A New Beginning

I woke up the following morning to the sweeper running which caused me to groan; I was having the absolute best sleep since that horrible day.

“Damnit, Iris!” I shouted, but doubted she could hear me.

I looked at my phone and saw that it was eleven which is later than I want to sleep on a Saturday. As I was sitting up, I heard her knock on my door.

"You up, Harper?"

She turned off the sweeper. Thank goodness.

"Yeah. Thanks for the damn wake up call."

My voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Sorry honey, but in my defense, it is eleven." she said, opening my door.

"Still. It's not fun to wake up that way."

She then sat on my bed.

“So, how’d last night go? Did you kiss him? Did he kiss you?”

She was a bit too excited for my liking.

“First of all, neither one of us kissed the other and second of all, it went amazingly.”

“What’d you two talk about?”

“Could we continue this talk later? I’d like to take a shower.”

“Of course. I’m gonna finish sweepering then.”

And with that, Iris got off my bed, so we could both do what we needed to do. Soon, I hopped into the shower and thought about what I was going to do today. I simply put my long, damp hair into a pony after I dressed as I had decided that I was going to head to the gym. I walked into the living room to see her cleaning the television while blasting Metallica; I laughed and went to turn off the music.

“Nice choice of music to listen to while cleaning.” I said.

“Are you being sarcastic?”

“Unlike earlier, no.”

“Gotta listen to something good because cleaning... it fucking sucks.”

I love cleaning; I’m a bit of a neat freak to be quite honest.

“Anyway, can we talk about your date last night?”

“Of course. It started out with Alex coming over after you headed to the restroom; he didn't want to disturb us. I told him you wanted me to talk to him."

"That's so sweet. How'd he respond to your name? Because your name isn't exactly common."

"He loved it and said that it was unique."

"Aww... I love him already. What next?"

I continued to the part where I pretty much asked him out and then to the place we ate at.

"I knew you liked him. Did he let you pay?"

"No. He told me that before we even ordered. I had a flashback to my wedding day and everything that happened with Kyle after I caught him cheating came flooding out; he was disgusted."

"Were you even expecting to unload?"

"No. I just thought I was gonna tell him I was in the early stages of divorce and what I do for a living..."

She was definitely smiling by the end of the story and unexpectedly hugged me.

"You wanna see him again?"

"Oh, absolutely. I hope he wants to see me again."

"After everything you told me, he definitely does and this is totally unrelated, but he is so much fucking hotter than Kyle ever was."

"Amen to that, sister." I said, responding to the latter statement.

"Anyway, what are you up to today?"

"The gym. From there, who knows."

"Aren't you gonna eat breakfast... more like lunch at this point before you go?"

"Of course. What are you up to today?"

"Cleaning and errands. Hey, let me know if you wanna do anything tonight. Ok?"

“Ok.”

I ventured into the kitchen and made a sandwich to go and grabbed a couple waters, along with a protein bar for later.

“I’ll see you later, Iris.” I said, with my hand on the doorknob.

“See ya, hun.”

I went out the door while eating my sandwich, not bothering to lock the door behind me. I reached the gym excited to get adequate exercise while listening to some tunes on my headphones. While I was in the locker room getting changed, I saw Kyle's latest conquest. How'd I know that, you ask? I did some snooping and found her on Facebook. She's five years younger than me, about 5'2 and has long blonde hair, just a bit longer than my brown hair. I immediately texted Iris who I just saw.

Kyle's new woman is here. Can you believe it?

I put my phone down and finished changing.

That's so fucking weird. You think she knows who you are?

I picked up my headphones and put them on before I read the text.

Highly doubt it.

I flipped through my music and hit shuffle when I found what I wanted to listen to.

I was looking for something
On the crime scene where you're in too deep
I found a note with this number
It's just another clue(it leads to you)
I got a little suspicious, I got a feeling
That you ain't true to me
I should have known better than to buy your lies

You can fool anyone, but I got eyes to see
That you're not for me, babe

No No Uh uh
Things will never be the same again with you
No No Uh uh
Now, I know what it's coming to
No No Uh uh
'Cause if you think that it's the way that love should be
Let me tell you it's not for me

I don't want to be on your screenplay
Just tell me did you rehearse on me?
I'll give you the story
Baby, who's to win? Me or him?
Caught in the middle
And I'm tired of your games of Hide and Seek
I'm getting the feeling that it's time for me to leave

You can fool anyone, but I got eyes to see
That you're not for me, baby

No No Uh uh (yeah yeah)
Things will never be the same again with you
No No Uh uh(oh)
Now I know what it's coming to
No No Uh uh (yeah-eah)
'Cause if you think that it's the way that love, should be
Let me tell you it's not for me

Yeah, yeah
I said no, no
No way
No no, No no
No

I had enough of your talk, your games
And it won't go away (won't go away)
Justify my reasons to stay (stay, reasons to stay)

No no uh uh
Let me hear you say no no
No no uh uh
No no, let me tell you it's not for me
No no uh uh
'Cause if you think that it's the way that love should be
Well, let me tell you it's not for me

No No Uh uh (whoo)
Things will never be the same again with you
No No Uh uh(baby)
Now I know what it's coming to
No No Uh uh (yeah-eah)
'Cause if you think that it's the way that love, should be

Well me tell you it's not for me

Out of all the songs to play, this one plays? I should've just made a playlist that was purely happy and not one that has at least a song or two that reminds me of my cheating ex. After that song, I made sure to skip any song that would remind me of him. The next song that played was much better, actually.

