Stranded Hearts

By Cristine Kinlee

Great Love story from Cristine Kinlee.

 

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Stranded Hearts is a novella that is part of the Love, Unexpected collection, a series of books by five authors focused around the theme of finding love unexpectedly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gennaro Yuri Tufano
• Release date: Feb 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393743088

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CHAPTER 1

At this very point in time - a windy October night in Kharkiv- Melissa Callahan knows one thing for absolute certain: she will never forgive Leo.

It doesn’t matter that she knows, logically, that she will make it back home, that she will find a new partner, that she will be okay, because the only things that do matter are the facts at hand.

One: Leo has given up dancing, despite the fact that she moved to Ukraine just so they could compete for his country. Two: Leo has left the country so that he can marry the love of his life (something that wouldn’t bother Melissa quite so much if it weren’t for the third and most important matter). Three: in his haste to leave as fast as he could, Leo took her dance bag with him meaning Melissa has no passport, no wallet, no phone, and no keys. 

For lack of a better description, Melissa is lost.

She slumps down on the stoop of her building, fingers coming up to rub at her temples, the migraine that’s been building since this whirlwind afternoon throbbing so intensely that her vision is starting to blur. It’s too late now to go back to the studio but she also has no way to get into her studio and nowhere to sleep. Would the embassy even be open at this time of night? Would the embassy even help since she’s renounced her citizenship? Even so, there’s the small matter of the embassy being in Kiev and she has no way to get there.

Sitting up straight, Melissa takes a deep breath in. She holds it in her chest for eight seconds before releasing it. She’s getting ahead of herself. All she needs to do is find somewhere to spend the night. In the morning, she will make her way back to the studio, talk to the coach who hasn’t run off with her dance partner, and they will figure this out.

Now more than ever she wishes she’d gotten more serious about learning Ukrainian. If she had, perhaps the elderly lady who lived beneath her would let her stay or let her use her phone. Not that Melissa has any number memorized except her childhood landline which is useless to her now. God, she knew she shouldn’t have started relying on her phone so much.

Tears well up in her eyes and it just makes Melissa angrier and her head ache more than it did before. No. This is not going to happen. She will not sit here, engaging in some pity party with herself as night and little snow flurries fall properly over the city. She is smart. She is resourceful. She may not have friends here or speak the language but she is going to get through this night and then she is going to get back home.

Pulling her hair from the messy bun it’s been in all day, Melissa stands up with her shoulders squared. 

It’s time to get back home.

IT’S THREE O’CLOCK in the afternoon and David is hungover. He hasn’t done this in a while, certainly not on a night where he had to work the next day, and he feels like he’s dying. The lights in the shoe shop are blinding (he’s seriously regretting moving to the new bright and airy location), his throat and mouth feel like all the deserts in the world have taken up residence in his body, and his head feels like little miners (77 dwarves maybe) are chipping away at him. The sound of the shoe polisher isn’t helping, but thank god it’s Pete operating it today and not him. That could have ended very badly. 

All that being said, he thinks he’s done an okay job at work today. Thankfully there haven’t been too many customers so he could work on inventory in the dark back room and the kid he’s dealing with now is one he knows well from the studio which makes life a lot easier. 

How are those shoes feeling, Lorna? Can you wiggle your toes? There’s only a little croak in his voice, it could be a cold. He’s sure he looks like he could be sick as it is.

Lorna frowns, her sandy hair falling over her face. Are you sure it was a good idea to put them in the oven?

I know it sounds a bit silly, but that’s how we get the best fit for you. He hadn’t been trusted with the oven either today.

David knows what he’s doing, honey, Lorna’s mom says. She winks at him in a way that seems very friendly. More friendly than he knows what to do with while he currently feels like death.

He hears Colleen clearing her throat and when he looks up to where she’s restocking the tights she makes a cutting gesture across her neck. He’s going to take that as a subtle hint not to get involved here. 

How about you take a walk around and see how they feel? 

As he’s watching Lorna walk around with her arms held out at either side, the bell over the door rings and William steps in. His brother looks worse than he does, wringing his hands, his face grey, and David is basically already ushering him towards the room at the back as Colleen takes over with their customer. 

David keeps an arm steady on his brother's back. He hopes to God something hasn't happened to Andrea or the baby, that's the news they’d been celebrating last night. 

As soon as the door shuts behind them, William says, We did something stupid last night, David. Me and Hank.

David reviews his memories of last night in his head, they’d just been in Hank’s living room, nothing crazy had happened. Unless they bought something online? Did you buy a sports car? Or some really expensive merch? He doesn’t think Andrea would be too