When they told me about the fabulous life in the city, they forgot to tell me the tiny bit detail about the high rent prices.

For the moment, I had seen three different places.

The first one, had two many roommates. I couldn't handle all that mess.

The second one was two expensive and too far from college.

The third one was okay, I guess. The landlord said it had a problem with the pipes. A leak or something like that, that it wouldn't interfere in my day to day life, so I didn't pay much attention to it.

It was a little small, but it was perfect for me.

A single room that had a small kitchen -if you could call it like that- and a double bed. There was a door that lead to a small bathroom and a little balcony that I fell in love with the moment I saw it.

I could only afford two months of the rent, but I had a job interview this week in a clothing store. I had hope. I knew in my hometown I didn't have a chance. My boyfriend made sure of that. I even learnt when I left that he was the one who complained about my work in the restaurant. He talked about me to other businesses when I broke up with him, and, as you can see, he achieved what he wanted. Maybe he thought I would come back to him.

Proud to say I didn't.

I never liked the city, never liked big buildings, malls nor wide streets. People weren't so friendly and everyone seemed always so busy.

But I didn't have a chance, if I wanted to do something with my life I couldn't keep living with him. I couldn't depend on a person who treated me like shit.

Sadly, I only realized that when the hand he raised so many times on me but never touched my face, finally hit me. That was the turning point in my life. It's like suddenly I had woken up. I opened my eyes and saw the devil that was in front of me. The hate in his eyes suddenly and uncharacteristically banished and was replaced by a fake softness that I was so familiar with. He came towards me, maybe hoping to hug me, maybe hoping that I would forgive him like many other times.

But I didn't. I started to grab my things. To pack the biggest suitcase I had, and slammed the door after me. Not listening to what he wanted to say, not glancing back.

My sister was there for me, she even lent me some money, but I needed to leave. I needed to do this for myself.

The city was my new home. And I needed to learn to love it.

With a little bit of painting and a few of my decorating skills, I could make a change in this place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"See? It's very easy!" I followed my manager around the store. "Then you bring the jeans here and you organize them by size. Got it?" Ashley turned around, her red haired ponytail swinging as she did so.

I nodded my head determinedly.

"And smile!" She smiled widely as if I didn't know how to do it. "It's really important."

I tried to put on my best smile but it was more like a grimace.

Guess I really didn't know how to do it.

"We'll work on that." She put a hand in the low of my back making me follow her towards a room in the back. "This is your uniform. Go change and I'll wait for you at the pay desk." She handed me a bag and I nodded once again.

Feeling like a robot, I closed the door behind me and examined the interior of the bag. There was a black polo shirt and a pair of black jeans. I could use the shoes I wanted, so I opted for my white sneakers. I actually didn't own much shoes and these were comfortable enough to spend the day walking here and there.

After I put on the clothes, I checked myself in a mirror. It felt odd to wear clothes this tight. I was used to big T-shirts, hoodies and baggy clothes in general. My exboyfriend didn't like tight clothes on me and I learnt to hate them. I had a generous chest and this shirt let anything to the imagination.

I was about to ask for a bigger size when Ashley walked inside without warning. "You look perfect!" She noticed my surprised face and stepped back. "I'm sorry I needed to grab some things. Go wait for me outside."

After a day working at Gourdon, I discovered that Ashley talked a lot. She told me she was engaged. She even told me all of the details for the wedding, who was her maid of honor, she showed me a picture of her fiancé...

I felt a little suffocated. I thought people were more reserved in the city. To add more, the day was incredibly stressful. I didn't know this store was so popular. Men and women entered nonstop. I wasn't used to any of this. The lights, the strident music, all those 'excuse me', all that mess... I just counted the minutes for my break so I could smoke a cigarette.

This was gonna be hard. But if I wanted to be able to pay for college, I needed to get used to it and make the sacrifice. My plan was to work the whole week except in the mornings when I would go to class.

It was almost 8 pm, time to close. The store was practically empty. Only two or three people wandering around. I was finishing to arrange the sweaters when I heard someone clear their throat behind me. I turned around, a sweater in hand and saw a tall guy, close cropped brown hair and deep brown eyes.

