Chapter 1 - Vivian

I pulled my blonde curls into a low ponytail, cursing the fact that I didn’t have time to take a shower again. I always tried to clean up when Mason was at school. I lived just far enough from the school to send him on the bus, though I’d rather drive him. I felt safer seeing him walk into the building but we’d moved to New York from Vermont and it wasn’t a small town living anymore. I had to adjust. The jobs were there for me and everything was dried up in my small town back home. I didn’t want to rely on family and as hard as it was being a single mom, I had too much pride to ask for help.

Mom always called me stubborn and she was right. Once I found out I was pregnant, Mason’s dad had already left town in a rush to make it big here in the city and I refused to call and ask him for help. That and I was scared. We had ended things abruptly after two years of dating at the end of high school and a bit into college. I didn’t want to make him come back just because I was expecting a baby. I had plenty of help and that worked for me until I knew I couldn’t find a good job and would have to rely on the support of family.

In addition to Mason’s father living here in the city, another friend made the move as well. Lainie and I were close in school. She went to college and moved to Brooklyn to run an art gallery. Once she knew I was having financial issues, she invited me to join her in New York and even got us a good deal on rent in a one-bedroom apartment near her place. If I got a job quickly, I’d make it here just fine.

I looked out of the window in the tiny kitchen as I pulled bread from the top of the small fridge. I was going to make my son grilled cheese. It was his favorite right now and easy and affordable. The bus pulled up and I grinned as I walked out front and watched him climb the stairs with a huge smile on his face. “Hi, Mommy.”

“How was your day, Mase?” I asked him as I hugged him and ruffled his dark tousled hair.

“We had fun at school. Can you make me my sandwich?” he asked. I chuckled and followed him inside.

“You got it,” I replied as he hung his backpack on a hook by the door and went to wash his hands. Mason was a good boy and I smiled as I locked the door and headed into the kitchen to start cooking for him.

I knew that tomorrow I had a job interview and that this routine would change, but I already set it up with the school for him to stay at the discovery club until I finished work, if I got the job at all. I’d been at the discovery club a couple of times and it seemed like a fun environment for Mason while I worked. He could make friends and play like he loved to do, even if I’d miss him. “Did you have a good day, Mommy?”

I placed the sandwich and added some grapes and sliced strawberries to the plate as he sat down. “Here you go, baby. I did have a good day. I have a job interview tomorrow,” I told him as I grabbed my green tea and moved to sit down at the small table with him. He looked at me with wide dark green eyes as a frown crossed his mouth and I took a slow breath in. “It’s a good thing, Mase. We can get a bigger place and you’ll get to spend some more time with your friends after school. Remember that place we visited a few times?” He nodded and I reached out to cover his hand with mine. “It’s just an interview but this job would be great for us. I could take us to a better doctor and dentist and we could do more around the city.”

We’d discussed this and he nodded with a solemn expression on his face. He looked so much like Carter and I fought the urge to sigh as I gazed into his handsome face. What I wasn’t telling Mason was that the interview was with the company that his father started here in New York. The job I had applied for was to assist a manager far lower than Carter. His firm employed thousands of people and we’d likely never see one another. That’s what I hoped for anyway. The job was too good to me to pass up.

“I know, Mommy. I want to go to the zoo more so I hope you get the job,” Mason said. He reached for his sandwich to take a bite and I smiled gratefully.

“Me, too. There’s a lot of stuff to do here and we’ll go see everything once I get a job.” Another benefit to living here was that Lainie worked from her apartment in this building and was willing to watch Mason if I ever needed her to. I expected to be able to drop him off and pick him up from the after school care myself, but it was nice to have a backup plan.

I’d been a single mom since he was born. I didn’t even date after Carter left and focused wholly on Mason, even though my family urged me to start dating again. But it hurt too much to think of another man touching me when I still had lingering feelings for Mason’s father. Now that Mason was older, I could work and start to build a life for myself again.

We talked about school as he ate. I cleaned up before he took his bath and I read to him before bed. He liked books. I had vowed to make him a good student and a strong learner.

His dad was that way and had managed to found a successful business. Mason was doing well and I saw a lot of Carter in him, as well as a lot of my good characteristics. He was compassionate like I was, though I didn’t want him to be a sucker like I was with Carter. I fell for Carter within a week of meeting him back home and before I knew it, we were spending all our time together. I wasn’t nearly as smart as I’d wanted to be with him and I found out I was pregnant a few months after graduating high school when Carter had already left. It changed everything for me but I felt like I was stronger now. I would never let a man get that far under my skin ever again.

I got Mason off to sleep and walked into the living room with a yawn. The evening was both my favorite part of my day as well as the most exhausting. I did everything I could with Mason and by the time he was asleep, I could barely find it in myself to read a chapter in one of the used books piled next to my bed.

I called my parents. It had become something of a nightly tradition for me since moving, and Mom wanted to hear all about the interview. We talked for a while as I went through my meager closet to find something to wear for the interview, asking her opinion. I was happy that I wasn’t too far away from them to make visits impossible, but at the same time, it was nice to be on our own. We could visit or they could come here and still see a lot of Mason.

I settled on a black pencil skirt with a pale pink blouse, both of which I bought at a consignment store here in New York. I also had a hose and a pair of new black heels, along with a black cardigan sweater that added a touch of femininity to the outfit. I had a few curves since having Mason that weren’t there in high school but I tried my best to stay in shape with the little time that I had. Until I could figure out a workout regime, I told myself that my curves were sexy. I was going to shower in the morning. I had scheduled the interview for a time when Mason would already be in school so I could see him off.

If I were truthful with myself, the idea of being away from him all day was breaking my heart a little bit. I knew that we’d both be better from the change, but I frowned as I went into the bathroom to change into the t-shirt that I slept in.

It was Carter’s from his hockey days. He’d been a great player but decided to go into finance a long time ago. Hockey was just a sport that he did in school. I looked at the thinning blue material and pushed my feelings about tomorrow to the back of my mind. I wasn’t going to see him and made sure of that. It wasn’t an issue at all. I locked up the apartment and made my way to the hand-me-down queen-sized bed that my parents drove over with them, vowing to get a chapter of the new book that I was reading in.

It was a wonderful second chance romance, my favorite kind of story. Not that I believed in that stuff in real life. It was just fun to get lost in the happy-ever-afters of books and movies before returning to reality.