Page 1 of For I Have Sinned
One
ZAIDEN
I thought I knew all there was to know. I’m one of those guys who’s all guy. Always throwing myself into anything with my head first. I have the scars and broken bones to prove it.
The town I grew up in wasn’t overly small, but it had a small-town feel with families remaining in the area for generations. Everyone knew everyone. There’s a sense of pride in this town where we’ve kept all the old original structures intact. Not just there, closed off and condemned as nothing but a reminder, but solid and operational.
There are the old stone houses down Ringwald Way. Downtown roads are still cobblestone. The street lamps are the kind that burn with candles—except they’re now electric to keep them safe. Outside the still operational old firehouse is an engine from back in the early 1900s. It still runs, and the town uses it in parades.
I went away to college right out of high school. Moved across the country to a huge city. I played soccer and graduated nameless in a sea of black robes. For the entire four years there, I felt like a nobody. Even as an athlete in a school known for its athletic department, and even as one of the better players on my team, I was still nameless. Faceless. Just a number.
Upon graduation, I came home. Most of my friends had a similar experience. There’s something to be said about the grass on the other side not always being greener.
Putting my mundane business degree to good use, I became a real estate agent. It seemed like the only job that would still afford me the freedom I sought while being able to earn some decent money. Growing up, I was told I could sell anything with my smile and friendly personality. I was damn good about delivering on something impossible.
College nearly had my confidence in myself wiped out but when I got home and dropped in on my best friend Liam, also newly returned from college and feeling the same as I did, I got to talking with him and his older brother. Sam had been a realtor for years and he was attempting to talk Liam into the same career.
As I listened to them talk, snacking on his mother’s famous oatmeal cookies, I thought, this is exactly the field where I can put my skills to use.
Six months later, I was a licensed realtor. Sam hired me. I made my first sale within two weeks. Four years later, I still work with Sam but now as a partner as opposed to just an agent. Meaning, while I continue to make my own sales, I also gain a small commission from the other agents working for our company as well.
This gives me the freedom to live. To travel. Every time I go somewhere new, I come home relieved to have gone but knowing that this is where I belong. This is home.
My next goal in life is a wife, a forever house, kids. I want it all. The only problem is that I feel like I’ve known everyone in my town my entire life. It’s not true, of course. While we may only have one high school and not three like the big cities, we’re always expanding. People come and sometimes, rarely, people go.
And yet, I’m sure that I’ve met everyone in my age group. A few years older and right down to just legal. Not a single woman has ever caught my interest for more than a casual dating arrangement.
Sometimes I think this is why I continue to travel. Because my wife isn’t in my small town. She’s somewhere else. Somewhere in the wide-open world, waiting for me to find her.
“Zaiden.”
I close the app before locking my phone. I’ve resorted to dating apps. That’s something I keep to myself. Because it’s not a line of questioning I’m interested in facing.
Looking up, I find none other than Liam heading for me. I’ve been sitting outside my office for the past half an hour, enjoying the early summer sun. I smile as he approaches.
Liam is one of those good old boys who’s all farm muscle. Which I find weird since he’s only been working on a farm that neighbors our town for the past two years. Ever since he met Sofia, the pretty daughter of Danger Deer Farm. They’re getting married next spring.
The idea makes me glance behind him at the soaring cathedral. Like all towns, there’s a church or temple for every denomination. They range from looking like an elderly care facility to modern structures, to the old world stone and stained glass buildings like the enchanting cathedral that dominates this side of town.
I’ve been in it once or twice. It’s fascinating. Beautiful. Haunting. I love everything about it except the doctrine that is practiced there. It’s a little too… radical for me.
Liam falls onto the bench next to me. “Sofia’s cousin is coming over tomorrow night for dinner. Want to meet her?”
I nod. “Yep.”
Unlike most people, I don’t mind being set up. Again, we’re talking about my next set of goals. I need a wife first and foremost. You can’t just buy a forever house meant for a future family without the other half. And since I’m convinced there’s no one in town for me, I welcome whoever my friends know. Whether it be a neighbor of an out-of-town aunt or their mother’s co-worker’s sister’s niece’s twice-removed cousin’s dog walker’s best friend’s neighbor’s little sister.
I’m ready for my future. I’m not going to settle, but I clearly need to put myself out there to find her.
“Great.” Liam pulls his phone out and taps away. “She’s super cute. Not cute like Sofia but she’s still cute.”
“Mhm,” I answer, knowing he’s only slightly biased.
When he’s finished, he looks up at me with a grin. “How many did you sell this week?”
It’s Friday, so I smile because the week is over. Since I’m a partner now, I don’t have to work weekends unless I choose to. That means my week is finished. “Three,” I answer. “But one was a roll over from last week. The seller was being a pain in the ass, thinking their home is worth more than it is.”
“Healthy commissions, yeah?”
