My Life After the Disaster

Chapter Two

-Saturday, July 15th, 2023-

I wake up the next morning, remember I wasn’t in the home I knew anymore. This was my aunt’s house, my new home.

I get out of bed and go explore the house to familiarize myself with how it looked and make myself feel more at home. I went to the bathroom first as it was right beside my room and I needed to brush my teeth. I grab my tooth brush that Guinevere had bought for me and stick some toothpaste on it, then I run some water over it. I start brushing my teeth while looking around the bathroom. It was a decent sized bathroom. Not too big and not too small. There’s a toilet right by the sink and a shower over in the corner, one of the glass ones that goes all the way around with a sliding door. The walls are all white.

“Good morning Rose, did you sleep okay?” Guinevere asks, sticking her head through the bathroom door.

I spit into the sink and rinse my toothbrush off then wipe my mouth off with the back of my hand. “Pretty good I guess. I had a nightmare about my time in captivity and woke up in a sweat but then I went back to sleep and slept alright after that. I just got up and thought I’d explore around the house to familiarize myself with it,” I tell her, putting my toothbrush back.

“Were you hungry, did you want some breakfast. I can make you something to eat,” she tells me, looking a little worried.

My stomach starts grumbling at the thought of food. “I guess I am a bit hungry. I don’t need a lot though. Just enough to satisfy my hungry. Maybe some toast and an egg. I wanted to go back to modeling to make my own money. Do you think my agent would take me back after I’ve been gone for two months?” I asked her, walking past her to leave the bathroom.

She follows me out of the bathroom and says, “I can’t see why he wouldn’t. It’s not like you chose to leave. You were kidnapped Hun. He’ll understand and you’re a gorgeous young girl so he has no reason not to.”

“I guess you’re right. I can give him a call and see if he has any new jobs for me,” I tell her, heading towards the kitchen. “But I don’t know his number. It was saved to my old phone and I don’t have it written down anywhere.

“How about we focus on getting some food in your belly then we can look for his number. He must have a website or something. You know his name right?” Guinevere asks me, heading into the kitchen. She walks over to the stove and puts a frying pan on top of it, turning the burner on.

I sigh and walk over to the fridge. “I do, his name is Adrian Mills. He discovered me when I was only eight years old. He told my parents that I was born to be a model and he was new to the whole modeling industry but he learned from his father so he knew a lot of people,” I tell my aunt as I grab the eggs out of the fridge and hand them to her. I then grab the orange juice and get a glass out of the cupboard.

“You certainly were a star. You always walked around like you owned the show. Your parents were very proud of you and were always so happy to talk about their beautiful daughter and show off your photos in the magazines,” she tells me, cracking some eggs into the frying pan.

I put the juice jug back into the fridge and sit down at the table with my glass. “I really do miss them. But I’m happy that I get to live with you. Though you are a busy CEO of your own company. You’re such a successful person. I often wonder why you never settled down to have your own family. I know you love children because you’ve always loved me,” I tell her, taking a drink of my juice.

“It just never happened for me. I was always too busy rising to the top. Now I’m 48 years old and far too old to have children. As for a life partner, I’m perfectly happy on my own. But I’m happy to have you in my life, living here with me,” she tells me, flipping the eggs over. “Could you stick some bread in the toaster for me?”

I set my juice down on the table and walk over to the counter, grab the bread and put two pieces into the toaster. “Done. About your partner status. Don’t count yourself out just yet. You’re never too old to fall in love with someone,” I tell her, sitting back down at the table.

Guinevere turns off the stove and grabs a couple of plates from the cupboard, placing two eggs on each plate. She then grabs the toast out of the toaster and puts one piece on each plate, cutting them in half. She then grabs the butter out of the fridge and spreads it across the toast, putting it back when she’s finished. She places one plate in front of me along with a fork and then sits across from me with her own plate. “I never really gave up on the idea of love. I was in love once before with a handsome young man named Joseph. It was like love at first sight. And for a while we couldn’t get enough of each other. But he had to move away and I couldn’t go with him. My life was here and I was just starting up my business,” she tells me, looking a little sad.

“Wow auntie, I had no idea. Do you know where he moved to? And why couldn’t he stay here?” I ask her, feeling curious. I never really knew any of this about my aunt.

She starts eating her food, not really looking up at me at all and says, “It happened a long time ago Rose. He was in the military and was sent away to be stationed somewhere else. He asked me to go with him but I just couldn’t. We had a tearful goodbye and then he left. I haven’t seen him since. He’s probably found himself another love and had a family with her.”

I smile over at her. To think she once had a love at first sight kind of moment and lost it because she refused to leave home. But I guess I wouldn’t be here with her now if she had left. So it all worked out in the end. I eat up my eggs and take a bite of my toast while drinking my juice to wash it all down. “Maybe someday you’ll cross paths again and you’ll have a second chance at love,” I tell her, taking another bite of my toast.