"Excuse me," he lowered his gaze to check my name tag, "Riley." He then glanced up at my face and opened his eyes a little wider. "Damn, you're gorgeous." He quickly exclaimed.

I blushed like crazy, my pale skin surely showing it off. I definitely wasn't expecting that.

"I'm sorry." He apologized after seeing my reaction. "I didn't wanna scare you. You have beautiful grey eyes, Riley." He said softly with a grin putting a hand on his chest.

"Th- thanks." I muttered averting his gaze. "Did you need anything?"

"Oh, yeah!" He clapped his hands once and looked around. "I need a nice shirt." He smirked and approached his face towards my ear, lowering his voice. "I have a date tonight."

Ignoring that information, I nodded and pointed to a particular area in the store. "Men shirts are over there."

He rolled his eyes amusedly. "I know. I need you to help me decide. Come on." He nodded his head gesturing for me to follow him.

What's with this familiarity?

I stood still, confused.

"You coming or not?" He asked with that confident smile again.

"Y-Yes."

"You're new, right?" He asked as we walked side by side.

"Yeah."

"I thought so." He glanced at me with half a smile. "I would've remembered you."

I blushed once again and began to walk faster unconsciously, toying with the rings in my fingers. "What color are you looking for?"

"Mhm. I don't know." He rubbed his chin. "One that goes with my eyes." The guy quickly raised his hand and covered his eyes, stopping to walk abruptly. "What is my eye color?"

I stared at him wordless.

Is this guy for real?

"Dark brown." I mumbled slowly.

"Well done!" He exclaimed. He raised his hand and I didn't know why I went with the flow, but we high fived. "You put an eye on me, huh?" He elbowed me.

My face couldn't get any redder. "What? I don't-"

He smiled softly and put a hand in my shoulder. "Riley," he stared at me with those intense deep brown eyes, "it was a joke."

"Oh." A little laugh escaped my mouth. A foreign, warm sensation filling my chest.

He smiled seeing my reaction and we started checking the variety of shirts. "So." He started as he passed some shirts by. "You're new in the city too?"

"Yeah." I grabbed two or three shirts that I thought were his size.

"Did you come by yourself?"

"Hmh." I nodded.

"No friends...?" I knew he was asking if I didn't come with any friends, but it's like he knew that I didn't have any. For some reason, I felt embarrassed.

I shook my head.

"No boyfriend?" He asked ending the word almost in a high pitched voice.

"No." I stated firmly, a frown appearing between my brows.

"So mysterious." He laughed.

I turned my head to look at him as he picked the last shirt. I didn't wanna be rude but I also didn't know the guy. Why would he ask so many questions?

"Don't worry. I like it." He smiled.

I couldn't help but smile too as I accompanied him to the changing rooms and waited for him to try on the different shirts.

"What do you think of this one?"

"It looks okay."

"Okay? Definitely not the reaction I was expecting." He chuckled.

He closed the curtain again and opened it again when he was wearing a pine green shirt. I studied him determinedly. That shirt fit him like a glove. It really showed off the muscles in his arms and chest and it made contrast with his tanned skin.

"What about this one?" He asked with a smirk checking himself out. He unquestionably liked it.

I raised my eyes to his face and gave him a small smile. "You look good in green."

I quickly cleared my throat as I took another shirt from its hanger to hand it to him. "So how did you meet the girl?"

"What does it make you think it's a girl?" He asked amused. He didn't bother to close the curtain now, unbuttoning the shirt in front of me, letting me see his strong, tanned pectorals through the mirror.

God, I felt so uncomfortable. I didn't know where to look at.

Is this really my job?

He then threw his head back and laughed. "It's a joke, Riley. She is a girl. It's funny to tease you." He added, the ghost of a smile in his face. "We met at a party when we were in college and about... an hour ago, we bumped into each other and I asked her on a date. That's why I came in here so late."

I opened my eyes a little wider as I tried to find the right words. "You're... spontaneous."

He laughed. "You could say that." He finished unbuttoning the light blue shirt and smoothed the wrinkles with his big hands. "How do I look?"

