The Time In Between

When Paul boarded the bus as he departed Apple Bay fifteen years ago, he decided he would stay on until it reached its final destination. With his mind muddled with chaos, anxiety, and emotions, he wasn't paying much attention to the stops it made along the way, all he knew was that he was heading west.

A part of him had wanted it to go all the way to California so he could put as much distance between him and the pain that was born and fed in Apple Bay, but the bus did reach the end of the line before it made it that far.

When the driver ushered everyone off the bus announcing they had arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada, Paul felt something in him stir with a foreign sense of hope and possibilities. He had no inclination towards gambling, but he knew Nevada had an abundance of jobs.

As soon as he could, he settled himself in a motel room three miles away from the Vegas strip and immediately began searching for an apartment and a job. He had been able to find a job as a janitor in one of the popular swanky hotels, and soon thereafter, he moved into an apartment two miles further from the strip.

It wasn't easy in the beginning.

Most of the money he had on hand slipped through his fingers within the first month. A few nights he suffered cold and hunger, especially on winter nights where he had to work the graveyard shift and then walk home in unexpected freezing temperatures.

Gradually, he moved up the ranks in the hotel learning everything he could - offering to help any hotel worker that needed it.

One night, a rabid stomach flu seized control of many restaurant workers, and Paul volunteered to help the chef any way he could. He soon caught Management's eye and was promoted to dishwasher. Within a few years, he was on the line helping prepare dishes.

When he was off work, to quell his loneliness he liked to walk through the casinos and people watch. He looked at each person in the casino, coming up with a backstory as to what was awaiting them at home.

And whom.

Eventually, Paul realized he never gave anyone imaginary happiness- so he started to write and try to figure out way to write misery out of everyone's life until one day Paul decided to include himself in these ranks and write himself a happy ending.

He began to experiment with giving faces at the hotel a different type of genre until he realized he had a knack for mystery novels and whodunits.

He began publishing stories online under a pseudonym in case he made a fool of himself and failed miserably; he didn't want anyone at Apple Bay to catch wind of his failures, but when the opposite happened and he became a popular online author with an abundant following, his unexpected career took off and became financially lucrative.

When his bank funds began to increase, Paul decided to remain anonymous lest his stepfather find out he was a financial success and try to come after him for more money. He knew then and there it was best to leave the sullen, unlucky and unloved Paul MacKenzie in the dark where the successful writer was involved.

He emerged as the elusive and introverted successful author, Bruce Marshall. If he granted interviews, they would be done over the phone exclusively. No images of Bruce Marshall would ever exist either.

Anything associating the two personas would remain locked away forever.

Paul never failed to give gratitude for his blessings as they had allowed him to travel and count the expenses as a work-related tax deduction - which is what he was doing as he sat in the Maui resort he was visiting for research for his next novel.

He was sipping coffee, enjoying the peace and taking advantage of the blissful moment to send a small prayer of gratitude to the heavens for this blessing when he heard a soft, feminine voice call his name from across the table.

"Paul!"

He stared up, looking at a familiarly beautiful face that had graced his computer screen whenever he felt homesick and wanted to feel connected to something that made him feel whole.

Paul slowly put his coffee cup down, standing to his full six-foot-two frame.

"Serena." He whispered incredulously.