Chapter 4

She kept going, her voice rising. "Do you honestly think I left you because you're broke? No! I left because you have absolutely no ambition! It's been three years, Ethan! Your college friends are already directors or starting their own tech firms, and what are you doing? You're still just writing basic code, working for someone else, just..."

"Just what?" I asked, turning slightly.

"Just coasting through life!" she screamed. "Being with you, I could see the next thirty years laid out in a boring, predictable straight line! Do you know how suffocating that is? It’s hopeless!"

I didn't turn around completely.

"Tyler is a delivery guy, sure. He makes barely enough to survive right now, but at least he has a dream! He told me he wants to open his own restaurant, to be his own boss! What about you? Do you even have the guts to try?"

I listened.

I listened to her call me lazy, unambitious, and a loser who didn't even have a dream.

When she finally ran out of breath, I turned and looked at her.

Her face was flushed with anger, her eyes wide and wild. It looked like she had finally dumped out every single resentment she had kept bottled up for three years. She was practically shaking.

"Are you done?" I asked.

She bit her lip, glaring at me.

"If you're done, go back," I said quietly. "Tyler is waiting for you."

I walked into the lobby, crossed the polished marble floor, and stepped into the private elevator.

Right before the doors slid shut, I saw her standing there in the heat, clutching that cardboard box, completely frozen.

Back in my office, I stood by the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down.

She was still standing there.

After a long time, she finally turned and slowly walked away.

She would walk a few steps, pause, then walk a few more.

I watched her figure disappear around the street corner before returning to my desk.

My phone rang. It was Justin.

"Sir, I have the details on Tyler," Justin reported. "He's thirty-two. He's been doing deliveries for a year and a half. Before that, he worked in construction, as a mall security guard, and in used car sales. He never kept a job for more than a few months. He has a heavy mortgage on a small house in the suburbs where he lives with his mother. Oh, and he has a five-year-old daughter with his ex-wife, who has primary custody."

"A daughter?"

"Yes. They’ve been divorced for two years. Does Chloe know about any of this?"

I was silent for a few seconds.

"She doesn't know a thing."

I hung up and looked out at the city skyline.

*Chloe, you think you found true love?*

*Do you even know what it means when a thirty-two-year-old man can't hold down a single job?*

*Do you know why he's still just delivering food after a year and a half?*

*He told you he wants to open a restaurant, but did you ever ask him where he’s going to get the capital?*

*Did you ever ask why his ex-wife divorced him?*

*You know absolutely nothing.*

*You just thought he was better than me because he knew how to talk sweet.*

*Fine.*

*I’ll let you see the reality.*