Bound in Love

Chapter 1

1991

It was just another rainy day in Seattle. The earthly wet scent invaded her nose as she crossed her path into the park. The ground carpeted with leaves that fell from the trees in red tones or yellow. A scratchy sound as her boots stepped on the leaves. One of her hands shoved in the pockets of her rain coat and another holding the yellow umbrella she carried. Her lips opened on a smile as she remembered how he used to make fun of it and at the same time tears invaded her eyes.

Ellie took her hand of her pocket and quickly began to clean the salty water of her eyes. She didn't want to cry anymore. She had enough of crying, but a low sob escaped her throat as she was trying to hold her emotions inside.

"Oh fuck..." She whispered and she stopped under a tree to shelter a bit better from the rain as it started to fall stronger.

"I need to stop this." She spoke to herself while she cleaned her eyes just to find them wet again the next second.

Thinking of him hurt. It hurt too much. It hurt more than she could have ever thought. When she broke up with him, she knew it was going to be hard but someone should have warned that it was unbearably hard. Since that day she has been trying to get her life back on track, but the void that he left was too big. They had been together for two years and they had collected so many memories together that he was impossible to forget.

Seattle smelled of him. Seattle breathed him. Every corner of that city was a remembrance of their love. She had been unable to come back to the club where he confessed his feelings for her and where they shared their first kiss. She never came back to Brenda's because he lived in a building near. The apartment they shared. She tried to avoid the Seattle Church of Christ because that's where they got married. As the thought crawled in her mind, she grabbed the ring that was always with her. Never on her finger since they split, but always in a pocket of a piece of her clothing.

Ellie took it off the pocket of her rain coat and looked at it. It had been two months since she left the house. Two months that exact day and one since she knew she was expecting his child. He didn't know... she hadn't got the courage to tell him. How could she tell him? How would she come up to him and tell him she was pregnant? While handing him the papers for the divorce that none had yet filed for? Images of him kissing the damn girl came to her mind and Ellie groaned low at the back of her throat.

"He's a bastard!" She then said. The ring was put back in her pocket and her tears dried that very moment.

Nothing like remembering the reason why she left to get her back on track. Ellie started walking again along the park. Brenda should be waiting for her at the Storyville. She could not go to her house, but Brenda would always come to visit her at her new apartment or they would meet somewhere around town. Nowhere where she could meet Chris though. The places she knew he frequented were forbidden places to her. Brenda and some other friends used to tell her how he asked about her and that broke her heart but she could not find the space in it to forgive him. She would have forgiven him anything but cheating. That was the one thing she would never forgive him and he knew it.

Ellie stopped walking near the streetlights and pressed the button so it would turn green for pedestrians and waited a few seconds. The rain had subsided a bit and she closed her umbrella, pulling only the hoodie of her rain coat over her head. She hung the umbrella on her arm and stuck both hands inside the pockets of her coat. She bent her head down, looking down at her feet as she crossed the street at that end of the afternoon. She was tired from drawing straight lines the entire day at the office, though it offered an amazing view to Bainbridge Island.

As she got to the curb, she turned right and saw a sea of people coming in another direction. Sometimes center city could be overwhelming, but the Storyville was actually close to her work and an agreeable place. Ellie shivered as a gust of wind traversed her body and she wished she had a warmer coat. The days were getting colder as winter was approaching. Finally, she reached the Café's door and pulled it opened. She was glad to see the fireplace was burning at the end of the room.