Best Friends With Benefits... Or More?

How It Started

When my cousin Mandy moved to New York City for college, we couldn't believe it.   It was the talk of the town actually. She didn't just move to New York for college though, she stayed after she was done. She fell in love and they married, staying in the city they met in. Long story short,  she has a little boy now, but is divorced. She decided to stay there though since her son's dad refused to move being that he was settled in his job making relatively good money. Mandy didn't want to do the shared custody thing long distance because her ex was unreliable, and we didn't blame her.  I know she didn't really want to move anyway, because she loves it there too.

So, since she had broken the ice, when I decided to move to the same city, it wasn't as much of a surprise to my family as it was to me.  Before my decision, I had a fiancée, someone I had known all throughout school and started dating after we graduated, but we, more so me, decided we'd grown apart.

So, when my employer had a job opening at a different site around the same time I became single, I thought, no better time than the present for a new start.  My cousin and I were close, kind of like sisters, so I would be able to help her with her sweet little boy also, but I could also be closer to Harry.

Harry was my best friend.  We talked all the time, and sometimes he visited.  I had become friends with Harry when he came to live with his dad in middle school. When his parents divorced, his dad moved here and became our next door neighbor, so when Harry was here, we hung out a lot after school. We were pretty much attached at the hip. He kind of went back and forth between living with his mom and then his dad since they divorced. Eventually, he moved back to New York for school with his mom and came to visit his dad in the summer.   That meant he lived most of the year in New York.  It's funny how you can be so close with somebody and then be apart so long but pick right back up where you left off.  That's how it was with us. 

Harry's mom didn't live in the city, but her parents did. They left their apartment to Harry in their will, along with alot of money. I mean, a lot!  They didn't spend their money on elaborate things, they just lived comfortably and left everything to their only grandchild. This meant Harry didn't have to work, he just lived his life.   He always wanted me to come live with him, so I was giving him his wish, kind of.

Nothing better than some culture shock, moving from the south up to the north, small town to big.  Make that, extra big, city.  Somewhere that nobody knows me, instead of a place where everyone has known me since I was born and my family before me.

I had been in and out of my relationship that eventually ended in friendship. Well, kind of in an awkward friendship.  We just wanted different things, mainly, I wasn't okay with where we were going, which was nowhere.  Adam and I were engaged, but that's as far as it had gone.  He never wanted to talk about an actual marriage and was happy just staying how we were.  It definitely wasn't how I envisioned where I'd be by this point in my life.

When I told Adam how I felt, he tried to shake it off, but I told him we needed to make a decision.  Long story short, we probably both put it off because we had become more like friends than partners anyway.  So, we decided a break may help us decide if it's what we definitely wanted and I moved out of our apartment. 

Not wanting to impose on my parents for too long by moving in, being that they deserved their empty nester life, I decided I wanted a change in scenery. There was a job opening in New York City, so that would be more than far enough for a break. I already knew it was more than a break for me, but those words seemed kinder I guess.  If my cousin and my best friend were there, I could do it too. 

I was actually lucky enough to receive a compensation for housing with the new position. Oddly enough, the apartment next to Harry was opening so he secured it for me until I could get it straight with work. I was going to stay with him until it was ready because Mandy lived in a two bedroom apartment in Soho.  It wasn't too far from Harry, but I didn't want to impose on any schedules and structure she already had in place for her little boy.