Fresh Start

She’s a dejected 35 year old woman standing at the front door of an old house, keys in hand. Reminiscing on how she got here, she thinks about all she has lost over the last year. This house is all, she feels, that she has now. 5 years ago her and her husband, ex-husband, she corrects herself, bought this for her father. He was older than most peoples dads and after her mother left to “find herself”, he was retired, lonely, broke and so bored. As a successful real estate agent, this place almost literally landed in her lap and, at the time, was pocket change to her. Her dad had loved it. Not far from a nice little town, beautiful wineries, just enough land to grow food and gardens but not too big for one person to manage. The house had needed a lot of work, but dad loved the challenge of fixing it up. It was a stroke of luck her dad had waited until after the divorce was filed to sign it back to her so she could sell it. It meant that it was now all hers. She did sometimes think he had stalled on purpose, foreseeing the divorce. She didn’t particularly want to live here, but her husband, ex-husband, had a secret gambling problem, so here she is. He also had a boner-in-her-boss problem, which meant she had quit, before knowing just how broke they were. What a piece of shit.

Finally summoning the courage to open the door, which in her mind would signal the start of her new life, she put the key in the lock. Turning the door and walking in felt more momentous than maybe any other moment in her life. She was on her own. She was in the country. This was terrifying. She had to sit down. Walking into the living room, she started to cry. Unsure if she was happy or scared or grieving her old life, she just cried, needing the release of emotion. It was very cathartic. Hearing the moving van pull up, she tried to get herself together before walking back out to greet the movers. Not in the mood to think about unpacking and settling in, she directs them to just leave everything on the porch. Chances of rain are so slim this time of the year, and there’s not much she really cares that much about anymore anyway.

Paying the movers she thinks about how out of cash she is. “What the hell am I going to do?” she mutters to herself. As she walks around the house to find the electric box, she contemplates lunch. She had figured when packing her stuff out of the flat she had shared with her ex, Mike, that she deserved to take every scrap of food. She had done all the cooking anyway. All she left was a packet of gummy snakes because she felt it symbolic. Having no idea where the pantry stuff was in the pile of boxes, she headed to the car to get out the cooler where she had put all the fridge bits. She brought it inside and switched on the fridge, she pulled out some vegan cheese, bread, butter, mustard and pickles to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

A week later and all that had changed was that she had unpacked and rearranged some furniture. She had settled in ok, but she was quickly running out of things to do. She was used to the busy city and working 6 days a week. She couldn’t remember the last time she was bored. Upon waking that morning she had decided she would check out the small barn, to see what was in there. Maybe she could start planting in the gardens. Once upon a time it would have kept a small number of animals for “home use” which she, being vegan, was not planning on doing. Her dad wanted a pig, for some reason, as a pet but never got around to it. She had just opened the door, when she heard a loud “OI”. After jumping almost onto the barns roof, she turned to see a tall, masculine man walking towards her. Almost immediately she started to back up which stupidly was just leaving her less likely to escape as she was cornering herself into the actual barn. Running though options in her head, she grabbed the first tool she could find, a shovel, and held it aloft. “What do you want? What are you doing here?” She said.

“Woah! Sorry, I didn’t even think. I’m Hugo.” He said. Like that should mean something and he took a step forward. She held the shovel in front of her so she could swing it if she needed to and he stopped, holding his hands up in front of his chest. She realised he was holding a set of keys. “Old Jim said I could use his barn when he moved out. I haven’t gotten around to getting a shed yet.” He must mean my dad, she thought. “Right. Ok Hugo. Uhm, I’d like to get out of the shed now. Dad didn’t tell me so I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

“You must be Anna then!” He said smiling , but stepping aside. “Your old man told me all about you. I wasn’t expecting you either to be honest but I did notice the car in the driveway. Sorry again for scaring you.”

He seemed nice enough to her, but she was broken hearted and from the city. She knew better than to trust a man. She was planning to go call her dad as soon as possible to confirm. “Ok. Do what you need to. I was just checking what was left here. I wanted to do some gardening.” She walked away, leaving him still standing there. Looking back she did think to herself that he did have a lovely bum, and that brown hair was just shining beautifully in the sun. Objectively, he was a very attractive man. Probably in his late 30s, she judged, so probably has a wife and kids.

After calling her Dad, who very enthusiastically told her Hugo was trustworthy, kind and definitely single. She snapped and said she didn’t want or need a man. “Ok love, but sometimes in the country you’ll need someone strong and experienced around. You’re a city girl! I know you think I’m being sexist hun, and maybe I am, but you don’t know what your doing, and that’s a fact. You’ll figure it out, I know that, you’re too clever not to, but don’t feel wrong about asking for help sometimes.” “Yeah Dad, sure, I’ll keep him in mind.”

In order tostada inside and avoid Hugo, she grabbed her laptop to try and figure out how she was going to earn some money. The little savings she had would keep her afloat for a few stingy weeks but she didn’t want to cut it too fine, she’d already been out of work for two months so enough was enough. No one was hiring a real estate agent here, and it wasn’t exactly something that could be done remotely. Basically she could work in the local supermarket, or pick fruit, based on the very little amount of jobs on the job board. She remembered a friend from school who had kids young had worked from home as a copywriter. She used to write all the content for the houses herself, so she felt as though she could apply that skill somewhere. Looking online, she found a couple of salaried jobs to apply for and a website where she could freelance. She spent the rest of the day setting up her profile.

A few weeks passed, she hadn’t gotten a call about the jobs, but she had picked up the odd job here and there, and had started a blog about selling real estate, just for fun at this point but she was getting bored and lonely. Thinking on the conversation she had with her Dad, she realised she needed a friend. Or just someone around to talk to face to face. Getting to know the teenage cashier at the supermarket wasn’t cutting it anymore and was probably bordering on creepy. So she decided to make her way over to Hugo’s house.

He was actually working in his front yard, which she thought was a little sign that this was a good idea. She was a little superstitious. “Hey neighbour” he said. Lifting his shirt to dab the sweat off his face, Anna’s breath caught. Suddenly a little flustered and not sure really what she was doing as she had no excuse ready to come over she blurted out “I was wondering if you wanted to get to know each other? Not like as, uhm, I just meant like in a neighbourly way.” She wasn’t sure she really meant that.

“Come on in. I’m sure I’m due a break.I’m not sure just neighbours is what I want, but let’s settle for friends at least.” She blushed aware he was flirting. Her isolation was making her weak. She used to excel at flirting, thrive in tense situation. She’s been left cautious and timid and she hates it. Plucking up her courage she says “Well then, friend, what was it you had hoped for?” “Let’s see how tea goes first, shall we?” Hugo replies.