Page 1 of Christian Clause

Prologue

Hope

“Can this day get any worse?”

Shivering, I lift my dark brown eyes to glare at the dark ominous clouds which mirror my mood. The darkened October sky will not let up soon, I surmise. I might as well continue my journey back to my apartment. It doesn’t matter if I get drenched before I get there. A cold tremor runs through my body as I walk down the street from my office. Well, former office.

A sob catches in my throat.

About thirty minutes ago, I was relieved of my job as an Associate Developer Assistant in the computer department of Novak Corporation.

“I’m so sorry, Miss Grady, but your services are no longer needed,” Mrs. Barnett from HR told me in a sorrowful tone. “We’ve had to make some cutbacks, and I’m afraid that means laying off surplus staff.”

Surplus staff, I wanted to yell at her but left with my dignity intact. I stiltedly thanked her and went to my office to pack my stuff. After working in the corporation for five years, I didn’t think I deserved such treatment. But when I saw Giles and Nat also clearing their desks, I had felt slightly better. Petty, but better.

Everyone came around to wish us well, but I knew they were happy that they weren’t in my shoes. It took great effort, but I managed to smile at everyone and thank them, even though I wanted to crawl under my desk and cry my eyes out.

Tears glisten in my eyes and I hastily brush them away. Tears won’t solve anything. I need a plan.

Plan? What plan for a shitty life?

I have no job, no savings, no boyfriend…nothing.

Two months ago, Terrance, my boyfriend of over a year, walked out on our relationship. Why? He was no longer feeling the connection between us.

It was later I got to know that it was all because of his first love, Christie. They had dated back in college and broken up after graduating. But he hadn’t been able to put her out of his mind.

“I have tried to forget about her, but she’s in my heart, my soul,” he told me the night he shattered my heart to pieces. “And now that she’s single again, I see no reason we can’t be together. She also feels we made a mistake breaking up.”

Like a fool in love, I cried and begged. I reminded him of all the good times we spent together. But that didn’t stop him from telling me it was over.

Terrance made me feel good about myself, and his loss from my life had hit me hard. Every day, for a month after he left, I read his poem-like text to me from when we had just started dating.

Your flawless satiny dark brown skin makes me think of smooth chocolate.

All I can think of whenever I’m with you is placing my lips on your full, glossy lips, and running my fingers through your natural black hair.

Your curves are to die for and don’t get me started on your heart-shaped face. An artist would die to paint it. And your eyes can eat a man whole; dark brown with light gold specks that sparkle like fire.

You’re beautiful, babe. And I love you.

A hand squeezes my heart in pain. I deleted the texts when the words were too much for me to bear any longer, and everything that had to do with him in my life before he dumped me.

As if nursing a broken heart for the past two months wasn’t bad enough, I lost my job as well.

Tears well up in my eyes.

Keep your chin up, Hope. You can overcome anything, baby.

I sniffle as I remember what my late mother used to tell me whenever I was blue.

I miss you, Mom.

I lost my parents in an automobile accident five years ago, and I haven’t been the same ever since. I will never forget the day Debra, my older sister, called me to tell me the horrible news. It shattered me. The shock left me numb for days.

They were coming home from visiting a sick friend when a drunken truck driver pushed them off the road. It was painful for me because I hadn’t seen them in a while.

After graduating from Spelman University, I fell in love with the city of Atlanta and had no desire to return to the chilly atmosphere of Colorado where I grew up. My parents wanted me to return, but I was adamant about staying back in Atlanta. When I got a minor job working for an IT firm a few months after graduating, it sealed it for me. I went home for the holidays whenever I could. But after my parents died, I found it harder and harder to go back there even though my sister and her family lived there.

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