Home Is Where The Heart Is

Chapter 4

She had never been to a country club before.

That was probably because she had never been fond of the idea of a country club. The name itself conjured up images of corny cowboy attire, strange line dances, and tacky country music. Silly as it seemed, she had always thought a country club was literally a place for overzealous vaquero enthusiasts to relive the Wild West. When in reality, as she found out that day, it was merely a place with great facilities - and most importantly, a Starbucks outlet.

Yes, she had actually searched for, located, and begun frequenting a new Starbucks outlet, simply for the sake of avoiding The Incident (she had decided to just name it as that). She sincerely hoped that she would never, ever see that same guy again.

And she didn't mind the change, really. Cheyenne Country Club was a rather pleasant place, she had to admit. It was quiet here - and she appreciated that. After the huge shift in her life, she needed some time to settle down and have some peace.

This would have to account for one of the biggest changes in her life since she landed here. Yes, switching to a different Starbucks outlet was considered one of the biggest changes so far. Everyday was the same thing - wake up, breakfast, leave apartment, avoid possible serial rapist of a landlord, work at Starbucks, lunch and dinner, killing spare time with whatever she could find, return to apartment, avoid possible serial rapist of a landlord, sleep - and then the cycle would begin again the next day. There were no new berries thrown into the mix - nothing. Since she was rarely in the office, she had not really made any close friends, only acquaintances. But she was fine with that. She was fine with her slow-paced lifestyle as of now. She didn't mind the predictable days at all, really. It was just that - she was beginning to wonder why she had even come here in the first place.

She had been sitting like this for a while, in a secluded corner of the shop, just musing over her thoughts. But a cough/laugh (it sounded like a mixture of both) disrupted her thoughts. Irked, she turned her gaze up, fully prepared to give whoever it was making that strangled sound a piece of her mind.

Until she caught sight of the familiar hoodie and pair of shades.

Oh, gosh, why?

She got up in a flash and hightailed it.

It was a good thing the hallways were empty, because she felt really stupid. But it didn't matter, as long as she got away from there. The last thing she wanted was to face the most embarrassing, and most awkward moment of her life.

Her hopes to avoid that exactly were dashed when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She pulled away from his touch immediately and whipped around, fire blazing in her eyes. "What do you want?" she snapped.

"You forgot your things," he stated simply. She stared at the bag he was holding out to her, and vaguely recognised it as her own.

"Oh," she said dumbly before reaching out to take her belongings. Her xenophobic attitude towards him returned soon after and she responded curtly. "Well, thank you. I hope I never ever have to see you again. Goodbye."

He said nothing. Choosing to take that as a good thing, she spun on her heel and walked away brusquely, wishing she could just leave this all behind as quickly as possible.

"Do you know who I am?"

His voice stopped her dead in her tracks. He didn't say it in a menacing way, like he was demanding that she treat him better - instead, it sounded more like an earnest question, as if he was genuinely interested in knowing her answer. Almost as if there was something he was playing at - what or why, she didn't know. Maybe she was just thinking too much.

She stood there, not moving, for a while. The truth was, she was struggling with her thoughts, and something was bugging her, but she couldn't quite place her finger on it. After a moment, she turned slightly to her right. He could only see the side of her face, the small laboured smile.

"I don't ask questions I don't want to know the answer to." She was about to leave when he began trudging towards her. The feeling of apprehensiveness returned to her.

He grabbed hold of her shoulders and for a second, she thought he was going to violate her. She almost screamed. Until he turned her body to face him, in a determined way.

And then he pulled down his hood and shades.

The fabric of the hood fell down his back, brushing past his dark tousled hair. Beneath the shades were a pair of gorgeous brown eyes, which came together with the rest of his features to become a person she knew all too well.

He held his hand out to her.

"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Greyson Chance."