Page 2 of The Hearts We've Broken
What Ineededwas to get out of this town. The plan was always to leave anyway after Brady graduated, but Iassumed I had at least five more months. Five months to work in a research lab in Goldfinch to gain experience then find a good job in a place we both wanted to live. Five months to figure my life out.
I shook my head, cursing myself. My entire future was planned around him. A goddamn boy.
What a foolish thing to do.
I scrolled my contacts, trying to think of who I could call in a favor from.
No, she’s all the way in Florida now.
Still in Goldfinch.
My finger landed on a friend who I hadn’t talked to in a while but still had a good relationship with. She lived in a small, middle-of-nowhere town. I couldn’t even remember the name of it, Miles something? Maybe that was exactly the type of place I needed.
What do you have to lose?I thought as I hit the call button.
A month and a half had passed since I caught my ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend together. Within a week, I had completely moved out of our—his—house. Up until that point, I’d been couch surfing, staying with the few friends I did have in town.
A couple of them had offered to let me move in, but I’d turned them down. Goldfinch wasn’t large enough for me to stay. I didn’t think I could stomach seeing Ava and Brady together around town, so I packed my bags and drove east toward Miles City.
Natalie was one of my friends from freshman year. We had several classes together and quickly became friends.She’d graduated last spring, so we weren’t as close as we used to be, having fallen out of touch once she left, but our friendship was still recent enough that I was comfortable asking her for a favor. Once I told her the situation—she’d met Brady several times since we’d started dating freshman year—she had immediately agreed to let me stay with her for as long as I needed. She wasn’t a huge fan of Brady while we were together; now I could see why, but at the time, my judgment was so clouded by what I thought was love that I didn’t care.
“I need to find a job,” I groaned from my position on the couch. “I feel like a freeloader.”
“I mean, it’s not like you haven’t been looking, right?” Natalie replied from the kitchen, the wall that separated us muffling her voice a bit.
If scrolling aimlessly on job search engines counted as looking, then sure. But all those jobs required a relocation, and I was picky.
“Why don’t you look downtown? I’m sure someone would be grateful for the extra help, even if it’s only occasional. That way you can work, make some money, and stop feeling so bad about not paying rent. Even though I told you it was fine.”
I nodded, though I knew she couldn’t see me. “You’re right. Don’t worry, I’ll be out of here before you know it.”
“June, it’s okay. Seriously. I just want you to be happy.” She walked over to the couch and extended a hand to help me up.
I took it, grateful to have a friend who literally and metaphorically picked me up. “Thanks, Nat. I’ll be back later. Wish me luck.” I grimaced as I let out a pathetic laugh on the way to the front door.
I couldn’t believe this was the situation I was in. I knewa lot of people fresh out of college were still figuring things out, but I assumed I would be looking into places to raise our future kids, not wondering why my boyfriend decided to stick his dick in my best friend. Or why she evenlethim do that in the first place.
For a while, I imagined it was all a bad dream. A really, really bad dream. I’d wake up any moment, and Brady and I would have a nice laugh about it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a dream, but my actual life.
Did I miss something? Was I oblivious to the signs? Surely they weren’tthatgood at hiding it.
Mid-February in Montana could be one of two things: negative temperatures with snowstorms every weekend, or a balmy forty degrees without a single speck of snow on the ground. This year happened to be the latter.
Despite the unseasonably warm temperatures, I still huddled in my jacket as I went from business to business asking about employment opportunities. I’d take anything at this point, short-term or on-call, hell, I’d even be happy with one shift a week if it meant I could pull a little bit of my weight with Natalie.
Most people, understandably, didn’t know who I was and weren’t willing to hire a stranger on the spot or add a new employee to their roster when it wasn’t needed. I couldn’t blame them for that.
I was about to throw in the towel and go back home when I reached the end of the street and saw the old-timey western sign of Rudy’s bar.
What the hell, why not?I thought to myself as I pushed open the double doors. The bar was fairly quiet, with it only being early afternoon. Fluorescent bulbs lit up the space, and the local country western station played over the speakers at a respectable volume. High-top tables occupied the open area to the right of the bar, and the back corner housed a pool table. A few old men sat at the bar, watching a rodeo on the television mounted in the corner.
Brady was a big sports fan—football, baseball, rodeo, you name it. I, on the other hand, would have rather done anything else than sit in a dusty arena that smelled like horse shit. Now that I thought about it, the horse shit was quite fitting for him.
“Hello there, young lady.” A booming, yet friendly, voice broke me out of my thoughts. A large man with white hair and kind eyes stood on the other side of the bar. “What brings you in today?”
“Hi.” I smiled. “My name’s Juniper, and I’m…well, you see, I’m new in town and—” I hung my head a little at how awkward I was being.
“You’re looking for a job?” He finished my sentence for me.
