Breaking the Cycle (2 page)

The small Italian restaurant was bathed in an amber golden light. The booths and tables were stained in a deep chocolate brown, each tabletop draped in a red and white, checkered cloth. Max smiled. He loved small, independently owned places like this instead of big chain restaurants.

He glanced over to Chloe standing beside him. She was biting her lower lip with an anxious look in her eye.
I hope she likes this place as much as I do.

They were escorted to a table and given their menus. Max pulled Chloe’s chair out for her.
Anything I can do to impress her.
He took his seat before looking up to start a little small talk. But she had buried herself in her menu, blocking her entire face from his sight.

With a sigh, he reached across the table for a breadstick. Only to jump back as his arm knocked over his water glass, soaking the front of his lilac dress shirt and black tie. He ripped his napkin from the table and blotted at the blossoming, ice-cold spot.

As he heard the sound of giggling, Max looked up. Chloe was pressing her hands against her mouth to hide her laughter. But it was no use. Max chuckled as he sat back in his seat.

“Are you all right?” Chloe asked.

“Yep. Nothing but a little hurt pride.”

She reached across the table and wrapped her hand around his. “If it means anything, I thought you handled it gracefully.”

He felt a surge of electricity jolt him at her touch. “Well, thank you.”

What a way to break the ice.

Chloe offered her napkin to him to help him clean up his mess. “Do you always start your dates this way?” she teased.

“Not always. Only for the pretty ones.” He winked at her. There was no missing the sudden tinge in her cheeks. He tossed the damp napkins next to his plate. “How long have you lived in the Twin Cities?”

“All my life. I was born and raised here. I live with my mom in the house I grew up in. How about you? How long have you lived here?”

“A couple of years. I’m from New Ulm. It’s west of Mankato.”

“I’ve been there. A little German town. Right?”

“You got it.”

“It’s really pretty.”

“Well, on behalf of the citizens of New Ulm I can say thank you.”

Chloe laughed. “What made you want to be a personal trainer?”

“I’ve liked sports since I was a kid. I couldn’t imagine a career that didn’t have some sort of sports involved. So I went to college in Mankato and majored in personal fitness.”

“What sports have you played?”

“All types of sports. Football, basketball, wrestling. I was pretty good at all of them.”

“Did you ever want to go pro?”

Max stared at he for a moment. Then he chuckled. “I’m taking over this entire conversation. It’s my turn to ask a question. What made you want to be a personal trainer?”

Chloe shrugged as she sat back to allow the server to set her plate in front of her. “I just want to help people stay healthy.”

The conversation died when they began to eat. Max looked up from his chicken parmesan to find Chloe watching him, a warm smile on her face. She reached across the table to brush a brown lock from his forehead. “I can see the German heritage in you.”

Max couldn’t speak. Her touch sent his heart racing. He nervously returned her smile. She wrapped her small hand around his and held it tight. He didn’t remember handing the server his credit card until she brought back his receipt to sign. He pushed out his chair then offered his arm to her. She wrapped her arm around his as he led her outside. The rain had quit. The streetlights reflected in the puddles randomly scattered around the street and sidewalk. They took the long way around the block to Max’s car.

“Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?” Max whispered.

“Maybe a time or two,” Chloe breathed.

He gazed at her, meeting her brown eyes with his. His breath caught in his throat as his eyes wandered to her lips. The night had gone so perfectly. He dipped his mouth against hers for a soft kiss.

He heard her sigh as she sank into the kiss. He thought he felt her deepen it. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders to pull him closer. Then, suddenly, she pushed against him, jerking out of his grasp. There was a look of terror in her eyes. She back-pedaled several steps. “So…sorry,” she gasped before she turned and rushed around the corner.

Max simply stared at the empty street, wiping his hand across his mouth.
Was kissing me really that bad?
He shook his head, frustrated. Part of him was ready to walk away. But he knew he couldn’t. He had brought Chloe to this restaurant. It was several miles from her home. He had no idea if she had enough money for cab fare. He certainly didn’t want her to take public transportation. With a sigh, Max trotted off after her.

