Allan A. © 2013
It was six months since Debbie experienced what she considered to be the worst moment of her life—every bride to be greatest fear. It would have been one thing if her fiancé cancelled the wedding before the date, but to leave her standing at the altar, all dressed up in her wedding gown, in front or her family, her friends, his family, his friends was more embarrassment than she could bear. First she thought he was just late. Then she wondered if he was in an accident or something. After 45 minutes of waiting, she was shown a text message. "Tell Debbie I am sorry but I just can't do it," the message read. She fainted instantly when she read the words. When she was revived, she cried non-stop as her family tried to console her.
Since the incident, she moved out of the town where she lived in order to put some distance between herself and the bad memories. She also wanted to reduce the risk of somehow running into that scumbag Rick again. She spoke to him once since that eventful day when he agreed to meet her at his parent's house. Afterwards, she wished she hadn't bothered.
"A text message Rick, on the day of our wedding, or what was supposed to be our wedding?"
"I'm so sorry Deb, but I couldn't face you, I just couldn't. I love you and all that but.."
"Is that what you call love, is that how you treat someone that you love?"
"See that's what I mean. You didn't even let me finish my sentence before you butt in. You always do that.."
"So now it's all my fault, right," Debbie said, sarcastically.
"You know what Deb, it's that attitude that I can't take. When I think of having to live with you, with this, for the rest of my life, I didn't think I was ready. I couldn't and I couldn't go through with it only to have us split up a few months later."
At that point Debbie was ready to end the conversation as she had already tuned him out.
"You decided that it was best for me, best for us, best for...I don't even know...and when did you decide this anyway? And to wait until the day of our wedding? What about even discussing it first?"
"That's typical you, Deb. Ask me a bunch of questions and don't even give me a chance to explain myself. Why did you even come here?"
At that point Debbie had heard enough. She just walked out the door and never looked back. She moved to Toronto the following weekend.
Not having any friends in Toronto meant that Debbie spent a lot of time by herself. She had started a new job and even though her coworkers were friendly, nobody showed any interest in grooming a friendship outside of working hours. At 5:00pm, everybody left the office and headed in different directions, except for Debbie and her boss, who stayed much later. Debbie was in no rush to go home as there was nothing to go home to.
Her boss was often times condescending and rude and would criticise Debbie openly in front of everybody else. Debbie found it annoying but didn't let it deter her from working later than her coworkers or always giving her best. She needed the money from the job so she thought she would grin and bear it for the time being.
With no friends and not much money and an apartment that wasn't properly furnished, Debbie stumbled upon a new hobby. When she needed some chairs, she decided to see if she could get some cheaply from a garage sale. She looked in all the classified ads, both print and electronic, of all the garage sale in Toronto's most expensive neighbourhoods. It took her three weekends to eventually find some chairs that she liked at a price that she could afford and that's when she realized that she liked doing it. From searching for the ads, figuring out which garage sales she wanted to go to, working out how to get there, haggling over the price and bringing home the items. She seemed to get a sense of satisfaction from doing it. She spent all of her weekends going to garage sales.
