After a few weeks, Greg and Jill became inseparable. One was rarely to be found without the other in social situations. It became for their friends a cute, but well-meant joke to say of them that they were so prevelant in each other's lives that they were practically becoming one person. For the two of them, it was an opening up of their dormant sides of their personalities. Though they didn't realize it, or maybe they did, they had a complimentary effect. The strength of one covered over the weakness of the other. It was evident to all that they were both a lot happier than they had been previously. But deep down, they both were still fighting demons, and neither of them was going to blink in their psychological game of chicken.
Greg had left his hometown, determined to make a fresh start of his life. It was a gamble but one which had, up to this point, succeeded. He was the embodiment of the clean-cut American boy. Tall, not ruggedly handsome, but still attractive to the girls, he had lived what he considered a dull, suburban life. He was popular and well-liked by his classmates and never gave his parents any trouble. His decision to pack up and go off to New York was one of the most dramtic things he'd ever done. But he needed the change, because for every high point in his life up til then, he'd had a corresponding disappointment. He had been widely considered brilliant by his teachers and friends, a responsible, hard worker who made the most out of what he had, but never seemed overbearing about his natural talent. He had been good, but not great at football in high school, playing whatever position he was needed at, and always making some play that caught the notice of his coaches and teammates. But he had been crushed when he failed to get an appointment to the Naval Academy, and settled instead for college at University of Michigan. He was further disappointed when he found himself unable to adjust to college, letting himself spend less time on studying than he spent on chasing girls and drinking. He went home after a year, feeling he had let his family down, and took a job working in a distribution center, where he focused all his energy into leaning to do any job they had for him. He didn't go unnoticed by his bosses, who gave him more responsibilities as time went on. He even went to community college part-time, finding he could concentrate on learning again. But then, two events changed him forever, and set him on his path to the city.
Greg was shocked by the death in a one-car accident of the only girl he ever loved in high school, but who never knew he existed. He had gotten over his infatuation with her long before, but it still hit him hard. Soon after, the company he worked for announced they were moving the distribution center to Minnesota, and though they had made him an offer to go along, he turned it down and began to wonder what he was going to do with his life now. A phone call from out of the blue got him to thinking about a move east. An acquaintance from college had lived in New York since graduating from Michigan and had remembered Greg, and phoned him, just to see what he had been up to since leaving. Greg had ended the conversation by saying maybe he would come visit, since he didn't have anything else lined up at the moment. His friend told him he was welcome anytime. That set the stage for a new beginning that Greg would undertake with all the determination he had shown in everything else he had done in his life.
Jill had made a similar move, but not for the same exact reasons, and not in the same manner. She had grown up in a large, close-knit family in a small town. While she had run with a fast crowd, she wasn't the typical bad girl. In fact, she was smart, determined and ambitious; a long-legged sprinter with a natural beauty, who was told she could easily be a model if she wanted. She needed the excitement that her friends provided, if only to keep from being bored to death. She liked the attention the older guys paid to her, they had cars and were always ready for partying and mischief. But Jill had other plans for her life and she wasn't going to accomplish any of them in her insulated, dead-end hometown. She applied to several schools, all of them far away from home. She wanted to work with developmentally disabled children, and was thrilled when she was accepted to New York University. Her parents weren't as excited, but supported her choice, confident that she could take care of herself. But while she wasn't awe-struck by the different atmosphere of New York, she did find she was in a bit over her head on a social level and needed to take a part-time job to keep up with expenses.
She had the odd waitressing jobs, until she met someone who gave her an opportunity to make better money without the hassle of having to work late nights and dealing with surly customers. She started at a mail order company as an order taker, and found it was easy and she enjoyed it. As time went on, she found it was hard to keep taking classes and working, so she dropped out, figuring she could always go back when she could get ahead a little. Once she began to have a bit more order in life, Jill started to feel more confident with herself among her circle of friends. She had been considered a bit shy by those who knew her in the city, but it was not the real Jill. The real Jill started to emerge when she started to date a guy who had asked her to dance in a club one night. Rick reminded Jill of the guys from back home; he was carefree, fun, and unpredictable and the biggest plus in her mind was he had a motorcycle. As she got more involved with Rick, she got more gregarious with the rest of her friends.
Greg used his visit to New York to look for a job, as well as a little bit of sight-seeing. But it wasn't until Eric, his friend from college, told him about a place on the Lower East Side that was run by one of his clients, did Greg make any headway in the job situation. The restaurant equipment business had been in need of people to work, and Greg was willing, but he still needed to move completely from home, and he was afraid that they might not wait. It turned out, to the benefit of both Greg and the company, they were willing to let him start in 10 days time. Once Greg had broken the news to his family, he proved himself valuable to his new employer within a short period of time. There was a great deal of ineffiency involved in his job, and he began to think about ways of making it easier and better. He impressed everyone with his attention to detail, and his willingness to put in extra hours on the weekends doing little things to improve the system used to expedite orders. His reward after a year was a major change in his position. He became the supervisor over people he had been working next to, yet they were willing to accept him as their boss, because they knew he had earned it. He had grown from that into his current place as Operations Director, a heady job for a college drop-out. But all he worked with had universal admiration for his common sense approach to handling problems, and the company had grown dramatically since his arrival, in no small part due to his ideas.