Chapter 2 - Holden

I have always enjoyed living in Chance. It was a typical small town but it was where I had decided to spend my life. Things had not always been that way. I had made plans, lifelong plans, with a beautiful redhead. We met on our very first day of kindergarten. I can still remember her looking so shy sitting at a table all by herself. She had on a green dress that matched her big beautiful eyes. I had promised to sit with my friend Seth but I couldn’t stop myself from sitting down next to her. After that day we were inseparable. We may have started out as friends but it became so much more. I had asked her to marry me and run away together. That was the plan until she disappeared after graduation eight years ago. She left with no explanation. This has been eating me up ever since. I was still so angry with her. Now though I was going to have to see her again, because God has a sense of humor; because Mayson is coming back home. With her being back home, she could not hide from me forever. I needed to talk to her. She owed me an explanation as to why she left. She was going to talk to me whether she liked it or not. That was something I would deal with at a later date. Getting through this presentation was top priority. My talk with Mayson was going to have to wait.

I was sitting at my favorite spot at Fred’s when Seth walked in. We have been friends from birth but today was not one of those days that I wanted to deal with him. He knew Mayson was coming back to town and he wouldn’t drop the subject every time that we were together. And being together on a daily basis since we both worked with the city zoning department. Thankfully, I had my first cup of coffee before he sat down.

“Good morning, my man, how’s it hanging?” He was so loud when he came into a room, but it was part of his personality. No matter how bad of a day someone was having Seth always knew how to cheer them up. I guess that is why he was voted class clown of our graduating class.

“Good morning to you Seth, and everything is hanging fine.” I say with a smirk on my face. I have always tried to keep up with Seth in the humor department but that is something I have never been able to accomplish. Seth may be the jokester but his strength and friendship is what helped me cope with Mayson leaving town. I was a wreck for months. I tried to find her. I had friends in the police department and they bent a few rules for me and tried tracking her phone. She was smart as always and had already bought a burner phone. The burner phone was originally meant for us to have when we left town together to get married. She used it instead to get as far away from me as she could. I had gone to the town that we had planned on moving to, in hopes of her going there, but she had another escape plan that I wasn’t privy to. It took me six months to finally accept the fact that she wasn’t coming back and she didn’t want to have anything to do with me. Seth had tried to tell me this as soon as she left, but I just couldn’t give up hope that she would change her mind and come back to me, where she truly belonged.

“Holden, are you ready for the meeting with the board about the building project? I know you have been working a lot of late hours lately to get your proposal ready.” Seth knew that this could be a career maker or breaker and we were both determined for it to be the career maker. This project was also important to the town as well. Chance needs the influx of money and the new jobs. When the paper mill shut down, there were also a lot of people that had been out of work. This project had to happen. It was up to myself and Seth to present this to the board and the architect firm in the most professional way possible. The future of the town was on our shoulders.

“I am as ready as I am going to be. There is a lot riding on this and this just has to go through. There is no way that we can let the town down. It’s time for Chance to get its ‘second chance.’ This can be the project that gives our design firm the recognition that it needs to.” After college, Seth and I both struggled working side jobs while we were working on building designs. We could have stayed in a bigger place and be rolling in the money. The plans had to change when my original plan of leaving and marrying Mayson didn’t work out. I hadn’t even planned on going to college and I had been accepted to a few schools. I had my pick of schools, but all I ever really wanted was a life with Mayson. So the plan changed and Seth and I went to Penn State together and created our company H&S Designs.

“Let’s get out of here, Holden. We need to do one last run through of this presentation before the 10 a.m. meeting. I don’t want either one of us to make a fool of ourselves - at least not on purpose.” I paid the bill and we both headed back to the office. It’s time to make this plan a reality.