He caught me glancing at my watch. It was time to close. Again, I didn't want to be rude, for some strange reason I couldn't put into words, I was enjoying the conversation, but I wanted to go home early. I needed to go see if I could get into this PT school tomorrow if I wanted to start my classes as soon as possible.

He quickly gathered all the pieces of clothing and handed them to me. "I don't need to try on more. I'm getting the green one." He smiled gently.

Thank God he understood. "Okay, I'll go put them in place. If you go to the pay desk, my colleague will check you out." I smiled tightly at him and went to put the last pieces in order.

When I finished, I made my way towards a rack of clothing where the hangers were a mess. Someone took me by the arm and I turned around quickly.

The contact made me flinch unconsciously. I didn't know why though. His big hands reminded me of my boyfriend, since he was also a tall and fit guy, but the hard grip he used to use on me was completely different of the soft and gentle grip of this guy.

"Riley." The guy of the changing room smiled, totally oblivious about my inside anxiety. "Thanks for your help."

"That's my job." I let out a little laugh as I shrugged.

He stared at me for a few seconds, his eyes a little narrowed but his expression calm, as his lips formed half a smile.

The brown eyed guy suddenly changed his expression and saluted, giving me one of his incredible smiles. "Well, wish me luck!"

I smiled. "Good luck."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The building was huge. Way bigger than mine at home. Thank God I could find the secretary's office and enroll in.

My sister was really helpful when lending me money for my studies. I knew her husband and she weren't having the best time when it came to that, so I planned on returning every single cent.

When I was in my way to buy some things for my new apartment, such as some paint, sheets and some plants, my phone rang.

It barely did, I usually texted my sister and as I mentioned before, I didn't have any friends. I remembered having a group of friends in high school. We weren't the most popular ones, but it was really nice. The majority of them, left the town but I always liked it there, so I stayed.

I met my exboyfriend in my senior year, and the few friends who stayed at university in town, turned their back to me. Now I understood why.

Now it was really difficult for me to make friends, I had big trust issues and I'd become a really shy person. I didn't remember being shy before, I just started consuming myself more and more. It's not that I wanted to be all by myself, I really enjoyed company, going out. It's just that I felt to awkward and uncomfortable it made me really anxious and wanting to crawl under my covers for all day long.

I noticed my heart beating faster when I read the name on the screen.

The word babe had been replaced by don't pick up the moment I took the train to the city.

Some strange and old pull was urging me not to pay attention to what was written and press the green button.

I still wanted to hear that he was sorry, that he loved me. That he would change and it would be the last time he did what he did.

But the love I had for myself was even bigger than the feeling of false hope.

I did what I should've done a long time ago, block his number.

After having a quick shower before going to work, I stared at my reflection in the fogged up mirror. I wanted to make a change in my appearance, but I didn't know if I had the guts to do it.

My dark brown wavy hair had always been so long. Even in the first memories I had of my childhood, my hair was long. My mom always liked it and I always took good care of it.

But I was tired. It was as if all these locks of hair represented my other life. The life I had in my hometown. He also liked the long hair.

Well now I hated it.

In an aggressive impulse, I took the scissors I had somewhere in the kitchen and went to the bathroom again.

Did I really want to do this?

Don't think about it, just do it.

Grabbing the scissors, I slowly began cutting locks and locks of hair. Saying goodbye to my beautiful dark hair wasn't easy, saying goodbye to my former life wasn't either.

I smiled as I checked my now shoulder lengthed hair. Not so bad, a little irregular but I thought it would be worse.

Saying goodbye to the pain, the impotence, the feeling of being useless... that wasn't easy, that was the most pleasant feeling in the world.

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Hi everyone! I decided to post the first chapter of the story, I hope I won't have to change a thing while writing the rest 😂

Hope you liked it! I did it so you could have a little sneak peek of the story, the prologue was a little vague, so there you are.

What do you think of Luca's appearance? Did you expect any of that?

What do you think of him? And Riley?

Don't forget to vote and let me know what you think in the comments! ♥️

Also remember it will start to be updated at the end of September! Thanks for reading xx