The Patchwork Hearts

Chapter TWENTY

Holden

Holy shit.

   Maya Becker is in Boothbay. I know I didn't imagine her. The girl at the art store confirmed that it was her. I stayed there for fifteen minutes longer than I needed to, but it was obvious that Maya was avoiding me. I couldn't blame her, could I?

   I came back to Boothbay in January, which is the worst time to be in Maine. But I'd missed two years, only visiting three times. My mom's birthday, my brother's birthday and one Christmas.
LA was amazing. The art gallery that bought my paintings sponsored me for a year. They paid for my apartment and food and they sent me to events and parties. After my contract was up, I stayed. I had made enough money that year to keep paying my rent and keep parting. I sold another painting. I did commission work. I loved the big city life. I hung out with artists and musicians and girls. Ahhh, so many girls. I was twenty-two when I got there. That life was everything I could imagine and more.

   But my mom missed me. My brother - who is four years younger than me - needed me. That Christmas, I came home for four days. That was the first time I met my mom's boyfriend, Eddie, who she'd been seeing for a few months. He was energetic and owned his own wood working business, and he loved my mom dearly. Entirely. I went back to LA but my apartment felt empty, even when I had people there. Even when I had one girl or another in my bed. I missed my family and I missed Boothbay.

   I needed a good reason to leave the perfect life in California, though, so when my mom called a few weeks after Christmas and said Eddie had proposed, I called it my reason. I wanted to be there for her. I didn't want to miss any more years. So I paid out the end of my rental agreement and told the art gallery that I'd love to keep working for them, but from Maine. I'd ship my paintings if I had to. And then I got on a plane.

   It's two and a half months later. March in Maine isn't much better than January but at least I am close to my family. In two and a half months, I haven't done a lot besides painting and hanging out with my brother, Landon, who is twenty. He's in his second year at college, thirty minutes away from Boothbay. But I pretty much spend every weekend with him since I've been back. I'm staying at the house I grew up in, on the water. My mom lived there for over thirty years, but when Eddie proposed, she decided to move in with him. The old house would have been put up for sale but I told my mom to wait. Now I'm staying here, for the time being. Maybe I'll buy my own place. Maybe not. For now, this old house is mine.

   The only problem with the house I grew up in? I can look out the kitchen window and see the house Maya Becker grew up in. I know that house as well as I know my own. I know her father still lives there. I've seen him come and go. I haven't seen anyone else there. No Maya. No Nella, her sister. No secretary - not that I'd know what she looked like.

    Now, I'm standing in my kitchen looking out at the house that's a mere fifty feet away. I had no idea Maya Becker was in town. The people I associate with now know who she and her sister are, and no one has mentioned Maya to me. I heard Nella is married to a guy named George. I even heard she has a baby. I know that Kayleigh - Nella's best friend - is the manager of the Art Hub, which is where I hung out all the time as a teenager. Back then I was just starting to figure out who I was, as an artist. Kayleigh worked there then, too. Now, I know that Maya works at the Art Hub and it makes me want to crawl out of my skin, while also wanting to find Kayleigh and make her tell me when Maya works next.

   I have this burning feeling in my chest. It hurts. It feels good. It's like magnets that are both attracted to each other and repelling at the same time. Maya was my best friend, my everything, my first love. But she destroyed me. And then I destroyed her heart.
My phone is ringing suddenly and I've been staring out the window so long that I don't even realize it.