Heartbroken Heights Read online

  Time flies when you’re having fun. The last two months had been some of the best for Chloe since… since she roomed with Stacey in university, probably. Until David came along and shook her solitary existence to its core, she had forgotten how it felt to have someone who was always willing to talk, meet up or find a time to hang out if right now wasn’t possible. Living in Reno hadn’t prepared Chloe for the plethora of new things she found to experience with David by her side. They found something new to do almost every day, and they peppered their adventures with lazy days of cooking in Chloe’s kitchen and hanging out on the couch to watch movies.

  Chloe always wanted to spend time with David. If the last couple months were any indication, David wanted the exact same thing.

  An hour later, the man himself came to Chloe’s apartment to pick her up. When she went to answer the door, she found David standing outside talking to Megan, who had apparently arrived at the same time. “Oh, hey Megan. This is David, my… friend. We’re going hiking.”

  “Oh. Cool.” Megan disappeared into the apartment, shooting a glance back at Chloe and David as he enfolded her into a warm hug.

  “Ignore her,” Chloe murmured in his ear. “She doesn’t like me very much.”

  “What?” David pulled her into another hug as if to apologize for anything Megan had ever done to bother Chloe. “She must not see you the way I do.”

  It was a good thing her back was turned as she grabbed her hiking backpack because her face rivaled the hue of the bright red striping on the shoulder straps. She really wanted to ask what way David saw her, but they needed to get going.

  “Ready, I think,” Chloe said as she grabbed her jacket off the couch.

  “Did you eat yet? The hike isn’t that long, so I figured we would stop somewhere after.” David opened the passenger door for Chloe like a gentleman as usual before taking a seat in the driver’s side of the Subaru.

  “Stopping after the hike sounds good, I already had breakfast. You?”

  “Yep.”

  Since they had both eaten already, they drove straight to Evan’s Canyon, the destination they had decided to explore. This canyon wasn’t nearly as impressive as Red Rock Canyon, but it was radically different scenery-wise. Instead of majestic red cliffs, Evan’s Canyon had soft, stretching expanses of rolling hills. Chloe hadn’t been here before, so the terrain might look different farther along the hike, but the trailhead they had chosen marked an easy start at least.

  Chloe had explained her desire to take pictures to David. He didn’t mind at all. In fact, sometimes it was David who stopped and pointed out a particularly scenic or interesting opportunity to take a photo.

  Best of all, every step of the hike dissolved a little more of Chloe’s fear that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with David. He stood nearly a foot taller than her and could easily have eaten up the distance with long strides that Chloe wouldn’t have been able to match, but he seemed to naturally keep a moderate pace. She often caught him gazing out over the vista, hardly looking where he was going. Once or twice she warned him about a particularly rough section of trail or an incoming hiker, and he always blinked like a man waking from a deep sleep.

  At the top of a rise, they stopped for more photos. Chloe flipped through the camera, pleased but a little wistful. “I wish I could just do this.” Realizing that no sane person would have any clue what she was talking about, Chloe elaborated. “I mean travel to hike, take pictures and blog. I’d much rather blog about places like this than work at Sentinel Financial.”

  David looked at her, the wind rustling his brown hair like it rustled the sea of long, brown grass. “Why don’t you?”

  Chloe couldn’t take David’s inquisitive gaze and looked away, following the stretching miles of hills. “It’s hard to make money blogging. Really hard. I can’t just drop everything for it.”

  “Sometimes you have to just cross your fingers and do what you want to do, not what you think you have to do.”

  “I have rent to pay and stuff. I can’t just abandon a perfectly well-paying job,” Chloe insisted. “I have to get the blog started first, test the waters, figure out how to market it and write the best posts and such.”

  “I guess. But your job is a nine-to-five and I’ve seen how tired you are after work sometimes. When I had a regular job, I couldn’t focus on climbing. I don’t think you’ll see what you can really do until you commit to giving yourself the time to do it,” David commented.

  David was literally standing here trying to convince Chloe to quit her job, and a thousand scornful remarks swirled around in her mind, but she couldn’t pick one to say aloud. “It’s not that simple,” she managed finally.

  David’s face told her clearly that to him, it was that simple, but he dropped the subject since it was time to move on.

  Chloe followed, still picking through her thoughts in search of something that would have made him understand her dilemma. David wouldn’t hesitate to chase a dream, even if it meant leaving something else behind—especially if that something wasn’t important to him. She admired that about him and wished that she could do the same, but just because something worked for someone else didn’t mean it would work for Chloe.

  Sentinel Financial meant security. Both Chloe and her mother had worked hard to send Chloe to college for a degree that meant security.

  Sobered, Chloe spent the rest of their hike in silence. The physical activity freed her mind and the vastness of the open Nevadan landscape filled that empty space with wonder, giving her a much-needed break from thoughts of jobs and futures. To spend all her time in places like this, writing about her thoughts and feelings as she gazed over these views… that really would be a dream come true.

  Maybe someday. Maybe someday, she could pursue that dream.

