He'd gone beyond his player ways for her.
She'd grown beyond her traumatic past for him.
Together, their love was beyond.
Until one fatal accident.
__________
When she loses the love of her life in a car crash, Althea has nothing left in California...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
*ALTHEA'S POV*
November 2, 2023.
"If you want to only be partly inclusive, it will be without me."
Upon these words, I walked out, and I would have loved to say it was as confident and freeing as Andy getting away from Miranda Priestly. However, the only thing that felt assured were the thumps of my heart against the papers I clutched with shaky hands, while the doubts crept under my skin like the outraged looks and indiscreet whispers I passed by, and the second I closed the door, I tottered against the wall with a trembling sigh.
I couldn't even trust my hazy eyes as I pulled the phone out of my bag, blindly searching for something, someone to cling to, though my fingers slipped on the ending call button when a voice echoed from behind me.
"Althea? Althea? Are you okay?"
I turned to meet Linda's worried frown, or at least, the blur of creased shadows I could decipher, which was enough to take in the reality of it all.
I'd just given up the position of creative director and with it, my current job too.
"I... I don't know."
"Aw, come here." Linda pulled me into her arms, surely sensing my unstable state—in more ways than one. "Are you sure of what you did? I know it's been your dream since you're little and..."
The thumping of my heart was still certain though, as I leaned away to meet her hazel gaze.
"No, my dream was to design clothes for every kid."
It had been the reason why I'd first picked up a sewing needle, and the young girl, who'd kept trying despite the many pricks on her fingers, wouldn't have wanted any disabled kid to feel left out. I had felt the same determination during my presentation, and maybe it hadn't only been the image of Gracie's disappointed face that had pushed me to this decision.
I'd done it for the young girl full of dreams I'd been, and I hoped that if she could have seen me right now, she would have had the same glimmer of pride as the woman in front of me had in her wrinkling eyes when she smiled at me, wiping the tear that slipped down my cheek.
"It's a beautiful dream. Don't ever give up on it."
"Yes... if someone ever wants to hire me after what I just did." I winced towards the door I'd stepped out of, knowing that in this field, I would surely meet a lot exactly the same: closed and filled with powerful, narrow-minded people who all knew each other.
