nice change of pace from the city." He leaned back in his chair and took a sip of wine. Something about him seemed different down here. Almost like he was relaxed.

"That's nice. It's a great town." She took a sip of her own wine.

"You think so? Still want to move here after your grand tour?" He was teasing her but she was oddly enjoying it.

"Oh yea, the duck pond really sold it for me." He laughed off her sarcasm with ease. He was always able to do that; soften her hard edges with minimal effort.

"It's a great place to live. Maybe later in the week we can go look at some places for you if you're still up for it." Mia hadn't told him about her dreams. She never brought up the fact that she already knew where she was supposed to live because he was living there.

"Um, yea that would be great. But don't you have work or something?" She couldn't quite recall what he did these days. Last she checked, he was a consultant which was just a fancy way of saying he was someone who made a ton of money and worked the bare minimum amount of hours.

"Yea, just a few meetings though. I changed roles at my company so I travel a lot more but when I'm not traveling I've got a fairly quiet schedule. It's nice. Kind of like two weeks on, two weeks off." Mia nodded along. She imagined it must be nice to have that kind of lifestyle. She had never gotten into a rhythm with work where she felt like she had ownership of her role or her skills. She envied him for being so blasé about something so critical to his livelihood.

Drew turned his full attention onto her.

"What about you? How'd you end up circling back to writing?" He asked it politely and she knew he was trying to be nice. Drew had always been curious about her life in a way that felt like he cared. It wasn't the passive question she often got from extended acquaintances. They didn't really seem to care what her answer was, it was just polite conversation.

She took a deep breath. She didn't really know but she'd do her best to explain it. It was more for her sake than his.

"Erm, I guess I just got fed up with not liking who I was or what I was doing." She paused waiting for him to jump in but his silence prompted her on.

"I mean, I never really knew what I wanted. Like I knew I wanted to write when we were in college but then life kind of got away from me. And it sucked. Especially those years in the city when I was working the front desk. It was like people just looked right through me. I hated that. I was good at the job too but no one seemed to value or care about me and that sucked.

After a while I just stopped trying to put effort in and everything kind of snowballed. Until one day I found myself walking up 5th to my office and I stopped in front of the Bryant Park Library. All I thought was, fuck this. If all those people can write a book, I can write a news article. So I started freelancing on the side. It's been slow but I've got a good portfolio now. At least I think it's good. It's enough to get me through the door for an interview at a paper. So that's where I'm at." She swirled the remaining wine at the bottom of her glass before drinking it in one gulp. That was the most honest she had been with herself or anyone else in a long time.