Alyss Lidell is cold.
Enchantingly cold.
The dark-eyed, curly-haired 21-year-old glazes the ground beneath her with icicles of sweetness, freezing the attention of all suitors with crippling ease.
Her personality is derived from both high intellect and an uncanny endurance for constant disappointment; what was once the flavorful glory of Manhattan was now, to her, awfully stale.
She had stopped smiling long before her father left.
He relocated from their illustrious complex in northern New Jersey to a penthouse pad in Indonesia, choosing a string of profitable hotels over his wife and 2 kids.
He had hotels in New York, too,
but argued that the Eastern climate was better for health reasons.
Health reasons.
That lie hurt her the least.
The month of September was terrible.
Her dad had returned home to finalize the divorce papers the exact same time she was signing the transfer papers out of Columbia University.
She convinced her dean that the ‘prestigious Ivy League' was far too challenging for her.
It wasn't.