The Loneliest Stars

Chapter 5

Getting a car was of the utmost importance, Natalia decided when she woke up.

School started in one day. She couldn't keep bumming rides with people and public transport was...non-existent. Coming from London, one of the most well-connected cities in the world, arguably, she couldn't fathom that there was no public transport that would take her to where she needed to be. In London, she could be Paris in about two hours and here, even grocery shopping was an ordeal without a car.

She called an Uber when she had found a suitable car rental place to rent from online. She peered out of the glass panel on the door — her neighbour was nowhere to be seen and she breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Ever since that kiss she had tried her best to avoid him. She managed to avoid him everywhere but in her dreams. He lived in her dreams. With his jade green eyes and relentlessly perfect, kissable lips. She could barely close her eyes before her brain played that incident in her mind on a loop over and over again. Damn, it had been one of the best kisses of her life and it came from a white man that she barely knew. She had been so discombobulated. She hadn't even told, Lima.

Natalia wasn't even sure why he had kissed her. Yes, there was some sort of attraction between them, but Natalia assumed it was the casual type of attraction that was easily dismissed.

Objectively, she could see that he was an attractive man but she didn't like him, not even as a person. He'd been nothing but rude and short with her in the brief time she had known him and vice versa. There couldn't possibly be anything between them.

The kiss had come completely out of the blue. Especially since he had been all over her Scottish counterpart at the barbecue party. They made a cute couple, their colourings complimenting each other in a way that was ordinary and expected.

Her mind wandered back to the Scottish red-head, Agnes. If anyone was bad vibes personified, it was her. At the brunch, Ella had hosted she had glowered at Natalia's attempts at being friendly and engaging in small-talk. She'd asked stupid, stereotype-filled questions about life in London, as if it was an alien place and not the capital of the United Kingdom. Her demeanour was completely different when she interacted with Ella or the other teachers at the barbecue. Natalia couldn't explain it, but she knew it began with r and ended in acist.

That kiss had been so left field. 'Maybe he was drunk?' Natalia thought, and she'd let him drive her home. Which is exactly why she was going to get a car today.

The state of Texas let people drive for 90 days on a foreign licence before they had to get a State licence. She'd have to take a test, which was no bother. If she could drive in Dubai where people thought speed restrictions were optional, and in London where the roads were tiny and packed full of passive-aggressive arseholes, Natalia felt she could drive anywhere.

Natalia picked up a white Honda hybrid, it was small and cute, and drove back to the house. A lot of things were giving her anxiety, the fact that she might forget which side of the road to drive on, that she was driving whilst foreign and black; and the eye-watering price of a monthly rental.

She breathed out in and out deeply, centring herself and decided to explore her neighbourhood. She'd looked up a store where she could get stationary supplies and groceries, a win. And she was fiending for a Starbucks, with them so ubiquitously spread everywhere she easily located one.

Having consisted solely on sandwiches and takeout the last couple of days, Natalia bought some fruit and vegetables at the supermarket as well as other staples. She was going to make herself a nice healthy lunch and dinner and take the leftovers to school.

She also bought some stationary and supplies to spruce up her classroom. Plants, pens, notepads, a planner, highlighters, a gold painted in-tray and a giant mug, she could have her morning cup of tea in.