1.4 Tonight we will be immortal

The next morning, Anna was already wide awake by the time the sun rose. Her mind had refused to let go of the two men that were suddenly in her life. Benjamin Schmidt, a mysterious tattooed guy, who was nowhere interested in her hobbies, but who somehow had a magnetic attraction on her. And Jo Johnson, who was sweet and kind and had introduced her to the wonderful world of horses and riding. Her body wanted different things, which is why both men appealed to her in their own way. Before work, she sent both of them text messages, wishing them a good day. It was a nice gesture, and at the same time a subtle plea for attention and, more importantly, affection. If one of the guys didn’t respond to her text, she would instantly back off. Getting hurt was the last thing she wanted, and the last thing she could bear, which is why she still had to take it slow.

By the time she had actually pressed “Send” (it was difficult to find the right words, even if there was not that much content), it was high time for work. She rushed out the front door, not paying any attention to her plants in the garden. Maybe she would take a look at them later; right now her mind was settled on different things.

After work she drove right over to the local ranch, where she wanted to attend a trial riding lesson. Sitting on Freebird (not Freeland, as she had previously thought) had set free so many emotions inside of her, and she wanted to take up riding to feel that way more often. Unfortunately, those lessons were really expensive, which is why she could not take more than one a week. For now, anyway. Her heart pounded quicker than it had for a very long time when she finally entered the ranch. Inside were some people looking at her critically, probably referring to her white jacket from work that not really fitted the dress-code here. But since she had been dying to get here all day, she had not bothered to go home and change first. In addition, she assumed that they had some riding clothes here, while she only possessed a pair of shorts and a top, anyhow.

The lesson went really well, Anna turned out to have absorbed the most important rules about horses straight away. She paid attention to their body language, did not pressure any of the beautiful tall creatures and tried to act exactly like her trainer told her to. When she left the ranch, she could not help but turn around and smile at all the ignorant faces, watching her as she walked out the door. She had done well, and she knew that. There was something she was actually good at, and no one on the entire world could take that away from her now.

Back at home, she finally took care of the plants she had ignored for a couple of days now. One was completely covered in weed, while the other one still looked pretty good. Fortunately, it had sometimes been raining throughout the mornings, so that they did not have to suffer from aridity. As she carefully removed the weed from the herbs she was growing right now, she thought about how her life had changed within the last few days. Two or three weeks ago, she only had a piece of land, but absolutely nothing else in this small little town. Now she had a house, a small garden, a well-paid job in a field she loved and wanted to work in for the rest of her life until she reached the top, and even two men that she could not get out of her mind. Speaking of which, she had been too nervous to check her phone all day, so she did not know whether one of them had actually replied.

Her hands were shaking so hard that she could barely get the cellphone out of her back pocket, but finally she managed to. When she looked at the bright display, she swallowed. It said “one new message”. Only one of them had replied to her text, which meant it did not mean anything to one of them. But who was the caring one? Benjamin or Jo?

When she read the name of the sender, she sighed in relief. Then she immediately dialed his number, and waited impatiently. After a number of seconds, which felt like hours, a voice answered. They talked for a couple of minutes and then he suggested that she came over after work the next day. Inside squealing with joy, she agreed to stop by. Then she said goodnight and hung up.

It actually seemed like Anna Vocis was about to fall in love.