Page 58 of Meet Me in Berlin

‘But I missed you,’ I say. ‘I thought about you all the time and wished it had worked out differently.’

‘I tried to find you,’ she says. ‘I went back to the park every day for a week. I went to your campus asking for you, went to the galleries, looked online. I’ve been in London, too. Went from gallery to gallery, hoping I might spot you. It was like you died, Casey, and I had to grieve. If I had known you were okay, it could’ve been so much easier. I just wanted to know you were okay.’

I bow my head, my heart heavy that despite hurting her so badly, she continued to look for me. ‘I did call you back.’

‘What? When?’

‘In December of that year. You said you weren’t going back to Australia until after Christmas, and I rang mid-December, but the number was dead.’

She gives a pained groan. ‘Fuck, Casey. I went home at the end of November when lectures finished because it hurt too much to be here.’

‘I thought you probably had. I told myself it wasn’t meant to be and to leave it because we couldn’t be together anyway.’

She rests her arms on the barricade and looks out over the water.

‘I’ve always wanted to tell you how sorry I was,’ I say. ‘I knew how you felt, and I knew that I hurt you.’ I hesitate, uncertain whether I should voice my next thought, but it’s pressing on my tongue and I can’t stop it. ‘I’ve never forgotten you.’

She turns slowly to face me. ‘Never?’

‘Never. I’ve tried to find you too.’ I bite my bottom lip. ‘Don’t be creeped out, right.’

Her brows furrow. ‘Oh-kaay.’

‘I did find you.’

Her eyes widen. ‘What?’

‘On Insta. I found you.’

Confusion crosses her face. ‘Then why didn’t?—’

‘I mean, like, just in the past week.’ I rush to get it all out. ‘I wasn’t sure about contacting you because I didn’t know whether you’d remember me.’

Holly scoffs. ‘Not remember you? You crushed me when you disappeared, Casey. You were the first person who made me feel like that.’ Her brows draw together. ‘Did you see my Berlin photos? Is that why you went to the park?’

‘Yes and no. I mean, yes, I saw your photos, but I was at the park the day before because I thought our day was the twenty-second. I wanted to feel close to you and I always remembered what I said about meeting there. When I finished work today, I checked your profile, thinking about how to contact you, and there was a photo of the Tiergarten and the gallery, and I hoped the park was your next stop.’

The breeze blows a loose strand of hair across her face. Before I realise what I’m doing, my hand is brushing it away, and my fingers linger behind her ear. She side-eyes my hand, then meets my gaze.

‘Sorry,’ I say, dropping my hand.

She steps closer. ‘It means a lot that you wanted to find me.’

I swallow.

‘I’ve never forgotten your kiss,’ she says, inching her face closer to mine. ‘The way it made my body hum.’

Oh, God. My trembling hands find her hips. ‘Listen, there’s something else I should tell—’ But my confession about Eva is broken by Holly’s lips lightly brushing against my own.

‘This okay?’ she whispers.

I nod. There’s the briefest hesitation before our mouths meet. Her lips are as soft and sweet as I remember. The kiss deepens, and her hands slide under my T-shirt and rest in the small of my back. My body reacts to the memory of her touch and my hands gently clutch her face. Our tongues mingle and my groin burns. We finally break apart, our foreheads touching, our breathing rapid.

‘Jesus,’ Holly breathes. ‘Better than I remember. Maybe I had forgotten after all.’

‘Holy fuck,’ I reply. ‘Me too.’

She chuckles. ‘Are we praying?’

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