Anna

By Rene Bird

Anna is twenty-two years of age and is getting desperate. She feels there is pressure from her friends to find a husband and live the “happy family” dream. The majority of her friends are either engaged or married, and the circle she moves in talks relentlessly about the future they have planned. She is attractive and intelligent, but finding the right partner proves to be very disappointing and challenging. She knows the man for her is out there somewhere—she just has to find him. When she does find him, she goes to the darkest depths to keep him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jan 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796000276

Rene Bird

After a career as a Private Secretary and Personal Assistant, Rene decided to use the talents she was blessed with for her own purpose. Rene lives at the seaside on the outer reaches of Melbourne, Australia. She is an avid reader herself and has always found time the time to read, not only as a relaxing tool but also to open her mind. She graduated from college and then traveled before settling down and marrying. Her two daughters and their four children keep her busy. At 55 years of age Rene has found writing a great past time and stimulates her thinking.

Book preview

1

Anna opened her eyes when she heard the closing of her front door. It was being closed ever so quietly, shushing over the carpet and giving a little click when the lock fell into place.

She reached over to the other side of her double bed and knew instinctively that he had gone. He must have quietly got out of bed, dressed and then left. The bedclothes were still warm where he had lain all night and still had the faint aroma of his maleness. It was of no use her getting up and trying to catch him before he went down the flight of stairs in her apartment building to the front foyer and then out of the entrance doors. He would be lost in the crowds of people on their way to work.

She looked at the clock on the bedside table and it was approaching seven thirty. It was a Friday morning and there would be a rush of pedestrians along the pavements all wrapped up in their own little worlds, most probably hurrying towards a job they did not like, purely to get through another day, another week another year.

Leaning over to her right, she stretched and pulled on the cord which opened the drapes. The morning light

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was subdued and grey with what looked like a heavy mist in the air. The weather outside looked depressing and that made Anna’s emotions slump even further. She didn’t know for how much longer she could survive a life which she felt was unfulfilling and meaningless.

Although she was financially secure, with a small share portfolio and her apartment totally paid for – thanks to her parents who had unfortunately died in a car accident four years previously, she still felt her life would be enhanced by a partner to share her days. She was an only child and had no siblings vying for their share of supposed inheritance and her parents had given her an ideal childhood and had saved unstintingly for her college education.

By all accounts she felt she was indeed fortunate. She had applied for a position in Sydney after graduating from college and although she was quite a distance from her parents, she settled into her work as a Social Worker/Family Therapist with ease. Weekends travelling to the back of the Blue Mountains to see them was always something to look forward to. They were sure to be found somewhere around their property, keen and smiling to know she would be in their company for two whole days.

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Anna missed the love and attention she received from her parents. It was given unconditionally and in return she loved them. When they had died in the car accident she had to come to terms with all the difficulties faced in arranging their funerals, disposing of the personal effects and selling the property.

Her parents, as they always had done, had even made those tasks as easy as they could be for her. The property had been meticulously maintained with fencing constantly repaired, the sheep and cattle moved into alternate paddocks along with selective cropping. The Property Estate Realtor advertised the property in the New South Wales Sales Journal and it had sold for an excellent price within the month.

Disposing of furniture from the farm house was not as difficult as Anna thought it would be as she realized she did not particularly like any items of furniture her parents owned. She had telephoned a local charity and a large moving van had arrived, packed in the furniture and took off down the dirt track to the main road all within two hours.

Going through her parents’ personal effects was most distressing. Along with a property in near perfect condition, papers relating to the farm were all in order

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– even the latest taxation forms filled in and posted. Bank statements etc. were all reconciled and a folder containing share certificates was up to date. Her mother was very particular with all paper work and had files containing all birth and marriage certificates. Anna had silently thanked her mother for the diligence she had applied. The tears however had not stopped flowing each time she sat in her mother’s office pushing herself to ensure all t’s had been crossed as her mother would have done.