  By the end of their hike, Chloe’s feet hurt, her legs felt a little stiff and her nose was running from the exercise and wind, but a sense of accomplishment spurred her along the last few steps to the car. She had kept up with David, she had taken some great photos that she could actually use and, above all, she had a great time getting out of her apartment and into the great outdoors. That was three wins in her book.

  Since both she and David were tired, they discussed their options and decided to get takeout on the drive back. “And Julian will be gone all weekend,” David added. “We can take dinner there and watch a movie or something. Your place is fine too, I just don’t want to put your roommate out more than your existence already has.”

  Chloe giggled. “Maybe putting her out is exactly why we should go back to my apartment,” she suggested, thinking of how irritated her early-to-bed and early-to-rise roommate would be if they sat up late in the living room with the volume turned up high. “Not really, though,” Chloe added regretfully, slipping from vengeful fantasy to reality. “Megan’s really not a bad roommate. She’s clean, quiet, buys toilet paper sometimes and all that. We just don’t talk. Ever.”

  “That’s too bad. But Julian’s it is,” David decided for them, taking a right at the next light.

  Chloe liked Julian’s house a lot, and she wished she could live somewhere like this. About twenty feet separated the house from the houses on either side, but they all had that super cute and unique small-house feel. None of the houses on this street fit a cookie-cutter mold. Siding of all colors decorated exteriors, and some houses had brick or stone in place of siding to give the neighborhood a variety of textures. Chloe knew that in the spring and summer, this would be a wonderful place to take a walk. Trees leaned over the sidewalks, bare of leaves right now, but eagerly awaiting warmer weather.

  Me too, Chloe agreed wholeheartedly, shivering as she got out of the car. With the sun’s departure below the horizon, the chill had returned.

  She grabbed the two bags of takeout, eager to get inside. Her muscles protested the swift walk to the front door, then sighed when a rush of warm air met them through the open door.

  “Julian keeps it pretty warm in here,” David
commented, flipping on a light.

  “He keeps it pretty tidy too,” Chloe observed, giving the homely living room a once-over. Never once had she walked through this door and found anything out of place.

  “He does. That might just be because I’m staying with him, though.”

  “How is that?” Chloe asked, trailing her fingertips over a soft blanket hanging over the back of the leather couch on her way to the kitchen.

  “We don’t see each other much, honestly. He works a lot and I’m at the gym or with you all the time, so…” David let his shrug finish the sentence for him.

  “Oh,” Chloe replied after a short pause, a little taken aback but also quite flattered. “Um… I think this one is yours.” She pushed one bag toward him as he got two plates down from a cabinet.

  “And these are for you.” David handed her a plate and a fork.

  They piled their plates high with sweet-and-sour chicken, fried rice, chow mein and veggies. It took them a couple minutes to choose a movie, then they eagerly dug in, pausing occasionally with forks full of food to laugh.

  Chloe got up to take their plates to the kitchen. When she came back, she started to sit on the chair she had chosen during dinner, but David held out an inviting arm. Heart aflutter, she sat next to him instead and let him wrap his arm around her shoulders, driving away any remaining chill the house and warm food had left.

  Chloe shifted, crossing her arms and snuggling into David’s side a little tighter. The characters on the screen made poor decisions that got them into hilarious situations and had both Chloe and David laughing, but Chloe had to fight the leaden weights dragging at her eyelids. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so warm, comfortable and safe. It would be so easy to let herself drift off.

  “Oops!” David jostled a half-asleep Chloe as he hurriedly stood up, wiping his spilled drink off the leather couch with a leftover napkin. “Sorry,” he apologized with a knowing smile at Chloe’s huge yawn. “Let me grab paper towels.”

  David cleaned the mess up with the paper towels, then went to grab a new shirt out of the bedroom. Chloe sat on the couch through it all, fighting exhaustion and blinking blearily at the TV, trying to remember what happened last in the movie.

  A dim light intruded on her state of sleepiness. Several seconds passed before she could redirect her red-eyed gaze from the TV to the coffee table.

  What she saw dragged Chloe into wakefulness like she had been doused with icy water. She grabbed the phone and sent a furtive look toward the door David had disappeared through… then she turned her full attention to the beautiful, smiling woman with pale brown eyes and long, shimmering black hair on the caller ID.

  Kathleen. Who is Kathleen and why does she have a heart next to her name?

  A thud came from the bedroom, and Chloe dropped the phone on the table like she had been scalded. She jumped out of her seat and ran into the kitchen, hunting through the cabinets for goodness-knows-what so that she had an alibi for the time of the call.

  Who is Kathleen?

  “Oh, hey,” David’s voice said from behind Chloe. “I kind of thought you might have fallen asleep. Do you want me to drive you home?”

  “I was looking for—for water,” Chloe said lamely. “A glass for water, I mean. But yeah. I think it’s time for me to go home.” Kathleen had robbed her of those safe and cozy feelings, and now all Chloe wanted was to go home and go to sleep.

  “Okay. Sure. Are you okay?” David asked as he grabbed his keys, giving her a strange look.

  “Just tired.” Chloe grabbed her jacket and walked past David to the door.

  David knew her better than to accept her lie, and she could feel his gaze on her whenever he had a moment to take his eyes off the road. She stared unerringly out the window, ignoring his worry as she desperately tried to find an answer that wouldn’t hurt her to a question that terrified her.