Max wandered down the city streets of downtown Minneapolis. Traffic and pedestrians made his search nearly impossible. After twenty minutes, he stopped and exhaled, exasperated.
She must have found a way home.

He turned his head as he heard a noise in an alley behind a grocery store. His better sense told him to stop, to stay there. Looking in dark alleys in the middle of major metropolitan areas was suicide. But something inside him fought to pull him in. He followed the instinct and journeyed into the shadows.

The sound grew louder. It wasn’t the sound of crying or violence. It wasn’t the sound of a wayward cat. It was the sound of retching. And it had come from behind a dumpster. The one weak street lamp hanging from the building revealed a strappy sandal attached to a limp foot. Max leapt into a sprint until he reached the dumpster.

Chloe lay half in, half out of a puddle, her beautiful burgundy dress ruined in the stagnant, putrid water. Her hair was matted to her face, her barrette hanging by one thin lock. What had originally been her dinner was piled near her pale face. Her expression contorted as she began to vomit again.

“Chloe!” Max kneeled beside her, scooping her into his embrace. He stared into her eyes. They were vacant. There wasn’t a glimmer of recognition in the glassy depths. There was just nothing. Her whole body was limp in his arms.
He shook her gently
.
“Chloe, hey! Wake up!”

She responded by turning her head and vomiting what little was left in her stomach onto his shirt. Then, she collapsed onto his chest, her breath labored.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I’m taking you to the hospital.” Max picked her up, cradling her in his arms. He carefully made his way down the city streets to his car.

Max wasn’t sure just how fast he drove. Moments later, he pulled into the first available spot in the parking lot of the hospital. Chloe had retched the entire ride to the hospital, her stomach long past empty. Her lips were starting to turn dry, and her skin grew paler. Whatever illness she had come down with had hit her quick and hard. Max was just thankful he’d had an empty plastic bag in his backseat.

He lifted her from her seat and raced into the emergency room, holding her close to him as he ran. He stopped breathlessly at the receptionist’s desk. She handed him a clipboard without taking her eyes off her computer screen. A growl escaped his throat as he struggled to grasp it from beneath the limp woman in his arms.

He dropped into a chair in the waiting area, setting Chloe next to him. He stared blankly at the form, which demanded vital information on her. He filled out her name and address before returning it to the woman behind the front desk.

He reached into the purse he had found next to Chloe and pulled out her cell phone. He scrolled through her address book until he reached her mom’s number. Dialing it, he waited quietly. He took a deep breath as the voicemail popped on. He left a brief message then ended the call. Max picked up Chloe as the nurse called her name and followed close behind as she led him into a treatment room. He laid Chloe onto the gurney then watched nervously as the nurse took her vitals. The nurse dropped a basin onto Chloe’s lap as she started again.
How can one woman throw up this much?

The doctor swept in as the nurse finished up. He looked up at Chloe and moaned. “Great. Not her again. Start her on IV fluids and Zofran.”

“What do you mean ‘not her again’?” Max demanded.

The doctor scanned him from head to toe. “Who are you?”

“Max. Max Thomas.”

“And you’re with her, why?”

“I took her on a date. Why is it any of your business?”

The doctor chuckled. “Dude, let me give you some advice. Run. Don’t get into it with this girl. She has some massive baggage. She’s constantly in here looking for attention doing…” He waved his hand at the limp Chloe. “This. Forcing herself to throw up. She’s going to cling to you like a second skin. So, get out while you can.”

Max glared at him as he pried her mouth open with a gloved thumb. “Yep, she’s gone too far this time. She’s dehydrated.” He turned to the nurse. “Call upstairs and have them prepare a room. She’s staying.”

The two medical professionals disappeared around the corner, leaving Max alone with Chloe. What the doctor had just said didn’t make sense to him. Chloe was the least clingy person he knew. When she wasn’t happily interacting with her clients and co-workers, she was quiet and kept to herself.

“Who are you?”

Max spun around. An older woman stood in the doorway, her icy stare piercing through him.

“I’m Max.”

“And you’re standing here with my daughter, why?”

