Glass & Money (Short Story)

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Dear Readers,

Do you work hard, hoping to make it to the top with lots of money and a beautiful house?  Have you made huge mistakes in the past, and have them come back to haunt you too?

Events from my own life inspired this story, so if something like this has happened to you, please feel free to share!

Please vote and comment if you like it, and let me know if you don't.

Enjoy!

Stormy

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The steam is rising off my coffee and floats away on the cool morning air.  I’m doing what I do every morning since I’ve moved into my new house; sit on the balcony with a cup of freshly brewed coffee and read the morning news on my tablet.  The trees stir with birds taking flight and in the distance I can hear the river bubbling down the ravine.  Life is good.

It wasn’t always like this though; there was a time when I lived in a match-box-flat with a flatulent roommate.  I worked hard to get my own place and things only improved.  I met a great man, got a new job and worked even harder.  But it was not to last.  I got retrenched, dumped and evicted.

Rock-bottom is a lonely place.  Enter Scott.  A successful businessman who smelled my defeat a mile away, and snuck through my lowered defences unnoticed.  At first I was flattered.  The attention of a successful handsome man was like dew on a dried out flower-petal.  I was flat broke and he convinced me to move in with him after only two weeks.  Then I fell in love and his every wish was my command.  I went from needing support to becoming his emotional crutch.

Six months later I ended up in hospital and six months of therapy.  I was exhausted, emotionally and physically.  The stress of keeping Scott happy was suffocating.  His displeasure was felt for days and his moods fragile, any small act could shatter the status quo.  Once out of the hospital, I ran away, overnight and with the barest of essentials. 

I moved back in with my parents and after three weeks of ice-cream eating finally decided to start over.  I went back to school, business school, and three years later graduated with a renewed sense of life and a renewed book of contacts. 

Quickly I got pulled into a few big companies and limits fell away.  Money was no longer an issue; I had tons of it in the bank.  I once again lived in a tiny flat since I was in the office for most of the week anyway.  For two years I worked on the biggest project of my life and when that 8 figure check got deposited into my account it was time to call it quits.

I didn’t want to end up dying from a heart attack before I turned 40.  Now that I had reached the top I wanted to enjoy it.  I retired from the business, bought a house and started devoting time to things I liked or that mattered to me. 

Sarita, my housekeeper appears to refill my coffee cup.  “Thank you Sarita.”  I was done with the news so picked up my cup and wandered back into my bedroom suite.   This house is my dream house.  On the outskirts of the city it sits on a hill in a reservation, neighbours smartly hidden behind tall trees and long driveways. 

The double story house was built by an ambitious architect as an experiment but he quickly tired of it and moved onto his next project.  The outer walls consisted of floor to ceiling bulletproof glass panels.  Rainwater was collected into a big tank and recycled.  The Roof was made out of state-of-the-art solar panels making the house self-sufficient.  Privacy was provided by a combination of motorized blinds and curtains.  Inside walls created the structure for the 4 bedroom suites.