Thunderstorms

Maia Cambiasso

My life had been pretty much settled ever since the day I was told I had been admitted as an exchange student in a British university. Back then I was twenty one, and I thought I was only going to go, take a couple courses and come back home to my sweet, wild, young and passionate Buenos Aires. Boy, was I wrong. I had worked so hard at college that I was offered to finish my career in England. Since then, it all seemed to only go uphill for me. I landed myself a job, could afford renting my own apartment in London, and I even got myself a boyfriend. Life was good to me.

It all started when I decided to chase the strenuous path of veterinary sciences. Animals moved me in a way nothing ever did, especially horses. I was born in Argentina, daughter to one of the best polo players of all times. Let me just say, horses have surrounded me my whole life, and I lived for it. I never was the polo player dad would have liked me to be, though. I liked polo, it had a certain adrenaline to it that I just couldn't explain, you had to watch it to feel it. But showjumping, that was something else. Jumping was flying. Feeling the connection with your equine partner, the thumping of their gallop in the arena, trusting an animal that would never understand your language, that was able to even kill you, but still trusted you too. And here I was in England, making my way around show jumping horses, surrounded by the best teachers. I was about to finish my vet studies to then pursue a higher degree in equine sports therapy and rehabilitation and veterinary physiotherapy. Yes, it sounded cool, and it definitely was.

Studying was basically everything I had done since I first entered college, vet sciences demand that much from you. My friends would keep on telling me that it was pointless to keep on once I finally got my degree, but advancing in the animal field was my only and main goal. There was something in studying, in knowing I'm smart and capable of doing stuff, that I just couldn't resist. I was destined for something big, and I had always known that. And as years went by, my college authorities started to notice that, almost forcing me to apply to as many jobs as I could to exploit the skills they saw in me.

It was like that how I ended up where I'm now. I live in London, in the apartment of my dreams, accompanied by my loyal husky Diesel and my three kitties Angora, Pirate and Bandit. Fun fact about Pirate and Bandit: the day I found them abandoned in a dark alley, they were both already missing one eye, so I would always call them my one-eyed bastards. Diesel, on the other hand, was born with heterochromia and is a total gentleman. Angora though can be a real bitch sometimes, but she is generally your typical cat if she's in a good mood. All in all, you would think my flat is a mess, but I had my children well educated.

Last year, I finally got a job at a polo club, training and caring for the horses. They had been particularly interested in my Argentinian polo past and high exam scores. Occasionally, I would teach a couple of initiation students the basics of equitation, and they would later on be passed on to another teacher to start their paths as junior polo players. It wasn't my show jumping dream job, but polo still had a soft spot deep within my heart, and dad had made sure that I was good at it. Truth is, I knew I was good at it. Besides, the place was only a couple of miles away from college, in the outskirts of Essex, so it was easy for me to travel from one place to another, even though I didn't have to go to college every day. I was doing most of my studies virtually at home, given that as I was almost finished with my career, I decided to take it as smoothly as possible and focus more on my job. The main reason why I kept going to Writtle University was because it was the home to my two equine jewels, Zodiac and Highlander. They were everything I had dreamed in a horse as a little girl, they were literally all my hopes and aspirations. Zodiac had been with me for the past seven years, he was my first ever horse of my own, and a total dandy. My dad bought him for me for my eighteenth birthday, and we traveled all the way from Buenos Aires to London to start our new life in Europe together. Highlander, on the other side, came to my life almost as a surprise, when my riding instructor Georgie said she had found a horse that would fit me to perfection. I doubted her at first, not being totally sure if I was taking the right decision, but the moment my eyes landed on Highlander I knew he was a special dude. Georgie had been right, she was always right. She had become my English mom, and I really appreciated her company in my first years in England, when I barely knew anyone around.

Still, the most surprising thing of this all was my boyfriend James. How on Earth did I manage to have the time to find myself a man? I didn't know, but if I could be sure about one thing was that I always had some spare hours for sensuality, and James felt right into it. I had to admit, I loved being and feeling sexy, having a little elegance and being a disaster at the same time. I loved sex, lust, love and whatever else that had to do with it. To me, balance was the key to life, and James came into my life to put the final piece of my life's puzzle in place. For the first time in my life, I could say that I was in love. We'd met at a pub three years ago and we just clicked. I was out with my college friends for a drink and he was hanging out with his marketing work mates. The rest was history, and somehow we had managed to keep the relationship stable and going. Although he was a little older than me, him being thirty and me twenty-five, we got along as if we had known each other for years. And let's just say I always had a thing for older men.

As I said, my life was settled down. Everything was just perfect. I liked being responsible for my stuff and being an independent girl, having my career and brains to keep me going straight. As much as James would joke about me being his, I was no one's property and I liked it that way. I was my own owner and person, free and happy, with my mind clear as regards what I wanted and what I didn't. My life was beautiful, there was no way I was planning on changing anything, I loved it the way it was. A life with someone to love, filled with exciting projects, and surrounded by animals as the proper future vet I was. It was all going great, suspiciously great. And of course, he had to appear to fuck my whole world up.