Mile-High Beginning

The doors of the train whooshed closed behind her and Mara rolled her large suitcase toward the rear of the car. The car was nearly full but she found a seat and braced her suitcase between her new, knee-high leather boot-clad feet. She felt they were a good going-away-from-Miami gift, and seeing how people rarely wore leather boots in that balmy city, they’d been on sale. They’d been such a deal that she’d bought a leather jacket to go with them.

Mara looked outside and watched the airport grow smaller as the train picked up speed, heading west toward downtown Denver. She shrugged and felt her shoulders relax slightly, tension that had built up for weeks slowly beginning to dissipate as the excitement of embarking on a life in a new city began to take hold. The snow-draped landscape outside the window of the train reflected how Mara had felt inside for weeks: frigid and bleak. But the train was warm and she tried to let that warmth soak into not only her body, but her mind. But she couldn’t help but think of why she was on this train, heading toward a new city.

Her heart had been a frozen chunk of ice and hatred since she had discovered Abe's betrayal four weeks earlier. Not just Abe's betrayal, but Susan's, as well. Walking in on her boss—who happened to be her best friend—in bed with her fiance had been a life-changing experience. Definitely not the good kind of life-changing experience, either. She had walked out without a word, gone straight back to her office and cleaned out her desk after sending her detailed and descriptive resignation by email. To the whole company. Let Susan recover from that humiliation.

She'd moved out of Abe’s apartment, after making him leave while she gathered her things, and spent a week drunk. She went out the first night but had been hit on by at least 3 guys that she remembered, and even in her inebriated state she had worried about being roofied. After that, she’d bought her booze at a local liquor store and took it to her extended-stay hotel. 

She’d put a hefty dent in her savings on that hotel, and so she began a country-wide job search once she was finished with her week-long bender. She let her cold anger motivate her to get out, as far away from Miami she could reasonably get, and as quickly as possible. She scoured the internet for jobs from New York to Los Angeles and had interviewed for several. She’d even been offered a couple of positions but she wasn’t willing to take a large pay cut. Then, miraculously, she’d found a dream job in Denver. She could do Denver.

The interview had been via Skype, and she’d been thrilled to pass muster and score a second interview. As soon as they extended an offer, Mara accepted and got busy planning. Selling her car had been quick and easy. It was paid off so she used that money for rent and a security deposit on a furnished one-bedroom apartment in downtown Denver, with only photos from the leasing company’s website to go by. Then she booked a one-way flight and selected which of her belongings to take and which to sell to a secondhand store. 

Selling the diamond ring Abe had given her would keep her fed and housed, and then some, until her first paycheck. After his betrayal, Mara had only seen the ring as a means to an end. It had turned from a lovely, sparkly promise to an icy cold rock that had apparently meant nothing to Abe, and so it meant nothing to her but regret and dollar signs.

So here she was, watching Denver approach through the train window, all set to start her entire life over. She hadn't had many ties to cut, besides those with Abe and Susan. And well, they had cut those ties themselves, hadn't they? She hadn't let herself grieve the end of either relationship; she’d held tight to the anger that had gripped her when she'd found them, and had yet to let it go. 

She was proud of herself that she hadn’t let either of them succeed in weasling their ways back into her life. Susan had, surprisingly, been more adamant about Mara forgiving her than had Abe had been, and her former boss and friend had begged Mara to forgive her and return to work. Mara hadn’t responded to any of Susan’s overtures and had finally changed her phone number to avoid any more communications from either of them. Oddly, she mourned the loss of her long friendship with Susan as much as she mourned the loss of the future she had planned with Abe. Susan had been there first, after all, and had given her a great job where she actually took home more than Able had. Still, that mourning didn’t mean she would forgive Susan for what she’d done. No, that was definitely unforgivable.

But despite feeling her very soul encased in an icy rage while down south in the swampy warmth of Miami, Mara had a semblance of hope that up here, in this frigid mile-high mountain city, she would be able to thaw that anger and give herself a chance to start again. As the train approached the station in downtown Denver and began to slow, she made a promise to herself to let her anger go. She had to heal in order to give her new life a fighting chance. And she desperately wanted this new life to be all she needed, all she deserved.

Mara shrugged again to ease the tension in her shoulders that had returned while she recalled why she was on a train heading into Denver. She took a deep, cleansing breath and shook off her worry. Then she stood, donned her new leather jacket, and joined the crowd, rolling her suitcase toward the train's open doors. She was ready to break free of the remnants of her shattered life. She was ready to live again.