AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
JILL
I’dbeenwarnedaboutflying into LaGuardia. My aunt and uncle had visited New York City several times and told me their preference had always been JFK International when I booked my flight. The flight into LaGuardia was much cheaper, though, and as I started my new life in the big city, I needed to pinch every penny I could.
It took over an hour for my luggage to appear through baggage claim, and once I had it in my hand, it took me another hour to navigate my way out of the building. I took out my phone, scheduled an Uber, and hoped the car would appear more promptly than my suitcases had.
Thankfully, my driver was already waiting patiently for his next customer at the airport. Within minutes of scheduling it, the yellow Grand Am I’d been told to watch for pulled up before me.
“You, Jill?” a young man called out from the driver’s seat.
“Yes! I’m so glad you were close by.” I climbed into the back seat, slinging my case into the empty seat beside me, and leaned back with a heavy sigh.
“This is all I do,” he explained. “You can make a killing hanging out in this parking lot waiting on calls.”
I smiled to myself. Back home, I’d tried Uber’ing for a summer to make some extra cash. I was lucky to get one call a day in my tiny hometown. This guy had made a career of it.
New York City was the proverbial “big pond.” I was excited to get my feet wet.
“Thanks for taking me,” I said. “I know it’s quite a drive.”
“I go anywhere in the city,” he said. “I don’t mind long drives. That’s where the good money’s at.”
He wasn’t kidding. The ride from LaGuardia to my new apartment in Washington Heights cost me ninety-three dollars, but it was still cheaper than local cab fare.
“You live in the Heights?” he asked, trying to make small talk.
“I do,” I said. “But I haven’t been to my apartment yet. I rented it online. This is actually my first time ever in the city. I got offered a job here and took it, but I’m coming in blind.”
“No shit! Where are you moving in from?”
“A small town in Ohio,” I said, smiling. “You wouldn’t know of it. Only about a thousand people live there.”
“Shit, I bet there’s more than that in LaGuardia right now,” he laughed. “You culture shocked yet?”
“A little bit,” I admitted with a giggle. “Are you from here?”
“I’ve lived here my whole life,” he said with a nod, “Never even been out of the city. I was raised in the Heights. I’m living over in Bedford Park now, though. That’s where my wife’s from. She wanted to be close to her family.”
He didn’t look old enough to be married, but I tried to mask my surprise.
“That’s wonderful! It’s nice you were willing to make the compromise.”
He nodded. “We got pregnant young, you know? She wanted her mom and sisters around to help. It was the right thing.”
I smiled. “How old’s your baby?”
The driver laughed. “He’ll be twelve next month! Not a baby anymore. His mom and I will both be twenty-six by Christmas. It’s been a wild ride, but we’re making it. We just bought ourselves our own place, even! She’s finishing up college. We pulled through.”
“That’s really amazing,” I said. “You should be very proud of yourselves.”
The conversation faded as the driver seemed to tune into his music, drumming at the steering wheel as he navigated the crowded city streets.
In the back seat, I thought dreamily about how wonderful it must be to love and be loved so faithfully. They tackled such obstacles together, and he still talked about her like a love sick teenager would.
I had been single only a few months, but the relationship I’d left was terrible. Cole, my ex, was back in Ohio, probably- hopefully- completely unaware of my move to New York City.
The two years I’d spent with him had been some of my most challenging.