Max glanced from her to Chloe. “I took her on a date. I don’t know what happened.”

The older woman sneered at him. “Well, Max, you can leave. I’ll take care of my daughter now. You wouldn’t know how to handle the imbeciles that work here.”

Max stared at her in disbelief for several moments. Then, he took one last look at Chloe before he slipped from the room.

»»•««

Three days passed without a word. And he worried every second. Most of the time, he stared into space, distracted by his thoughts. He snapped back to attention as he heard his name called.

“Max, dude! A little help here, please?”

Max shook himself back to reality then grasped the bench press bar, lifting it from the hands of the struggling body builder. The muscle-bound man turned and glared at him. “You okay, buddy?”

“Yeah, fine,” Max answered. But he was far from fine. All he could think about was his date with Chloe. Epic disaster. He felt like a complete jerk for not going back to the hospital to see if she was all right.
Not that her mother would let me. That witch would have thrown me out herself.
On top of all that, the doctor’s warning to get as far away from Chloe as possible kept ringing in his ears.

Maybe the doctor was right. Maybe he
did
need to get as far away from Chloe as possible. She certainly didn’t want him.

He turned as he caught something out of the corner of his eye.
Speak of the devil…

The object of his thoughts shuffled across the fitness area, toward the employee locker room. She was ghostly pale, and her shoulders were hunched. Her eyes, shaded with dark circles, were glued to the floor.

“Chloe, can I talk to you a minute?” Roadie called from the doorway of his office. To stay close to his clients, he had his office right off the main cardio and weight equipment. It was a real lifesaver until now. Today, as the eyes of every employee and almost all of the clientele were focused on the scene between Roadie and Chloe, Max wished the office was in the basement.

She raised her head. Without speaking, she slowly crossed over to him.

“You’re a valuable asset to this company,” Roadie began, his booming voice silencing treadmills and weight machines. Max looked around at all the faces focused on the scene. “But I need you here to be that asset.”

“I know, Roadie,” Chloe protested. “I’ve been sick. I’ve tried talking to you about this.”

“It seems you’re always sick, Chloe. Which makes me question how someone so physically fit can always be so ill. I’ve tried to be accommodating but I can’t keep trying to work my schedule around this mystery illness of yours. It’s not fair to the others.”

Chloe didn’t answer. Instead, she bit her lower lip as tears filled her eyes.

Roadie continued, “I’m going to have to let you go, Chloe. Please, clean out your locker.”

Chloe sobbed as she spun on her toe and dashed for the locker room. Slowly, the whirl of elliptical and stationary bikes filled the air again.

Max stormed toward Roadie and grasped the older man by the shoulder. “That was uncalled for, Roadie,” he growled.

“What, Max? You’ve covered enough of her classes to realize she has to go.”

“You publicly humiliated her! And, for the record, she was sick. She was in the hospital.”

“Yes, her mother informed me quite loudly. What would you have me do?”

“She’s been sick every third Thursday, like clockwork. Even I figured that out. Maybe you could have picked up on her pattern and just given her that day off? Or was that too simple?”

Roadie’s eyes drew to slits as he glared at Max. “If you’d like to join Chloe on the unemployment line, keep it up.”

Max stared angrily at him in silence for several moments before he stalked off to the free weights area.

»»•««

Max drove down the interstate, barely paying attention to the road. For the last week and a half, he couldn’t get Chloe out of his mind. Her laughter from their date echoed in his ears. Seeing her so sick she didn’t recognize him twisted a knife in his heart. Seeing her running from Roadie’s Gym in tears made him feel helpless and pathetic. Not knowing how she was, what she was doing, was driving him insane.

He glanced briefly at his smart phone for the time, but instead caught the date. Thursday. He paused for a moment.
Should I see if my hunch is right? Can I handle what I’m going to find?
He nudged his turn signal on as he caught the next exit out of the corner of his eye.

Max turned the car off and stepped out. He stared at the old, large, white house for a moment before he jogged up the porch steps. He knocked on the door and waited. And waited. And waited. Hearing the television on inside, he knew someone was home. He knocked again.