Smoke And Mirrors ***completed***

Chapter 1.

Sometimes all it took was a tiny shift of perspective to see something familiar in a new light as she had come to see with her life's philosophy: life is better when you open your heart.
Turmoil and heart break, in her experience, shook all kinds of truth but it took peace to examine them hence the trip to New Orleans.
She wasn't a fatalist nor was She fond of the sentiment about fate or turns of destiny or took comfort in luck. Life, as she had come to know it, was as you made it; she believed we drove the train but she admitted we didn't choose the tracks.
And no one was as bad as the worst things they had done. It may be self serving but it still held some shred of truth. After all she had done some pretty bad things over the years, that in retrospect, made her shiver. She would have loved to chalk it up on stupidity of youth but true to her nature she loved to take  responsibility of her actions even if that had not always been the case.
She wasn't the same girl she had been ten years ago or for that matter a day ago. She was always growing and she took comfort in that. She regarded her life with a clinical detachment and had to admit it was doomed from the very start. She had no hope or chance but she had made the best of it all. She was wiser and more cautious. Her heart and pride at that was still festering from her last affair for a lack of a better word but then again that had been her fault. She had always been reckless as a rule, physically and emotionally. Jumping before she thought things over from the high board and into the high seas to battle it out with crushing waves and sharks. It was her nature and she had made a point of never going against her nature but she had reached a point in life where she had to set boundaries. She had lived dangerously for far too long.  Courting, flirting and  teetering on the edge of danger for too long.
Limits had to be set.
After all had she not only learnt to trust Allah, but also tie up her camels and to her way of thinking she had reached a point of tying down her camels. So to speak.
Nevertheless, she shared a philosophy with Buddhist:  she  never fought what happened to her,but instead drifted with it and let it carry her from one experience to the next.
The depth and wisdom of that was manifested and shone from her entire life and personality. But that didn't mean she let things happen to her while lying down. far from it. It was one thing to be true to oneself after all we had no choice on the matter and another to be docile and a doormat.
Buoyed by the wave of her new resolution and new outlook on life she threaded her way through the milling crowds. The streets were parked where there seemed to be some sort of festival. Of course everyday in New Orleans was one festival or another. It was the norm and in her short stay she had come to expect it if not enjoy it.
She joined the mass flow and was content to be lost in the mayhem of it all. Sucked into the jubilant mood and be a part of something bigger. To be just another face in the crowd or better yet faceless and anonymous.
She realized without any shock after all a part of her had always known     at least  subconsciously that she had always been alone. 
One of the perks of modelling, and she had to admit they weren't that many at least in comparison to the negatives was she had toured many cities and countries. Certainly New York and London had their seamier sides but not so overt and blatant as New Orleans. Or so celebratory about out it all. Marveling at its dark side, old charm and decaying elegance. Personally, she preferred the elegant dignity and innocent understated beauty of Venice but she wasn't a prude, far from it. Sex, was fun and interesting but it was meant to be private contrary to New Orleans sentiments. Still, she enjoyed it all as she strolled though the Quarter aimlessly.
Cynic by nature and optimistic by choice, Elizabeth Blair never romanticized  the whole idea on stroke of fate. But asked to explain her bumping into him she would have been hard pressed. Had all her decisions, steps after all she was still big on going through things step wise and choices which funny enough some she had made without making them had led her to this point in time?
Or maybe their was a God.
The world was strange and stranger even and for the first time she was tempted to be a believer.

"I am sorry."
Elizabeth begun but drew Short when her eyes clamped on the man's face she had just bumped into. The air seemed to thin, her lungs laboring to take in the much needed air as her heart thudded in her chest. Her voice  had a breathless quality dripping with incredulity, surprise and wonder.
It was a shock to put it mildly. She wasn't the same person she had been ten years ago but to some extend she had expected him to be the same Jason St. Trenton she had known. It was disappointing, but she didn't even realize it then but she loved the change. He had always been a handsome man. Beautiful even with his blue eyes, full lips and blonde hair. It was disconcerting to even look at him. But in the mix of all that beauty an hard edge had been added. She had always loved her men with rough edges and he had also gotten more muscular. her inner girl purred in approval.