Blast From The Past 1 by Faith Winslow Page A

highlights, and bought my first ever designer briefcase. These may have been little things, but they made a huge difference.
    As far as bigger things, themselves, I took care of those when I got to Pittsburgh—and, by bigger, I mean in terms of size, not necessarily importance. Within two days of arriving in Pittsburgh and staking physical claim to my new apartment, I started shopping for furniture, decorations, small appliances, and key electronics. I had most of the items delivered and assembled for me, at priority rates, and my new home started taking shape before I’d even been in black ‘n gold country for a week—which fit in perfectly with my timeline.
    I’d arrived in Pittsburgh approximately two weeks before my eagerly awaited start date at my new job. I’d planned it that way so that I could get things in order and get reacquainted with the city, and so that I could get comfortable with my surroundings, and in my own skin.
    My new job wasn’t just any job. It was a great job. I’d be making more than twice what I made back at the tech firm in Cincinnati, and I’d be working my way well up the corporate ladder in half the time. It was a big step for me—and I needed those two weeks to myself in Pittsburgh to prepare for it.

~ Chapter 2 ~
     
    I guess you could say I was always a “good girl.” I didn’t get into much trouble when I was younger, and I never did anything all that questionable or scandalous. I mostly followed the straight and narrow—though, of course, I did stray from the path from time to time.
    I spent most of my time in college studying and doing schoolwork. My social life really wasn’t exciting, and I didn’t have many friends… but, I did have a boyfriend.
    If I was a “good girl,” then Tommy was definitely a “computer geek.” He was pretty cute and very sweet, mind you, but he was also somewhat shy and incredibly mild-mannered—at least by conventional standards. Most of our dates consisted of going out for coffee, going to the computer lab together, or watching movies in one of our dorm rooms. We didn’t even kiss until we’d been together for over two weeks, and it took us a long time to get into each other’s pants after that. We were both virgins when we started dating—and we stayed that way until we’d been dating for almost a year.
    Alas, Tommy and I didn’t last long. We broke up halfway through spring semester of our junior year. I was upset about it, but I distracted myself by focusing even harder on my schoolwork. Every now and then, there were parties, boys, and booze to distract me, too, but they were just road stops on a much greater highway.
    The reason I bring all this up now is because, when I explored Pittsburgh during my two weeks of pre-work downtime, I discovered a lot of cool places and things, and I realized that I’d really limited, maybe even sheltered, myself the last time I lived in this city. There were many different neighborhoods I never knew about, and countless hot spots I never knew existed.
    Naturally, Pittsburgh had changed in the six years I’d been away, but a lot of it was the same—and it was like I was seeing most of it for the first time.
    One thing I was definitely seeing for the first time was the extent of Pittsburgh nightlife. Like I said, I’d been a bookworm in college, so I never really had the chance, or desire, to go out and hit the bars all that much, and, when I did, it was usually one of the overpriced joints located along the sprawl of Pitt’s stretched-out urban campus.
    But now that I was back in Pittsburgh—and now that I wasn’t a bookworm, and wasn’t confined to a campus—I went around and checked out what else was out there… and, more or less, I liked what I found.
    In particular, I was drawn to a part of Pittsburgh known as South Side. It’s one of the more happening neighborhoods, and its streets are filled with a wide variety of stores, restaurants, and businesses, including everything from