Chapter 37

"Are you quite sure about this?" Judith Winters, the principal of West High, asked as she raised a drawn-on eye- brow and scrutinized the resignation letter she held in her hand.

"Yes." Valentine nodded.

"Very well, then." Judith scrawled her signature of approval onto the letter, cementing Valentine release from her teaching contract. "Obviously, you'll stay with us until the end of the year. The students will be disappointed to see you leave, as will I."

"Thank you," Valentine replied graciously. "It was a difficult decision to make, but I feel like it's time for me to move on."

"I accept that West isn't the most cosmopolitan of places," Judith drawled in her slight southern accent. "In all honesty, I'm surprised we held on to you as long as we did. A young woman of your caliber could teach anywhere she wanted to."

"That's kind of you to say."

"So where will you be going?" Judith asked out of curiosity, leaning forward in her leather desk chair.

"I've been offered a teaching position in New York City," Valentine replied.

"Ah, the Big Apple." Judith nodded. "Well, good luck to you, Valentine. I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for there." She extended her hand, and Valentine shook it.

"Thank you, I'm sure I will." Valentine grinned. She stepped out of Judith office and into the main corridor of the school that she would soon be leaving. She felt giddy with excitement over her decision to leave. It had been a long time coming, and she was proud that she'd finally found the confidence to move on to bigger and better things. Not that it was so much confidence but more about finding the right cause.

Valentine needed to be in New York. It was where she belonged; she saw that now. Still jubilant about her decision, she headed down the corridor towards her classroom, eager to impart the news about her new job to the one person who mattered most to her.

****

Dusty looked around her now empty apartment. It hadn't taken her long to pack away all her belongings. She'd found a new place to live, a beautiful one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, and the most wonderful part of it all was that Ashley had also managed to secure a lease on an apartment in the same building. Dusty couldn't wait to be near her best friend once more.

She also couldn't wait to have a kitchen, a living area and an actual bedroom and bathroom. She'd visited the apartment the previous week and been blown away by how modern and beautiful it was. In the excitement of moving, she'd almost forgotten all about Valentine. But then her heart would burn with the pain of her love for her, and she was reminded of how much she longed for her. Try as she might, she couldn't stop loving him.

Glancing out of her apartment window, Dusty bid farewell to the neighborhood that had helped shape her first tentative months in the city. She looked forlornly at the spot down the block where she'd been mugged at gunpoint. The encounter had taught her a lot. She was more self-aware and took better care to hide her possessions. As awful as it had been, being mugged had helped her transcend into being a fully-fledged New Yorker.

Dusty's iPad whirred, and she flicked the screen on with her finger. She'd received an email from her mother. Since she'd bought Kayla her own iPad, she was being inundated with emails from her, all detailing the progress of restoring their family home to its former glory. Opening the message, Dusty was greeted by an image that brought tears to her eyes.

It was her old bedroom, tastefully decorated with shabby chic furniture. There was a white wooden bedstead in the center of the room, covered in a pink patchwork bedspread. Beside it was a white wooden vanity unit and a chaise longue. It looked beautiful and regal, like the bedroom of a princess. As Dusty looked at the picture, she spotted a violin peeking out from a far corner. And beyond was the vast window Dusty had used to gaze out of for hours on end, and even in the picture she could make out the trees swaying idly in the background, their bare branches heavy with freshly fallen snow.

So much had changed, and yet still the trees remained, standing guard like giants at the back of the house. Scanning down, her eyes misting, Dusty read the message which accompanied the image.

Hi Darling,

Good luck today with moving! I thought you might like to see this. I've finally got your old bedroom finished. I hope you like it. This room will always be yours. West will always be a home for us all. Whenever you want to visit, your bedroom is there, waiting for you.

Speak soon, Love Always, Mom xxx

P.S. I've had a very tough time with the deliverymen this week. I blame the snow!

Dusty smiled warmly to herself as she read the message. She had her bedroom again, and a part of her relaxed with relief at that sense of belonging. Home had always been an anchor in her life, a place she could retreat to whenever things got too tough. Seeing her bedroom now, seeing how beautiful it looked, reminded her of just how badly she'd missed having her safe place, her bolt hole.

Looking at the picture, it also made Dusty realize the style she wanted to decorate her New York apartment in. If she decked it all out in shabby chic design, it would be like bringing a little bit of her West home to the city! With her hand poised to type an email in response, the sound of a car horn caught her attention. She looked out of her window and saw the waiting cab she'd asked her landlord to hail for her. It was time to leave. She picked up her duffel bag and two boxes worth of belongings and headed out of her apartment and down the rickety staircase.