Page 9 of The Love Chase

A beat of silence.

Denise didn’t even look up from the magazine. “I guess you’re moving out then.”

I blinked. Surely, I had misheard her. There was no way someone could be so callous and heartless.

“Excuse me?”

Denise didn’t even have the courtesy to look me in the eye. “If you don’t have money to pay your half of the rent, then you can’t live here.” Her words were simple and yet they shook the foundation beneath me.

“I-I just need a little time, Denise. I’ll find another job.”

She rolled her eyes. “This is a highly sought-after apartment. I’m not waiting for you to find something else when I can find a roommate with money now.”

I fought the urge to snort. Highly sought-after? Hardly. It was a tiny one-bedroom apartment in a rougher area of the city. I didn’t even have my own room. I slept on the pull-out couch with my suitcase shoved in the corner. The only reason I lived with Denise was because the rent was low enough to fit my desperate situation.

She was honestly a terrible roommate, not having an ounce of empathy or compassion in her body. We weren’t roommates in the sense that we talked and spent time together or anything. No, we just lived our separate lives and shared the same space, hardly interacting unless rent was due, when she finally deigned to talk to me.

And now she was kicking me out.

“Denise—”

“I’d like you to leave as soon as possible, Emma.”

“But—”

“Today, Emma.” Denise finally lifted her gaze from her magazine, her brown eyes piercing my gut like daggers.

I couldn’t believe how awful she was being. I had just lost my internship, my sole source of income, and I barely took up any space in her apartment. I lived out of a small suitcase in the corner of the room for goodness’ sake. Was Denise’s heart nonexistent?

“Okay, fine,” I said, throwing my hands up. I stalked into the bathroom, grabbed my shampoo out of the shower and my toothbrush off the counter, and threw them into my purse—yes, my purse—and then zipped up my suitcase and rolled it to the door.

“There,” I spat at Denise, my anger at this horrid day breaking through my self-control. “It’s like I was never here.”

Denise didn’t even say goodbye as I ripped the key from my key ring, threw it on the counter, and left.

Emma

“Please tell me you didn’t get sucked into a tornado,” my brother, Jameson, pleaded as soon as he answered the phone.

I scoffed. “Would I be calling you if I was inside a tornado, Jam-Jam?”

“I don’t know what crazy things you storm chasers do.”

I smiled, even despite the terrible mood I was in. My brother always knew how to cheer me up, even if he currently had no idea that’s what I needed.

Jameson was quiet, waiting for me to speak, but I couldn’t get my tongue to move or my voice to work. I didn’t know why I was so hesitant to tell him what happened.

We were as close as siblings could be—brought together by our father’s sudden passing when we were kids, then by our mom’s long battle with cancer. Hard times like that often tore relationships apart, but Jameson and I were all each other had for so many years.

I might not have been very good at keeping in contact while I was away at college, but I knew without a doubt that he was always there for me and would support me no matter what. Even if me chasing tornadoes terrified him.

There are worse things I could chase, Jameson. Like…love.

Liam.

I shivered. Yeah, not going there.

“Everything okay, Em?” he asked after another several seconds of silence.

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