The Arrangement

Chapter 1

The story is available in Galatea app

Galatea is more detailed, and the interactive version. I will recommend you to give it a read.

This book is rough work, contains lots of grammatical mistakes and English is not my first language, so please bear with me.

"Macey where are you?" Macey was my one-year-old black Persian cat who was now sitting on top of my wardrobe staring down at me curiously.

"C'mon kitty, get down here and eat your food."

She meowed and jumped down into my arms as I headed towards the kitchen before serving her cat food to her so that I could get ready.

Living in Manhattan, New York wasn't easy for me. Even with a Bachelors's in Engineering, still I have managed to remain jobless but I was lucky enough to share an apartment with my childhood best friend, Emily Lockwood. Emily was somewhat of a legend is the only person to break down the walls of yours truly, Angela Carson.

Speaking of Emily, nowadays I often help her in her flower shop. Yup, a flower shop. I've been questioned on this since I have my degree in mechanics but thanks to my overprotective and extremely possessive brothers who don't believe I should be working after what happened with me in my previous company. I find this impossibility. I'm not surprised since they've never allowed me to work but then this incident had to happen to me.

Ever since our mom died when I was 15, they've kept me securely under their wings, pampering and spoiling me. Nowadays they pay my rent as well as give me a monthly allowance, much to my refusal. Since our father runs his own restaurant in Chicago they've gone into business with him since they finished school. They just couldn't leave him on his own after mom died. With Lucas being 26 and Danny being 25 they were old enough to take over from our father, Matthew Carson.

Living in Chicago all my life I needed a breath of fresh air, so when Em decided to move to the Big Apple, I joined her much to their disapproval. I needed my independence and since the only way to appease both them and myself, I agreed not to work as an employee and instead chose to work with Em in her flower shop. But that was a lie of course... I have started my job hunting and I am pretty sure I will get a job in no time.

Yes, someone could say this is a unique choice to make but I can ensure that I'll not be working with Em for the rest of my life. Yes, I do have priorities heck everyone has priorities in their lives and in order to be more independent I have decided to finally go against my family's absurd choice of wanting me not to work just for a silly incident.

The sound of my phone ringing snapped me out to reality and I checked my phone to see five missed calls from Emily. I inhaled a breath seeing her message asking me to be there by ten. I checked the time to find its already nine-thirty in the morning. So, not bothering to waste any more time I hurried myself to get ready and reach her before the time.

I threw on my white floral knee-length dress before slipping on my gladiators. I had enough time to quickly do a braid letting it fall to the side leaving no time for me to do my makeup. I took my phone and locked my apartment but not before checking on my cat. I saw her jumping onto my mattress and snuggling into the pillow sleeping as almost she touched the pillow. A small smile appeared on my face and I hurried to lock my apartment door before racing down the street to Emily's shop. Taking long strides, I tried to walk as quickly as I could to her shop. I saw George sitting with his black Labrador reading the newspaper on the bench. He was an old man who would come every day in the morning with his black Labrador for a walk and since I walk every day to Em's shop I meet him daily and I wave at him to which he replied by smiling and waving back at me while his dog barked swinging its tail happily seeing me.