A cupboard in the hallway had contained all the photo albums. Her mother had placed the albums near the front door in case a bush fire had forced them to evacuate in a hurry. Having the albums at the front door was, in her mother’s opinion, an assurance that they would not be left behind, or unable to be found when panic would surface.

There were ten large albums and Anna had taken these with her when she left the property and they were now safely packed away in her apartment. The albums contained, not only photographs of her own family, but those of other relatives as well. There was also the occasional birthday card or post card her mother had kept for some sentimental reason.

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The albums had been packed away for four years now and Anna knew it would be many more years before she could bring herself to look at those happy pictures. She dearly wanted the relationship with someone dear to her the way her parents had.

It wasn’t as though she was not attractive enough to catch the eye of passing men or workmates. She was tall and slim and had an abundance of deep auburn hair, which caught the light when she moved her head, and her hair took on a coppery glow. Her eyes were a grey/green colour, and depending upon the clothes she wore, would take on either the grey or green dominance.

Her eyes were set wide with long dark lashes and eyebrows that just had an inference of questioning about their arch.

She had not had any boyfriends in school or college. She had befriended mainly girls who wanted to study and get good results rather than party animals. Leaving college and establishing herself in the workplace was also of prime importance to her, so by the time she was twenty-two she had not had a close relationship with a male, teenage or adult.

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For some time now she had a yearning deep within her to be a wife and mother. So many of her friends were married and most of them had children. They were families facing the world and she wanted to be one of them. The trouble was, she could not, for any length of time, be in a relationship.

Anna looked at the clock. It was now approaching eight a.m. and time for her to shower and dress. She ran her hands over her body where he had been. She had given herself so completely to his love making. Whatever he wanted he was offered with matched enthusiasm. There wasn’t an orifice in her body he had not taken advantage of. As she brushed her hair away from the side of her face she was aware of her hair clumping over her left ear. She fingered her ear and was not surprised to find it sticky and thick. What more could she have done to keep him in her life she wondered.

Shucking off the bedclothes she slowly walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower. Glancing at herself in the mirror she was surprised to see her reflection showed the disappointment she was feeling in her heart. Looking at herself and remembering the sound of the door lock clicking into place, she made a promise to herself that she would set a goal to find a

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man to satisfy her dreams. And this she would do by fair means or foul.

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Standing under the warm water and letting it run down her face and body she thought about all the young men in the office she where she worked. Surely there must be someone there who would fulfil her dreams.

Each of these guys had differing personalities and she vowed she would work hard to align herself to those personalities so that she would be noticed by them and a relationship might be in the offing.

Adam, the first guy she dated after meeting him only six weeks from the start of her employment, was a keen fitness guru and spent many hours a week exercising and running kilometers each morning. Anna took out a membership to the local gym that Adam attended and made sure she was present when he arrived for his daily workout routine.

After a couple of weeks he began to notice her, smiling at her at the gym and also at work. She made sure she always wore the right gear at the gym and at work wore tight skirts and suits which showed off her slight but curvaceous thighs.

When Adam approached her for drinks, and maybe a meal together, Anna had made sure she had

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researched his likes and dislikes as far as drinks and food were concerned. She endeavored to be his soul mate – at least on the surface.

The relationship was not rushed into. Adam taking his time to get to know Anna over drinks, meals, walks in the park and movies together. So by the time they were in a full-blown relationship with gym associates, work mates and friends being aware of their closeness, Anna was convinced she had met the man who was going to share the rest of her life.

Not so. Three months into the relationship, Adam told her very bluntly, over a restaurant meal of course so that she would be unable to make a scene, that he needed to move on and that she should do the same.

Anna was totally devastated. Over the ensuing month she found she could not attend work or meet any friends. Upon visiting a doctor she was prescribed anti-depressant drugs and a suggestion made for her to attend therapy. Not wanting to feel as though she could not cope with disappointments in life, Anna struggled on with the thought that her life would take on a positive turn and she would find happiness.

After Adam came Tom. A few months after Adam she became aware of Tom. He was a quiet literary

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buff, deeply into research,