Free Return to Sender by Harmony Raines

Chapter One
    Marcus folded the letter carefully, he had spent two
days writing it, struggling to find the words he wanted to say.
This was the most important letter he had ever written to Christie,
hell, it was the most important letter he had ever written in his
life.
    He sealed the envelope and addressed it carefully; he
certainly didn’t want this one going astray. Then he got up and
left his barracks to hand it over to be posted before he had a
chance to change his mind. He had poured his heart into that
letter, something he had always struggled to do, having been
brought up by parents who taught him to always keep his emotions
under control. They were not something you showed other people,
they were a weakness.
    Yet over the last six months of exchanging letters
with Christie he had begun to open up, to express things he had
never had the courage to before. It had taken time, after all she
had been a complete stranger when they had first started to
correspond, but now they knew each other inside out, even though
they had never met.
    That was what his letter was about, he was returning
home from Afghanistan in two weeks time, and he wanted to meet her.
From the previous letters she had sent he was sure she felt the
same way, but naming a time and a place was something else, it was
a commitment.
    Deed done, he returned to his temporary home and sat
down on the bed. He couldn’t take it back now, it was done, and now
all he could do was wait.
    ***
    “Hey, Marcus, there's a letter for you.”
    A week had passed; this was it, her reply. Nervously
he reached out for the envelope, and then his heart hit the ground
as though a mortar had been aimed at it. The envelope was his. He
turned it over to read the words, “return to sender, no longer at
this address” written in a neat hand across it.
    He stood staring at it. How could he have got it so
wrong? The relationship they had nurtured in their letter writing
seemed so real, so honest, how could she simply move and not let
him now. The words of his parents came back to him, they were right
after all, you couldn’t trust anyone with your heart, it was best
to just wall it up and not let anyone in.
     
    ***

Chapter Two
    Christie sat looking out of her window, the light was
fading from the sky, evening was settling in and any minute now
Sarah Jane was going to be knocking on her door. They were supposed
to be going dancing, to cheer her up, but all she wanted to do was
stay inside and hide.
    Let’s face it, all the men would be falling over
themselves to dance with, Sarah Jane, she was after all stunning to
look at, unfortunately that was all that seemed to matter to men
these days. More and more people seemed to judge you by what was on
the outside, not the inside. So no one really got to know Christie,
because no one ever wanted to dance with Sarah Jane's fat
friend.
    However, Christie knew she couldn’t sit here forever,
she had to move on. But to what? If a man who had shared so much
with her, but had never even met her, could dump her, then what
hope was there?
    She jumped at the sound of the door, even though she
had been expecting it. “You have to pull yourself together.” She
chastised herself.
    “Are you ready for some fun?” Sarah Jane flounced
into the room wearing the smallest dress Christie had ever
seen.
    “I can see you are,” Christie stated flatly.
    “If you’ve got it flaunt it.” Sarah Jane smoothed her
dress down over her slim thighs. “And tonight I have definitely got
it.”
    Sarah Jane, ever tactful. Christie wondered sometimes
if Sarah Jane only hung around with her because it made her look
better against Christie’s curvy body. Men actually felt sorry for
her, having to hang around with such a moose. Christie chastised
herself for her unusual catty thoughts, it wasn’t Sarah Jane’s
fault that Christie had such a curvaceous body, rather than being
stick thin.
    They had been friends since high school, and had
always kept in touch,