“Maybe, but I doubt it. It’s been 25 years since then and we’re the same age. He would be finished with the military by now,” she tells me, picking at her food.

I finish off my toast, drink the rest of my juice, get up from the table and put my dirty dishes in the sink. I walk over to my aunt and touch her shoulder, saying, “You never know.” Then I walk out of the kitchen and leave her with her thoughts. I head back to my room to get my phone. I sit down in my hammock and search for Adrian Mills. His name pops right up at the top of the search, number one model agent in Nova Scotia. I click on the number and call. The phone rings a few times.

“Hey, this is Adrian Mills, if you’re hearing this it means I’m out with a client or just can’t answer the phone right now. Just leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Take care now, whoever you are. Beep.”

“Hey Adrian, it’s Rose Wood calling. I just wanted to check in with you. I was kidnapped a couple months ago and only managed to escape a few days ago. I just got back yesterday and I wanted to talk with you about getting back to work. I wasn’t sure if I still wanted to model after what happened to me, but I do like it and so this is me, reaching out. Please call me back. Thanks. Oh, and my parents were killed, if you didn’t already know that.” I end the call and put my phone down on my bed.

I get up from my hammock and walk out of my room to continue exploring my aunt’s place. I go to the next room which looks like a library. I walk inside and see shelves of books all along the walls, really high chestnut wooden bookshelves, filled with books. On the floor is a beautiful shade of blue. I don’t really know how to describe it, like a mix of dark and light blue somewhere in the middle. I walk over to one of the shelves and touch the spines of the books. “These look like medical books.”

“They are. I was studying to be a nurse when I decided it wasn’t for me and started up my own business instead. I took some business classes and now I’m a CEO of my own company,” Guinevere tells me, standing in the doorway. “This is my library room. Only a few of the books are medical. There’s a variety of different books in here.”

“I can see that. It looks really nice in here,” I tell her, stepping away from the bookshelf. I walk over past Guinevere and leave the room, going to the next one, which seems to be a guest room, it’s about the same size as the room that I’m staying in, but the walls are blue and the bed is covered in red blankets and pillows.

“There’s a total of 5 bedrooms in this house, I made all of them different colours. I have the biggest room on the second floor,” Guinevere tells me, as if reading my mind.

“Okay, why five rooms? You had this house build. Did you build it with future children in mind?” I ask her, curiously as I step out of the room.

“I did plan for my future, on the off chance I had ended up finding someone to spend my life with. I wanted to have the space already available to me. So I could stay in my home and never move somewhere else,” she tells me, leaning against the wall.

“You must’ve been planning for a big family then, because five bedrooms is a lot. You have the master bedroom which would be your room with your future husband, then you have four extra rooms. Which are all moderately sized. Were you planning to have four kids?” I ask her moving into the living room.

Guinevere follows after me and says, “I didn’t really plan for anything. I just planned for a family and I didn’t know how many kids I’d have or if I’d have any at all. I decided on five rooms to have guests stay over if they ever needed to.”

“Okay. I guess that makes sense. I won’t ask anymore about it,” I tell her as I walk around the living room. There’s a sectional couch up against the corner of the wall by the window. The curtains are a light blue color and they’re drawn across the window, not letting any light in. The sectional is a chocolate brown and it takes up the whole left side of the room.

“I don’t mind you asking questions Rose. I like talking with you and it’s nice to explain why I did the things I did,” she tells me, sitting down on the for end of the couch. “I never really spent much time in this room.”

Before I could say anything else I hear my phone ringing in my room so I run off to my bedroom and grab my phone off my bed. I picked it up, as hold it to my ear I say, “Hello.”

“Hey, Rose. I’m glad I caught you. I thought we were going to end up playing phone tag, you call me get the machine, I call you and get the same. Then we go back and forth till one of us finally reaches the other. I did hear about your parents and I was sorry to hear it. They were both fantastic people. I went to their funeral. Anyways I called you with a point… I in fact missed having you as a client. You got something special about you. You always know how to capture the camera’s attention. I don’t have anything for you today. But I’d like to meet up and talk about getting you back into the swing of things. Would you be free to meet up tomorrow?” Adrian asks me, sounding hopeful.

“Yes, of course I can. I don’t have anything to really do right now. And my aunt will be going to work tomorrow. When and where were you thinking of meeting?” I ask him, sitting down on my bed.

“Fantastic. We can meet at the mall around lunch time tomorrow, will that work for you?” he asks me.

“I guess so. I’ll call a cab to take me there as I don’t currently have a car and my aunt won’t be able to take me. But I’ll make it work,” I tell him, twirling my hair around my finger.

“Sounds perfect Rose, I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon then. We’ll meet at the food court and grab a bite to eat. We can talk all about everything then. Until then, take care. I have to be going.” He hangs up the phone.

I sigh, drop my phone down by my side and fall back onto the bed, staring up at my bedroom ceiling. Looks like there’s little stars all over the ceiling. I smile, thinking about how beautiful it all looks. “Tomorrow… just one more day.”