Day 114: Tales Of Moving Boxes And Time To Go

A new day should have brought about relief, a way of moving on, a step forward. Instead, it brought shit all followed by an emotional hangover.

James told me everything about the ‘new’ Highway, last night. I couldn’t even believe we were calling it that.

Instead of it being ‘Highway’, it needed a ‘new’ in front of it. Just to make sure we were all clear this wasn’t the dinky little business it once was, run out of 1 Lovelock Drive like the proud small business we were.

No, this was a new conglomerate, with offices in the most expensive part of Melbourne’s CBD, with the powerful Douglas Gallo as our chief investor. And likely to become president once we were established and making money.

And when it came to trusting and finding a way to work with my BFF in a cohesive partnership, James simply quipped; “The old order is changing. Let’s say we’re starting again.”

That’s not what I wanted. 

The displeasure flooded my mind as soon as he suggested this. I didn’t want to start again with him. Nothing he could say would erase how he had hurt me.

But as we continued to talk about the new arrangement, I realised something James knew a long time ago. I had no choice but to go along with it. I had invested everything into this; quit my job, converted my home, and poured all the available money I had into it.

This was my entire life now. And pulling out now would be financially worse than staying in it.

Backed into a corner, taken advantage of, this is not how I saw this going when I came to my best friend with an idea for a unisex clothing line.

I knew someday things in the business world would become tough, vicious, and ruthless. Yet, I assumed it would be James and me versus the world. We would be the team, not me standing there on my own fighting against him. And teamed up with my ex, too.

We didn’t talk much about Douglas last night. It was strange considering he was the mastermind who pointed out to James we could be doing better. 

If Douglas hadn’t snuck his business ideas into James’ seemingly impressionable mind, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

But my ex came up once I returned from spin class to find James assembling moving boxes. Copious amounts of them, too, like he was planning to pack up the entire house.

“Oh great, you’re home. Can you give me a hand with this box? I can’t get the sides to stay together.”

As I held onto the cardboard, propping up the integrity of the box, I noticed James’ handwriting on the side. ‘Fabric samples, old’ scrawled across the side.

“So I guess the office space thing is really happening, huh?”

“Sure is, babe. On Friday we get a tour of our official new space and the movers will bring everything in that afternoon.”

Pulling tape over the side, I watched James tear the piece with his teeth. Very undignified for a man dressed head to toe in a Gucci tracksuit. Desperation didn’t suit him.

“What do we bring with us?”

“Everything for the business. We no longer work at 1 Lovelock Drive.”

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You’re reading the latest from The Andie Chronicles, the 2023 romance-fiction series from the 1 Lovelock Drive (1LD) universe.

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