Free Holding Her Breath (Indigo) by Nicole Green

smile and looked around the coffeehouse at their surroundings. Focusing in on a landscape portrait by a local artist, she said to Chace, “Who’s that girl? In the picture on your nightstand? She’s really pretty.”
    “Someone from my past,” Chace said, and his voice seemed to lose a little of its warmth.
    She turned her attention back to the table, but focused on Chace’s hands instead of his face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
    “It’s okay. You didn’t. It’s a legit question. I’m not seeing anybody.” Chace’s voice was quiet, yet it demanded that she look up at him. The sound of it drew her eyes to his face. “Not since the day before yesterday.”
    He looked so sad for a moment that Whitney wanted to reach across the table and hug him. Then he put a smile back on his face. His eyes were no longer smiling, though.
    Just then, their number was called, and Chace went to get their food. He came back to the table balancing two cups of coffee and their food expertly.
    “Wow, you’re good at that.” Whitney reached for her plate, and he set it in front of her. “I should have probably offered to help you, though.”
    “Thanks.” Chace winked at her. “And it’s okay. I used to be a server. I know a few things.”
    She nodded, grabbed a spoon, and started idly stirring her coffee. Just what else did he know?
    Chace had ordered a veggie spinach wrap and espresso. Whitney decided on an egg salad sandwich and her normal caramel latté. Wherever she went, she got that coffee place’s variation on it, but It’s Just Coffee made the best she’d ever had in River Run.
    “I love this place. I come here every time I’m home,” Whitney said, breathing in the smell of coffee and listening to the whir of the espresso machine.
    “Yeah,” Chace said. He’d picked up his wrap, but hadn’t taken a bite yet. “Kelly turned me on to this place.”
    “That the girl from the picture?”
    He nodded, looking at his food instead of at Whitney. “She left the day before yesterday. On Christmas Eve. Said she…well, it’s not important what she said.” Chace put down his wrap.
    “How long were you two together?”
    “Two years.”
    “That’s a long time,” Whitney said, feeling that had been stupidly obvious to say, but she hadn’t been able to think of anything better, and the silence was too awkward.
    “Yeah. I thought we were happy.” Chace put his wrap back onto his plate without taking a bite and gripped his coffee mug between his hands. “It’s not a good feeling. Having your heart broken.” He tapped the mug against the table.
    Whitney knew nothing about that. She guessed there were some benefits from moving too quickly through life to pay attention to things like romance.
    “I don’t think I’d ever really been in love before her,” he said. “I cared about other girls, but it wasn’t the way—it wasn’t like with Kelly. You know?”
    Whitney slowly shook her head, twirling her spoon between her fingers. “I’ve never been in love.”
    “Never? Not once? The guys have to be all over you.”
    Strangely, coming from Chace, that didn’t sound like empty pick-up line type flattery. She gave him a small smile. “Not even once. I’ve never even been in a serious relationship.”
    “Really?”
    “Never found time. I mean, I was in a million clubs and organizations and sports and stuff in high school. I was really involved in college, too. President of the College Democrats, on the debate team, I started my involvement with Big Sisters back then, and I had a lot of other stuff going on, too. Then, law school and more of the same. And now, I’m working at Gibson and Grey and I do pro bono work and I’m still a Big Sister. I work over sixty hours a week at the firm and on a good week I keep it under eighty. I’m trying to impress the partners so I can become one myself.”
    “Wow, I can’t imagine that. Never finding time for love.” Chace truly did look perplexed. “Love is