Second Chances

Rachel.

                Waking up next to him every day is the most amazing thing in my life. I've never thought that I'll be his wife. Justin's wife. I always thought that a happy life means that I marry the man that I love and get kids from him and that's the one and only complete meaning of a happy life but when I married him I was sure that I don't need kids to have a completely happy life He is my complete happy life. Looking at him and staring at the most beautiful face is the best thing I could've ever thought of. Opening his eyes slowly, I shut my eyes closed. He puts his hands on my face, cupping my cheeks and I pretend that I've just woken up. "Good morning," I say as I pretend that I'm adjusting my eyes to the small but bright light coming from the window.  "Good morning, love" Justin says and kisses me on the cheek. Every day I still can't believe that I've been with him for four years, the most handsome man on earth. I always feel like it's a dream. The alarm goes off as we were just about to kiss and cuddle. "We can have time for our routine," he says. "Yeah and you're gonna be late for work," I say while chuckling and going out from bed and get into the shower. "You're not going to work today?" his voice distant as it's covered by the water. "What?!" I shout. "Are you not going to work today?" he shouts back. "Nope," I shout again. After I finish my shower and blow dry my hair, I put on my makeup and get out. "Why?" he asks. "What?" I'm surprised. "Why are you not going to work?" he asks. "I have to do some other stuff but if I finish early I could pass by at the end of the day." "Okay love. I'm running late so I won't have time for breakfast. I'll see you soon." he kisses me goodbye and goes out.

              I go into the dresser to find something to wear. After 15 minutes, I pick out a green dress and a green cardigan. I curl my hair and take a croissant and water and get out. I wanted to make a surprise to Justin and get him breakfast as he was running late and didn't have time to eat. I just wanted to do some stuff first. I first went shopping and got some stuff from the groceries. After finishing, I started moving slowly in the streets, and whenever I find a homeless person I give him some food, clothing, and money. Whenever I'm not going to work, I go out to help them and sometimes on weekends too. I don't stop until I finish what I bought. After I finished, I went to Justin's favorite breakfast place and got us some French Toasts and a coffee for him and a caramel cappuccino for me. I start driving to his company 'Second Chances'. I get out and adjust my makeup and hair in the car's mirror. I take the elevator and bump into his partner, Michael. "Hey!" he says smiling. "Hi. What's up?" I say. "Nothing much, as you know." he looks staring at the distance as if he got distracted, as always. A year ago, Michael was married to the most beautiful woman you could ever see. He adored her and one day he found out that she was cheating on him and when he went to bust them, he found that he killed her.  "Hey, we should talk some time like old times," I say smiling. "It'll be my pleasure because you are the only one I feel relaxed after talking to her. And Justin too of course," he says. "You're coming to see Justin only, right?".  "How did you know?" I ask blushing. He gestures with his eyes at the bag that I'm carrying. I blush more " Yeah, do you know where he is?" " As always Rachel, in his office," he says shrugging and I laugh. "I'll see you Michael" " See you, Rachel".

              "Good afternoon guys," I say to the employees. "Good morning Miss Rachel," they say back. "Miss Rachel?" one of the workers called for me. "Yes?" I say. "Can you check this file one more time before sending it?" she says while showing me the file. "This is the file concerning our new customer, isn't it?" I ask while looking at the file. "It is, Miss Rachel". "Okay just review it with Mister Michael and Mister Justin one more time to get their approval," I tell her "By the way, is Mister Justin alone in his office, or is he in a meeting?" I continue. "No, No...He doesn't have anyone in there. You look like you brought something to eat, would you like me to bring you something to eat in?" she asks. "No thank you, Laura". Going into Justin's office, I find Justin sitting on his table focusing on his table. I look at him and forget why I was here in the first place but he doesn't see me. As I start moving, I find his assistant, Miya, which confuses me for a second as Laura told me that there was no one in Justin's room but then maybe she went in there while I was talking to Laura. Just as I was going inside, I find her starting to sit on his lap. I start feeling like something....someone is pulling all of the air from my lungs. He pushes her away angrily as he was weirded out by her behavior as I am. She approaches the door and pulls the blind curtains. When I felt that she is no longer near the door, I slowly go into my room as me and Justin have a door that connects our room. I look through the blind curtain without letting them notice.....only to see her sitting on his table and him kissing her neck passionately. 

