CHAPTER 3

She had just returned to her office from a quick lunch at the fast food restaurant a short distance from her work building when her mobile phone started vibrating at her desk. She grabbed it up hoping her co-worker wouldn't notice she was obviously getting a much frowned upon personal phone call.

"Hello this is Shane." She answered putting her back towards her co-worker so she could have a small amount of privacy.

It was him! Gabriel, the man she had recently met and had steadily been dating for the last few weeks. At first Shane felt compelled to put a halt on the fast moving relationship for fear it would interfere with the goals she had recently vowed to sustain, but every time she tried to start a discussion on why they should slow down, Shane would excuse her thoughts and eventually brushed them away altogether. She was having such a good time with Gabriel and it helped relieve the lonliness that had been such a permanent fixture in her life for so long.

They spoke briefly and made plans to get together later. Gabriel had mentioned a few times that he wanted to make dinner for her at his place but their schedules had always clashed but finally with his roommate out of town and not returning until the next day, tonight would be the perfect night for Gabriel to have the chance for a nice evening to be alone with Shane at his apartment.

After Shane hung up she dug back into her current project she had been working on. Her thoughts strayed to how very different her life now seemed as opposed to the life she had lived just a few years back.

After everything that had happened in her past, Shane had found writing to pull her through to make it all seem bearable. She had finally taken the advice from all of her friends that knew her closely and put all of the past onto paper and into what she thought would be a novel, appreciated by someone capable of publishing it into full print.

Shane remembered back to the day when she had finished her final draft. As she read the words of all she had written and all of the memories that had been dredged up from the sad past, she thought it would give her immediate absolution from all she had been through. But when the days right after she had finished her story came and went, she finally realized that no amount of writing in the world could plug the big hole in her heart that remained with her and would she finally surmised, forever.