Damaged Heart (Collateral Damage Sequel)

chapter one

This is a sequel to Collateral Damage. Please do not read on if you have not read Collateral Damage.

October 2017 (roughly two years later)

"Wait, what?!" Taylor exclaims after a heavy silence in the room.

Taylor stares at the middle-aged bespectacled woman sitting across from her in a large, dark brown leather chair. It is one of the two matching chairs in a set that includes the large couch Taylor is sharing with Karlie right now.

The woman offers a small, sympathizing smile when she begins to repeat herself. "Karlie has missed the last three—"

"You missed three appointments?!" Taylor finishes for the woman, as her head snaps in Karlie's direction. Karlie is sitting with her legs tightly crossed, an elbow propped on the arm of the sofa as she nibbles on her thumb nail. She looks reserved, and someone who didn't know any better would misinterpret the position as one of shame or embarrassment. But Taylor knows better just by noticing the arch of the one visible eyebrow in Karlie's profile.

"So?" Karlie replies. She sounds bored, yet dangerous. An interesting and difficult combination that Taylor has yet to come across in anybody else.

"Three appointments," Taylor repeats in disbelief. "You left the house for the past three Mondays telling me this is where you were coming. And you came back home, the past three Mondays, telling me that your meeting with Sarah went well."

Karlie's cheek dimples as she switches to nibbling on her pinky nail. She is obviously fighting a smile. But not the nice one, not the one Taylor likes.

Deep breath. Deep breath, Taylor. There's no point in arguing with Karlie when she's like this anyway.

"Why did you feel like you had to lie to Taylor?" Sarah asks calmly. Her legs are crossed too, but she looks far more relaxed than Karlie looks while sitting that way. Despite Karlie's compromised legs she still manages to look like a cheetah more than ready to pounce.

Karlie stiffens even more so and glares across the room. Nearly two years ago, that glare would've frightened Taylor, but now she can't help but roll her eyes. "I—" Karlie stops herself. It sounded like she was about to angrily deny it, but realized she couldn't. She huffs a loud breath, choosing to stare at her fingernails instead of Sarah. This time her face is more relaxed, and Taylor thinks it might be accurate to now interpret her position as ashamed or embarrassed.

"Why'd you lie?" Taylor asks. She asks it calmly too, but she sounds equally as unimpressed, even exhausted, as she sounds calm.

"It's not that I was lying to you, I just didn't want to see her," Karlie replies as she finally looks at Taylor, her palms facing upwards as if showing she is disarmed.

Taylor stares at her for a minute and is surprised by how easily she can understand what Karlie is saying now. If they were alone it probably would have sounded more like, "I didn't want to hurt you, I'm not trying to hurt you, I just think this woman is so stupid."

Taylor sighs and looks away. She leans back against the couch and roughly rubs her eyes with both hands to keep herself from smiling. That would encourage Karlie, and that's definitely not what she wants. Because this definitely isn't funny. Even though sometimes...it's a little funny. At least amusing.

"And why didn't you want to see me, Karlie?" Sarah patiently asks. Taylor wants to tell her that she's way too patient with Karlie, and that might be the problem. But then she'd sound way too much like her own friends as they explain to Taylor just what she's doing wrong with her relationship with Karlie.