CALIFORNIA PARADISE
Chapter One
Rose looked out of her bedroom window. It was
April fourteenth. Exactly a year since the Titanic sank. Exactly a year since
she had lost Jack. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to make the memories
disappear. For the first couple of months, she had told herself that it wasn’t
true, and even now a part of her still couldn’t come to terms with it. If he
had really died, then I could feel his spirit watching over me, she told
herself.
Deep, deep down, she knew that he was
somewhere out there.
Just as a hot tear was about to roll down her
cheek, Rich Calvert entered the room. She blinked the tear away.
"How are you?" Rich, at six feet,
two inches, smiled a warm smile that showed his sparkling white teeth.
Looking at her now, he saw the sadness in her
eyes. For the last year, he had tried to make them sparkle with laughter as he
knew they had once done, but as much as they loved each other, there had always
been something missing.
He remembered the day he met her well. It had
been a Friday, on a poor, rundown street. She had been sitting on a bench,
hunched over and crying.
"Are you all right?" he had asked,
offering her a handkerchief.
"Thank you." Her voice had been
cold, and she had tried to make it seem as if she wanted him to leave, but when
he had looked into her eyes, he had seen that she needed a friend, more than
anything else in the world. He had sat down next to her and tried to comfort
her. They had soon been talking, just like old friends. He told her about his past,
and she had told him about hers.
"I ran away from home just a couple of
weeks ago, and I’ve been alone since."
"Why’d you leave?"
"I met a guy."
"And..."
"I was already engaged to someone that I
definitely didn’t want to marry."
"Do you regret leaving?"
"Never." Her voice had been so
decisive. There had been no doubt that she was telling the truth.
"Don’t you think that they miss
you?"
"They think I’m dead." If she
hadn’t been so damned beautiful, that would have really freaked him out.
"What about the guy?" He had
regretted asking the minute he had said it.
"He’s the one that’s really dead."
Rich had quickly changed the subject and
moved on. They had made an arrangement to meet again soon, and things had
blossomed since then. They now shared a two bedroom apartment in New York, and
to the credit of Rich, they were doing fine financially.
Rich looked into Rose’s eyes. He smiled. He
knew there was something about her past that she wasn’t telling him. He had
heard her muttering in the night.
"Go away--you’re distracting me...I’m
such an utter fool...to making it count...I’m flying...you’re trembling...I’ll
never let go." Little fragments. Never completing a sentence.
"Rose." He gave her a peck on the
cheek. "Hurry and get ready. You know the party’s tonight. I want you to
meet my old friend."
"How could I forget? You’ve only said it
a couple of thousand times," she teased.
"Well, hurry." He was walking back
out the door.
Rose giggled. She loved seeing him so boyish.
"What did you say his name was?" she asked, as he was halfway in the
doorway.
"Jack," he replied.
Rose was left stunned.