In the end, she did nothing, just stood there forcing herself to hold the tears at bay.
Heather appeared and took her hand. “They said we need to go to the roof now.”
Christy did her best to summon up a smile. Her eyes searched Heather’s face and all she saw was the same hurt and confusion that she was sure was written on her own face. She said, “I’m sorry, Heather, really I am.”
She was. Heather loved Max, and she had made no bones about it, at least not to her. She had hidden it from Max though. Christy looked away from the pain on Heather’s face because it just made her want to cry all over again and she knew if she started, then Heather would, and they just might talk each other into staying.
The Orcs were dangerous. Max was sending Heather back because he feared for her life. Heather did not want to go but Max would not ask her to stay, and Heather was afraid to ask. Christy knew that the two of them were in the same boat. They’d both fallen in love, and now they were having to leave, and they were going home with scarred hearts and tears hovering.
She said, in an attempt at levity, “Remind me never to use another dating app as long as I live.”
The ghost of a smile played on Heather’s lips, but it vanished quickly. She said, “Yeah. I’ll kill you if you ever sign me up for one again.”
Christy hugged her. They stood there, neither of them speaking. There was nothing that they could say to each other to make it better and the men they wanted to say things to had already flown off on some mission to scout out where the Orcs were and to get an idea of how many they would be fighting against.
Heather said, “Maybe we really should take some of the diamonds.”
Christy laughed, but it was short and too sharp. “Yeah. But no. I don’t want to take anything from here.”
She also didn’t want to leave anything behind, but she was. Her heart was there, in the hands of the dragon called Blake, in the palms of a man who wanted her for something she could never give him.
They left the room and went to the roof. The two younger dragons were there, their faces solemn. Christy climbed up and could not help but notice that that dragon brought up no feelings of freedom and desire in her. They flew, and even the flight felt flat and depressing instead of exciting and wonderful.
The portal opened, its colors pulsing and its mouth opening to take them. Christy closed her eyes and the sound of the wind beat against her ears. The wind tore at her hair and clothes. There was a soft ripping sound and then she smelled car exhaust and heard noise, a loud din that that made her want to clap her hands over her ears.
She was home.
They landed back in their world many weeks after they had left and everything was so messed up that Christy had plenty of things to focus on, but none of them were enough to keep her from missing Blake so much that it was a hard, physical ache.
She’d been gone too long, and she had lost her job, as had Heather. They had managed to get Heather’s things from a storage locker at her former building, and they had begun living together in Christy’s loft. The loft she had loved so much but which now seemed too shiny, too sharp and modern. Everything in it, the granite counters and the gleaming tile and hardwood floors, the wide windows that looked out over the massive skyline, had all felt so right when she had gotten that place but it all felt alien and wrong then.
She slogged through the days, doing her best to keep her heartache at bay. She put in her resume everywhere, as did Heather but there was no job available. Her spirits fell daily and if Heather had not been there for her to lean on, she was certain she would have just crumbled.
She was walking home one day, her heart as flat as her wallet, when she remembered something. One of the women who had come to Dragon world was from the city. She had used some kind of door she had found in an abandoned house that looked like a castle a few miles away from the street that Christy’s apartment sat upon.
What if she went back?
She sighed, her legs moving faster, as she tried to list off every reason that that was a dumb idea.
Blake did not want her. He wanted her to have a baby, and there was a big difference in those two things. There was no way she could go back; she had to figure out how to correct her life there in her own world. Besides, she had said no to him, to their ever having anything at all.
What had he meant by that?
That question was always on her mind. She had been too conflicted and torn that day, too intent on getting out before she got hurt, to really listen to him. Had he meant he wanted something with her or had he meant was there any chance she would concede and have a baby with him?
She stopped short as her building came into view. Her heart started beating so fast she was sure she was going to faint. Max! He stood there, in front of the building, and he was kissing Heather!
Was Blake there? Had he come to see her? Her footsteps sped up, and she raced up to where Heather and Max, too busy kissing to notice her, stood. She cleared her throat and spoke, and they broke apart, giving her slightly abashed and hugely goofy smiles.
Her eyes moved along the street, but Blake was nowhere in sight.
And she knew. Max had come for Heather, had come to tell her that he loved her and wanted her, but Blake had not come. He would not come. He would never come.
Her smile was pained and her heart even more agonized as she surveyed Heather’s rapt and happy face, and Max’s.
She fought back the words, the asking if Blake was there. She could hardly breathe around those words and the hope that had already died, but still, stubbornly, wanted to come back to her.
Heather said, “Oh, I can’t leave! Christy…”
Christy made her lips turn upward. She made herself be happy for Heather getting the love of her life when all she had was the empty street and the emptiness of her heart. “You better go, girl,” she said through the pain. “I mean, he came all this way, and you know you want to. I’ll be fine.”
She wasn’t fine. She would never be fine again.
