Page 19 of The Broken Hearts Club

Why did I miss him? I’d known him less than a day.

5

Collie

I was the world’s most boring twenty-seven-year-old. First, I’d fallen asleep in the middle of a loud, crowded bar. Then I’d followed that up with a massive nap. It was dark by the time I woke up.

I sat up and turned on my battery-powered chandelier. Kate was curled up at my side, and as I ran my hand over her soft fur, I told her, “You’re the sweetest cat ever.”

Apparently Miller had checked on me at some point. He’d left the shoe I’d used to prop open the door just inside the van. There was also a small ice chest with a sticky note on it that said “Eat Me.” That made me smile.

I took a peek inside the cooler and discovered a fancy sandwich on focaccia bread, along with a reusable ice pack to keep it fresh. There was also a little container full of carrots and celery cut into tidy sticks, and a bottled organic smoothie, whose label boasted that it contained ten essential vitamins and minerals. Miller definitely thought I was dying of malnutrition.

I put on my puffy Scooby Doo slippers, picked up the cooler, and climbed out of the van. Kate followed me.

The door connecting the garage to the rest of the house was held open by a wedge-shaped door stop. When I climbed the stairs to the kitchen, I found a huge bowl of fruit on the island, along with a plastic clamshell container full of chocolate chip cookies. I grabbed the cookies and a banana, because I was all about balance, and went to find Miller.

It turned out he was sitting cross-legged on the couch in his office, dressed in gray sweatpants and a long-sleeved white T-shirt, and he was playing a video game. When he saw me standing in the doorway, he said, “Hey. How’re you doing, Collie?”

“Good. Is it okay if I eat in here?”

“Of course. I do that all the time.”

“Great. In that case, I’ll be right back.” I heaped all the stuff I was holding onto the couch and hurried into the bathroom.

After I used the facilities and washed up, I collected my bounty again and sat next to him. The game he was playing was displayed across all three of his large monitors. A character dressed like a knight was standing in a field, and there was a partially destroyed castle in the background.

“That’s gorgeous,” I said, as I indicated the monitors. “Is it something you worked on?”

“No. This is Elden Ring, which was developed by an awesome studio in Tokyo. It’s one of my all-time favorite games. They brought in George R.R. Martin to write the worldbuilding and mythology, which I always thought was super cool.”

“The Game of Thrones guy?”

“Yup.”

“Nice. Don’t let me interrupt.”

“It’s fine,” he said, as he half-turned to look at me. “I’ve played all the way through several times. Now I’m just running around and collecting weapons.”

I sat cross-legged like he was and opened the cooler. “Thanks for packing my lunch,” I said. “Nobody’s done that for me since I was a kid.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

I unwrapped the sandwich and said, “This looks delicious.” The focaccia bread was spread with pesto, and inside it were slices of fresh mozzarella, some leafy greens, and two thick slabs of tomato.

When I started to pick off the tomato, Miller asked, “What are you doing?”

“Tomatoes are nasty. They’re only good once you turn them into ketchup, marinara, or pizza sauce.”

“That tomato is delicious. Try it.”

“No, thank you.”

“Just one taste. I promise it’s better than any tomato you’ve had before.”

I turned to him and asked, “Why is this so important to you?”

“Because I grew it.”