Chapter 2
Annie entered her and met Lidia in the Lobby. Her friend was always leaving her keys at home but, because they usually traveled together to work, they rarely had a problem of Lidia needing her keys.
“You look like you had a great time,” Lidia said as she walked over to her.
“I want you to stay a safe distance from me, Lidia.” Annie said, “or I will kill you.”
“God, it couldn’t have been that bad.” Lidia teased as they entered the elevator. Their shared apartment was on the fifth floor of the massive complex.
“Imagine the worst date you’ve ever had.” Annie said, “then multiply it by a million!”
“So dramatic” Lidia teased with a laugh.
Annie leered at her friends who continued to laugh at her expense and shook her head
“I’m never taking dating advice from you again,” Annie said.
“Oh, come on!” Lidia said “I just wanted you to get out there. You haven’t been on a date in months.”
Annie was about to correct her but then she realized her friend was telling the truth. Since leaving college she had gone straight to work for the Englaise textile company. She had never experienced great love and she honestly didn’t know what it would be like if it happened to her. She had been cautious all her life bout love because she had seen the types of things love did to people. It had driven her father to love a woman who left him and never returned, her sister to a marriage where her husband fathered a child by another woman. She had done her best all these years to avoid love and focus on her career. Recently, she had begun wondering what she would do about the family she envisioned she would as an adult was a dream that was slowly slipping away. Although she knew she didn’t need a man to have a child, she had always envisioned herself having a family as a child; she just hadn’t found a man she could trust enough with that dream.
“I don’t think I need to be dating right now anyway,” Annie said
“I don’t think you should be limiting yourself.” Lidia said, “you might be twenty-five right now but in the blink of an eye you’ll be thirty and I’ll already be married with two kids. “
“I could always come live with you and make your kids my own.” Annie teased
“Dear God, no!” Lidia said with a look of mock horror on her face “my kids will call you lonely aunt Annie. Has a ring to it.”
Annie looked at her with a horrified expression as they stepped out the elevator unto their floor.
“You wouldn’t,” she said
“I don’t think I’d have much choice when you behave like this,” Lidia said
Annie opened the door to their apartment and hurried in so she could decompress. She would have a hard day at work tomorrow and the last thing she needed before a possibly stressful day was Lidia reminding her that she was going to die alone. She had so many projects to work on with her boss.
Being an administrative secretary was hard but Alonso her boss was the sweetest old man she had ever met. He had taken his family business from a simple tailoring shop to a multimillion-dollar garment company. She assisted him in running the company, but she was realizing lately that he was assigned most of his duties to her. She was hoping he would soon retire and make one of his children take over the company. She had met his two daughters Lianne and Melissa who were beautiful and kind. They were both older than her and she was confident that they were able to learn the processes soon enough to take over after their father.
“Listen, Annie,” Lidia said coming up to her as she pulled off one of her shoes and threw it across the room, “I don’t want to pressure you. I just think you at least need to give someone a chance.”
“I know you think that, but I’d rather avoid the whole trauma altogether,” Annie replied bearing her true feelings as she had always done with Lidia.
“Think about it like this, if your father had never taken a chance with your mom, he would have never had you and he loved you and your sister more than anything in the world.”
Annie had never thought of it like that but the more she did, the more she realized that Lidia had a point. He had found some type of love from his heartbreak.
“While I can’t find a viable disagreement at the moment, I don’t feel like talking about this tonight.” She replied.
Annie walked into her room and went right to bed. If she was going to reconsider her life choices, she was in no frame of mind to do it tonight. As she drifted off she thought of the stranger she had met at the bar and the awesome night they might have had if she hadn’t been interrupted by Lidia.