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Chapter Fourteen
Alani swiped her finger across her phone and then zoomed in on the image of her latest piece at her college’s exhibit. The TA had done a marvelous job setting up her pottery collection for the upcoming display, and she had been reassured by her professor that it was fine that she wasn’t there, so long as she showed up for exams at the end of the term, of which she only had two.
Theoretical stuff in the art world wasn’t exactly her forte, but she knew she couldn’t get away with only practical knowledge if she eventually wanted to teach. She needed some historical and theoretical foundations behind her too. Hell, she would probably need more classes after getting her degree, but that was another story.
She pursed her lips, zooming in as much as her phone would allow before sitting back in her chair with a sigh. Sure, everything looked good, but something just felt off—and she knew it had to do with how she had been feeling since Ivo stormed out of her apartment, not the quality of her work.
Still, sometimes it was hard to keep the personal feelings from seeping into her professional sphere. The work was good. Maybe one piece could have been better with her paintwork, but overall, a strong collection that showed she knew what she was doing and had taken new techniques from her online lectures and applied them to her craft.
But she still felt lousy.
After stuffing her phone back in her purse, she got up to tidy the studio. Tanith had stepped out for the afternoon and asked her to lock the gallery when she was done. It was strange to not have her popping her head in and out of the doorway to ask how Alani was doing, or if she wanted a tea, or could she come lend her opinion on how Tanith was hanging a series…
She hadn’t ever considered it before, but suddenly Alani didn’t enjoy being alone. Something had felt hollow in her heart since Ivo had walked out on her, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on why.
She liked the guy, sure. It was a full-blown smitten crush at this point, but they weren’t in love. In the two weeks that had passed since he left, not a word heard from him, Alani had wondered time and time again what had set him off.
He seemed quick to anger in the past, but maybe he had a history of cheating exes. Maybe they hid in dark corners to have secret conversations all the time. Maybe his trust was low. Whatever the issue was, she wished he would just talk to her about it. All things considered, she was a pretty understanding person.
If anything, however, Ivo had to make the first move. She hadn’t done anything wrong, not in what she said or how she acted, and Alani wasn’t going to crawl to his front door begging for another chance.
Still. She wished he’d just hurry up and apologize already.
She wanted to see him again.
Before she turned the lights off in her tidied studio, she glanced up at the ceiling, straining to hear him but met only with silence. What she would have given to hear his heavy footfalls again—because the silence hurt.
Alani hadn’t even seen Ivo around Angel Fire since they parted ways. Not at the coffee shop. Not at the post office. Not even around the gallery. Nothing. It was like he had ceased to exist, like she’d made him up. It made her heart heavy.
Somehow she wanted to know that he was thinking about her, wishing, like her, that things could be different. Two weeks had passed. They could have done so much in two weeks. Two weeks closer to Alani going back to Hawaii. It felt like a waste to spend the time apart.
Sighing, she grabbed her bag and made her way out of the studio. After locking up and discretely hiding Tanith’s key in one of the many pots lining the doorway, she fished out her umbrella from her bag and popped it open. The day had started with a light drizzle, and as she emerged in the late afternoon, it had upgraded to a full-blown storm—a rarity.
Head down and umbrella up, Alani battled the elements the whole way home. The wind, bitterly cool after weeks of lovely warm weather, worked under her jacket and seemed to seep into her bones. Even with the umbrella, her thick mane of humidity-intensified hair was wet as she shoved her key into the main door of her building and stumbled inside. Pants too. Everything felt damp and uncomfortable by the time she reached her rental unit, and she stripped down in the living room to get some relief.
After a quick shower, she threw on some warm clothes and got started on dinner. The windows over the sink gave her a pretty nice view of Angel Fire’s core, and given that hers was the tallest building in town, she could see clear straight to the mountains in the distance. She’d always thought they were so beautiful, reminiscent of the dormant volcanoes back home, littered with long grasses and flowers. If she and Ivo had been on speaking terms, maybe she would have asked him to take her hiking.
All that time spent in her indoor studio made her feel stifled. On beautiful days back home, she would take her things and work in the backyard, willing the vibrations of the natural world to influence her as she crafted.
Maybe that was why her art felt so off here. Tanith’s studio was homey and charming, but nothing beat the great outdoors.
She had just placed her chicken breasts in the oven, on the way to fry her asparagus side dish, when she heard something ping against the window. Frowning, Alani straightened and looked, but found nothing. It wouldn’t be the first time a bird had flown straight into her window—they were all waking up now that spring was underway, shaking off the cold and embracing the steadily rising temperatures. But birds usually sounded louder than that…
Alani jumped back with a surprised squeak when a round, black shape hit her window. A rock, maybe. It fell back down seconds later. While the storm outside was the worst she had seen since arriving, it wasn’t rock-flinging-flying-houses level by any means. Just a regular thunderstorm. Tentatively, she inched forward, only to jump back again when another rock struck.
“What the…” She leaned over the sink to get a better look. Sure enough, four stories down was the last face she had expected to see—but the first she wanted, if she was being honest with herself. Ivo squinted up at her, blurry as fat rain droplets rolled down the windowpanes. Shaking her head, she unlatched the window and slid it to the side. The screen covering kept her from poking her head out, but at least she could call down to him. “Ivo?”
He seemed to bend backward almost unnaturally as he looked up at her, waving weakly before falling to his knees. Her jaw dropped as she gave him a quick once-over, noting that his clothes appeared torn—and stained red. Red like blood.
“Oh my God…”
Without thinking it over, not even for a moment, Alani flew across her apartment and shoved her feet into whatever shoes she could grab first. She then grabbed a coat for herself and one for him—he could at least hang it over his shoulders—followed by her keys.
In no mood to wait for an elevator, she took the stairs down, skipping two at a time, and then took the nearest emergency exit. Rain pummeled her the second she set foot outside, deflating her hair and soaking her clothes, but she paid no attention to that as she jogged around the building. Sure enough, Ivo sat there on his knees, head down and palms flat to the cement.
“Ivo, what are you doing?” she asked as she hurried over and crouched beside him. “What happened to you? Do I need to call for an ambulance?”
He blinked up at her slowly while she wrapped the coat around him, and then shook his head. “No,” he said, his voice scratchy—as if he’d been screaming. “No ambulance. S’not necessary.”
