The warped story of my life

Chapter 3~ Richard Sutcliffe

Richard paced the length of his condo. The news had been abuzz announcing the alliance of the decade.

The golden couple were finally​ getting hitched. Eleanor oh, god how much he missed her!
Seeing her beside James just pierced the dagger in her heart deeper. Eleanor, the love of his life was walking away from him and he was sitting here helpless.

He had first met Eleanor at the University. They were " The Golden Couple". Remembering about Eleanor brought back all his University memories. The dates, the dances, the make-outs, the sneak outs. He missed her feel against his body.

Nadia had been a mistake, the whole night had been. He had tried reasoning out with Eleanor.
He had done everything to tell her how much he loved her, how much he cared for us. But Eleanor hadn't listened to the end of it.

That night Eleanor grabbed all her stuff from my apartment and left to never return.

It has been 8 years and she had never once looked back. Richard was devastated with Eleanor leaving.
He did everything he could to try to get her back. He kept on sending her flowers, gifts all of which were always returned back.

He called her everyday but never got past the voicemail until one day she blocked him for good.
Richard kept on following her till she finally found out and filed a restraining order against him.

Richard turned around to see Margaret standing behind him with a cup of coffee. She leaned over to kiss him good morning.

"Good morning love. Sleep well?"

" Yes Marge. Thanks for the coffee. I have to go to Seattle for a conference and I won't be back till Sunday. I'll see you when I am back."

Richard drank his coffee, went upstairs, showered grabbed my essentials in a night bag and left after kissing Margaret goodbye.

Margaret Ainsworth was his co-partner. He had met her in Sydney first when he was starting up his business.
They had connected on professional front and had decided to work in collaboration.

Margaret was gorgeous. He'd give her that. She was also pretty smart and charming. She was extremely easy to be with, polite and courteous and importantly Richard's mother Devina adored her.

He was often told how lucky he was to have her. Margaret and he had maintained their distance, always being professional.
In the early days when they were setting up their business, she had seen him go through all his wild days and strings of relationships, however she had always remained professional and refrained from commenting over any of this.

Margaret's​ fiance Luke had died in an accident a year ago and that was when they had started getting close and eventually began dating.

Richard liked her and cared for her but he didn't love her like he loved Eleanor. Shaking his head, he tried to dispel her thoughts away but how could he let her go?

No, he was going to have her back, whatever may be the price. Eleanor was his and he wouldn't let anyone take her away from him.

He signaled his driver to pull the car on the kerb. He walked inside the supermarket and grabbed a can of beer.

On his way out, he accidentally bumped against a woman. All her stuff fell out of the bag. He couldn't help but look at her. Collecting himself, he immediately helped her gather the mess. She introduced herself as Kate Evans.

She was really pretty with long brunette curls which were pulled back in a ponytail. She looked pretty rattled.
Richard introduced himself as Andrew Brown.
He usually went with an alias because people normally acted weird around him when he told them who he was.

Before he could comprehend what was happening, he blurted out asking her out for coffee.
This was so uncharacteristic on his part that it left him utterly confused.

Was this the way to move away from Eleanor?
Was this the ray of sunshine at the end of his dark tunnel?