So what if I don't have
A lot to talk about
I shut my mouth and keep it
Locked until it counts

And what if I don't ever want
To leave my house
Stay on the couch while
All my friends are going out

(Oh)
You should be alone
Yeah, you should be alone
You should be alone with me
We could be alone
Yeah, we could be alone
But never get too lonely

I'll make the journey down the hall
Back to my room
And kill more time, and let it rot
Inside its tomb (inside its tomb)

See, I ain't one to climb
Some social ladder too
Some Shangri-La
That all the cool kids will abuse

(Oh)
You should be alone,
Yeah, you should be alone,
You should be alone with me.
We could be alone,
Yeah, we could be alone,
But never get too lonely.

(We could be alone together)

Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
I'm alone, now I'm in love with you alone
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Come, be alone, and be in love with me alone

Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh

You should be alone
Yeah, you should be alone
You should be alone with me
We could be alone
Yeah, we could be alone
But never get too lonely

You should be alone
Yeah, you should be alone
You should be alone with me
We could be alone
Yeah, we could be alone
But never get too lonely

Aside from the love lyrics, I immediately thought about Alex and could not believe I was feeling this way already. We hung out for close to six hours last night and we didn’t even kiss. I certainly didn’t even feel that way after my first date with ole whatshisname. I’m not going to complain though; Alex is such a great guy and not because he just happens to be in one of my favorite bands. I had a sudden urge to text him, but I didn’t even have his number.

Damnit. I should’ve asked for it.

It would’ve been crazy already to do so since I only met him last night. I continued my workout on the treadmill and focused on how happy I was. On my way out of the gym over an hour later, I heard my name being called. I turned around to see that blond haired chick and I was incredulous.

How would she know who I am? Did he tell her about me?

“Yes?”

“You’re Harper. Right? Harper Nielsen?”

I cringed at the sound of my married name.

“Technically. I’m in the early stages of getting divorced. I’m going back to my maiden name.”

“I found the right person. You know, I wanted to tell you this. Kyle wanted to, but I insisted and he agreed to it.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“What are you getting at?”

She laughed.

“He wants you to know that the sex he’s had with me is the best he’s ever had. You don’t even match up.”

I was in shock.

“Is that all?”

“Yeah. That and he’s never been happier.”

“Ok.” I said nodding.

I walked out the door and couldn’t get into my car faster. I called Iris immediately.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“What’s up?”

“How does a girls night in sound?”

“Perfect. Pizza, ice cream, junk food...”

“...movies and lots of girl talk.”

“Sounds good. Talk to you when you get home?”

“Absolutely.”

I was out for an hour-and-a-half longer and home by three-thirty. My cousin still wasn't home, so I headed to my room and got on social media with intent to see if Alex posted anything because I had no other way of contacting him. Turns out he hadn't posted a damn thing which sort of bummed me out, but since I had recently joined Instagram. Yeah, I know I'm late to the party, but since I don't have much of a life outside of work, I didn't see the point. Now that things are different, I decided why not and I wished I would've done it earlier. I followed Alex when I got Instagram and hoped he would notice that I followed him.

On my way home. See ya soon, hun!

My phone vibrated and fell off my nightstand, instantly waking me up. Apparently, I had fallen asleep and now I needed to get up. Looking into the mirror, what had happened right before I left the gym came to the forefront; I must've blocked it out since I've been home. I burst into tears for the first time in a week. The sex thing didn't bother me nearly as much as the 'he's never been happier' part; what the fuck happened that he was feeling this way? Did I do something wrong? I couldn't wrap my head around it.

"Harper? Where are you?"

I wiped my tears, but I was sure that my eyes were bloodshot.

"Hey. How was your day?" I said, walking into the living room.

"Okay. How was- what's wrong? What happened?"

I swear she can see right through me. I sat down on the couch before I answered her.

"Harper."

"Great until Kyle's new woman spoke to me when I was leaving."

"What'd she say?"

She instantly sat down beside me. When I finished the story, tears came flooding back down and she enveloped me into a hug.

"What'd I do wrong? The sex thing, whatever, but he's never been happier? I had never been happier."

"You didn't do a damn thing wrong. I knew how much you loved him, I saw how much you did for him and how you had never been happier. We both know he did so much wrong, so this is ridiculous."

"I don't get it."

"I don't either, Har."

Come seven o'clock, I checked my phone to see if Alex saw that I was following him on Instagram. I somehow forgot to mention this to Iris.

"What's up?" she asked when she came back with popcorn.

"I followed Alex on Instagram when I arrived home today."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

I simply shrugged.

"Has he followed you back?"

"I'm about to check that, actually."

I smiled when I saw that he followed me back.

"Did he?"

"Yes!" I squealed.

"That's so cute. Check your Twitter account."

I nodded and did so.

"What's the verdict?"

"Yes. I'm sending him a DM."

Hey stranger.

Five minutes later.

Hey. Totally cool that you're on Instagram and here, of course.

He then texted me.

Last but not least, you now have my number, beautiful.

My smile was as wide as could be. Iris was amused at how happy I was.

Happy to have it.

Hope I'm not interrupting anything... again.

I'm just stuffing my face with junk food with my cousin and watching movies.

Sounds like fun. I'll let you go. Talk to you soon.

Talk to you soon. :)

"You two are incredibly adorable. I absolutely see this going somewhere, somewhere big." she said, reading my messages.

"I agree. 100%."

Notes

First set of lyrics courtesy of Backstreet Boys - Not For Me.
Second set courtesy of Paramore - Be Alone.