          At that exact moment, I felt like there was no one in the company except me, Justin and Miya. I opened the door slowly just to make sure that I wasn't seeing things but it was real. They were real, and me and him were just real for me. I just stood there staring at them. Thinking about them only. All the questions in the world came to me. Since when were they together? Are they married? Or is it just a fling and I'm his one and only woman in his life? My thoughts are interrupted when I saw them looking...staring at me when the breakfast bag that I had brought for us fell to the ground. I just stood there frozen. "Rachel?!" Justin finally utters, "Rachel it's...it's not what it seems" he continues approaching me and tries to hold my hands but I move it away. "Do...not...touch...me!" I say my eyes red, my breathing heavy, feeling like my body is shaking and my eyes are fixed on this fucking slut Miya. "Rachel...just let us explain," Miya says. How does she have the boldness to even speak? "We're done!" I say to Justin giving him our wedding ring. Leaving him, all our memories together keep flooding back all at once, and with each memory, I feel a part of my heartbreak and each part aches more than the other. "Rachel! Just wait!" Justin's voice fades more and more as each time I hear him, the vision of him and Miya kissing and happy appears in front of me. "Rachel? Are you okay? What happened?" I hear Michael as I pass by him and I feel that he eyed Justin. Getting into my car, I drive as fast as I can, not knowing where to go but far away from this freakin' place. After driving aimlessly, feeling it has been hours as in fact, it is only just 20 minutes. I decide after a while thinking to just go home. 

         When I arrive at our home, I remember every memory we spent together at this house even at the front doorstep. I park my car and go to the house. Every step I take it feels worse than what I felt earlier. I go into the house and head towards our bedroom. Seeing all our framed photos together scattered all through the room, I start crying and with one swipe all those photos are smashed in less than a second. I sat on the floor, my face in my hands and when I bring my face up I find that one of the photos wasn't smashed or scratched even...as if it was new. I start looking at it deeply. I smile from just remembering why we took this photo. It feels as if it was just yesterday. We were skiing in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ,a commune in France, and we were teasing each other the whole day, so to get him angry I took his vehicle that he transports with it through the ice and started to go around the place but I got lost and to complete the whole thing the vehicle stopped working and I thought that it was damaged. I started moving aimlessly and tried to get my way back to our cottage. I heard howling and was scared as hell. "Bravo Rachel! You could've stayed inside but of course, you must make him angry. Here you go. How are you gonna go back now that you are officially lost?" I spoke to myself "HELP!"I shouted repeatedly. "Rachel?!" I heard Justin's voice from the distant  "Justin?!" I shouted. "Rachel" "JUSTIN?" I shouted again "Where are you?" "Look at your left, love," he said. "Justin! Where did you come from?" I say blushing and running to him. "Where did I come from, right? As if you weren't lost. Come here." He says laughing and grabbing me towards him and hugged me tightly. "Justin, I'm so sorry" "For what?" " I think I broke your vehicle." "No, no... it just needs some gas. I saw it while coming to find you, you troublemaker," he says kissing my forehead and then my cheeks. I blush more. We found a small place where you could ski on and stuff and I insisted that we do such a thing. While skiing I started feeling like I was gonna fall and Justin grabbed me from the waist and we both fell off the sleds, me on top of him and someone captured us a photo and showed it to us and we liked it so much that we framed it.

        I start feeling tears coming down my cheeks again but I get up and grab my traveling bags. I start packing everything that I could think off and grabbing the picture, I look at it again and close the bags. I call the guard to help me get them down the stairs and into the car. After I close the car trunk, Roy, the guard, looks at me "Are you leaving Miss Rachel?" he asks. " Unfortunately Roy." "You are coming back, aren't you?". I shrug with an I don't know face and as I feel that tears are filling my eyes, I stop myself and hug him saying " If you ever need anything just text me and marry a girl that you are sure that you will treat her right and never break her heart, okay?" "Okay, Miss Rachel. You'll be missed" I leave and start going my route towards the airport. When I arrive, I buy a last-minute no -return ticket to Italy and start running towards the gates. While I'm waiting for my turn, I hear a familiar sound. It's him. "Rachel!" he shouts. I look at him and start crying again. Looking at each other without moving for like forever. I'm interrupted by the ticket girl telling me to come forward please and marks my passport. For one last time, I look at him, smile, and go through the gates. Wiping my tears, I go to my window seat looking at the sky.