  Who was Kathleen?

  Chapter Ten: David

  David had never been one to pay close attention to his phone. In fact, he often checked it only to realize that hours had passed since he last picked it up and a solid wall of notifications waited for his attention. He did listen to music at the gym, but his bluetooth earbuds meant he could leave the phone in his pocket or his bag and focus on his sport.

  Then Chloe had found her way into his life. Suddenly, David found himself constantly reaching for his phone, each new sound or blinking light filling him with anticipation and hope that he would see a new message from her. Thoughts of her constantly filled his mind, intruding upon even the sanctity of the climbing gym, the one place where he could always shut out everything else.

  For three days now, though, all David had was those thoughts. Chloe had called him briefly the Sunday after their Friday hike to let him know that she was heading home to California to visit her mom for a while.

  “Is she alright?” David had asked when Chloe told him about her travel plans. “This trip is just kind of sudden. You didn’t mention it before.”

  “Oh, yeah, she’s fine. I just have a lot of leave that I haven’t used, so I figured I’d visit. It’s only a few hours’ drive.”

  “Okay. Well… have fun.”

  “Thanks. Bye.”

  At least, David thought she meant to say “bye”. She hung up so fast at the end of the conversation that she cut that last word off halfway through.

  That conversation had perplexed David. Now, after a few days of texting and calling Chloe while she was in California, David wasn’t just perplexed. He was worried.

  Over the past few months, David had gotten to know Chloe pretty well. A cheerful and expressive person, Chloe did her best to make those around her feel comfortable. When something happened to turn Chloe’s mood sour, she sought to hide the shift by appearing even more agreeable and cheerful. She tried to convince herself and others that everything was alright through the fake-it-’til-you-make-it method.

  Whenever David talked to Chloe, nothing was wrong. Nothing at all. She was overly positive about every single thing, including tax season, something no one should ever be excited about. Every single chat David had with Chloe turned into some variation of “I’m fine”, even if David never asked.

  “It’s weird, man,” David told Julian, who had once again come home to find David moping around in the living room since Chloe wasn’t around to hang out with in the afternoons. “She’s just acting differently. It’s hard to explain, but… I don’t know. There’s something she isn’t telling me. Or something I did. Or… something.”

  Julian shrugged, yawning widely as he sipped at the energy drink he’d brought home with him. “Try apologizing. Apologizing for people is like… turning something off and on again for electronics.”

  This didn’t help David because he had no idea what to apologize for, but it was clear that Julian had a long day at work and wouldn’t be of much use in the advice department today. Clearly getting the hint that Julian wasn’t in the mood to talk, David made himself scarce and ended up walking the streets of Reno alone.

  He had forgotten his coat, but it didn’t matter. The days were slowly but surely getting warmer, hitting the mid fifties most days. Today marked the start of the first week of March, which meant the daffodils were no longer the only flowers springing forth from eager shoots. More and more greenery would follow, ushered into existence by the coming of spring.

  Today was a beautiful day. David just wished Chloe was here to share it with him.

  David slipped his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans, walking with it in his hand. It took four blocks of walking before he finally stopped, leaning against the doorway of a closed-down business as he raised the phone to his ear.

  “Hey David.”

  David closed his eyes, letting the warmth from her voice wash over him like the afternoon sun. “Hey,” he said softly, pressing the phone between his shoulder and chin. If he tried hard enough, he could imagine the cold plastic of the phone case replaced with warm, comforting skin
. “How are you?”

  “Oh, you know. The usual,” she told him. “Hanging out with my mom and some old friends. What about you?”

  “Also the usual. I think Julian’s getting tired of having a roommate, though.”

  David meant the words to be a joke, but Chloe’s next words made it clear she hadn’t taken it that way. “Oh. Are you leaving soon, then?”

  “Probably not too soon,” David said carefully, the initial euphoria at hearing Chloe’s voice melting away and reminding him what had sent him walking the streets of Reno alone. “The competition in Atlanta is in a couple weeks. March 21.”

  “Oh… yeah, right. I think you, uh… mentioned that before. Sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun.”

  There it was again. That was exactly what Chloe had been doing every time he talked to her. When Chloe told David that she was going to California to visit her mother, David told her that he would miss her. But just now when the roles had been reversed, Chloe didn’t mention that she would miss David or that the past months had been fun. She played it off. She made it sound like she didn’t care.

  Did she care? They had only met a couple months ago. Apparently, that had been enough time for David to reevaluate five years’ worth of choices that all led to a life of loneliness. For Chloe, though, maybe it wasn’t enough time. Maybe all she ever wanted were some pleasant times with a man just passing through town to break the monotony of her job.

  “Yeah, should be fun. You can follow my social media if you want updates on the comp.” David immediately regretted his weak attempt at a joke and did his best to retrieve the situation. “Kidding, of course. But really, it should be fun. They call it a competition, but climbing comps are always surprisingly friendly. Everyone is always willing to help everyone else with beta.” Correctly interpreting Chloe’s silence, David elaborated. “The how-to for a problem. The sequence of holds you want to use, basically.”