Romance In The Tuscan Hills: A New Beginning by Jenniffer Cardelle

3. Chapter One
     
    Romance Among The Tuscan Hills
     
     
    Danielle took a quick bite of the lightly buttered toast she made for breakfast before taking a swig of milk straight from the carton.  She put the milk back and shut the fridge with one well placed kick of her high heeled shoe.  Her mother always told her 'the early bird catches the worm.'  That's the only reason she would be up before the sun, drinking milk out of the carton and already dressed for work.  Being an early bird landed her a high powered, high stress job in an equally high powered, high stress firm.   It would have made her mother proud...If only she was here to see it.
     
    “Miss you, Mom.” 
     
    Danielle kissed her index and middle finger and touched them to her mom's picture hanging next to the door on her way out to catch the subway to the heart of the city.  Her mother would be proud of her success, but was Dani?  Some days, other days she wished she was anywhere but here.   What would it be like to be far away from the city?  Would she miss the constant go, go, go that kept her mind whirling 24/7?   She couldn't slow down even if she wanted to.   Not here.
     
    Dani elbowed her way onto the subway and dived for the only available seat.  Other passengers with the same designs on the seat gave her death glares but Dani didn't care.  Early bird catches the worm.  As the subway lurched away from the station, she closed her eyes and tried to imagine what it would be like to step away from it all and just be...free.  She hadn't had a second to slow down and take stock of everything wrong (and right) in her life in a long time.  Now wasn't that time either.  Not with the ska music blaring through the kid's earbuds next to her or the guy hacking up a lung two seats down.  Quiet was seriously lacking in her life.  Maybe it was time for a change. 
     
    But not today.  There was too much to do.  There was always too much to do. 
     
    ~*~
     
    “Hey, Dani, how's it going?”  Her co-worker and semi-stalker James managed to squeeze into the office elevator as she punched the 'door close' button.  “You're looking great as usual.”
     
    “Thanks.”  Dani decided it was best to answer anything James said to her in one word sentences.  It wasn't encouraging but it wasn't completely dismissive either. 
     
    “So The Big Boss Man is gunning for blood again,” James said.  “Something about reports due by 10:30, and no one coming in early.  Besides you and me, I mean.  We know how to get ahead in the world.”
     
    “Yup,” Dani said.
     
    “We'd make a good team in and out of work.”
     
    “Maybe” she said in a noncommittal, way.  Good enough to keep James from going into a rejection spiral and neglecting his work, but not enough to actually give him any hope. 
    “Maybe we can do lunch sometime.”
     
    Dani shot out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened.  The let's do lunch thing would require much more than a one word response.  She didn't want to go there now – especially when there were a mountain of reports to analyze sitting on her desk.  The Big Boss Man Robert didn't like to be kept waiting.  When he said reports on his desk by 10:30, what he really meant was reports on his desk by 9:30.  
     
    Dani closed her office door and made her way to her desk.  It was a comfortable enough set up with the sort of plush leather and polished wood her mom would have drooled over.  This meant she made it.  She was someone in the world of finance.
     
    Then why did her life feel so hollow?
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
    4. Chapter Two
     
     
     
     
    Dani unlocked the door to her townhouse, dropped her bag on the kitchen counter as she passed through on way to the living room, and finally sunk into the plush leather of her