Page 78 of Vacation with the Ice Queen

With each passing moment, Lila's heart sank deeper. The Serena from last night—passionate, vulnerable, real—had vanished with the darkness, replaced by this pristine simulation that looked like Serena but held none of her fire.

Whatever walls had fallen in the moonlight were being rebuilt in the harsh clarity of morning, brick by careful brick.

The breaking point came with the ping of Serena's phone—another message, another crisis, another reason to retreat further from the moment they were sharing. Or pretending to share.

"I should get back to my cottage," Lila said, setting down her napkin beside a half-eaten papaya that had lost its sweetness along with her appetite. "I have clients this afternoon."

"Of course." Serena's relief was almost palpable, though expertly disguised behind a mask of professional regret. "I have calls scheduled anyway."

The ease with which they both accepted the excuse made something crack inside Lila's chest. This careful dance of polite distance felt too familiar, the opening steps of a pattern she'd sworn not to repeat.

She stood, gathering her bag with deliberate movements. The terrace suddenly felt stifling despite the ocean breeze, the tropical paradise transformed into an elaborate stage set where they performed the roles of casual lovers without the messy complications of genuine feeling.

Serena rose as well, escorting her toward the door with perfect hostess courtesy. Everything about her screamed control—from her precisely styled hair to her carefully modulated voice offering platitudes about "catching up later."

At the doorway, Lila paused, a decision crystallizing within her. She could walk away now, accept the unspoken retreat,and pretend this gradual freezing out wasn't happening. That's what the old Lila would have done—the one who'd spent years accommodating Sophie's emotional distance rather than demanding honesty.

But she wasn't that woman anymore.

"We need to talk about what's really happening here," she said, turning to face Serena directly.

Serena blinked, clearly thrown off by the direct confrontation. Her hand paused mid-gesture, suspended in the space between them.

"I'm not sure what you mean." The response was smooth, the verbal equivalent of a corporate press release—revealing nothing while appearing transparent.

"Yes, you do." Lila held her ground, watching as something flickered behind Serena's carefully composed expression. "Last night you let me in, but this morning you've been doing everything possible to push me away."

"That's not?—"

"It is." Lila stepped closer, refusing to be deflected by well-crafted denials. "You're scared, so you're pushing me away."

The words landed like a stone thrown into still water, ripples of impact visible in the tightening of Serena's jaw and the subtle whitening of her knuckles against the doorframe.

"You don't understand," Serena said, her voice taking on that sharp edge Lila recognized from their earliest interactions. "My company is facing a significant challenge. The board is questioning my leadership. These aren't trivial matters I can simply set aside for?—"

"For what?" Lila pushed when Serena faltered. "For me? For us? For yourself?"

The halogen brightness of morning sun through the villa windows caught the silver in Serena's hair, illuminating her inunforgiving clarity. For a heartbeat, the mask slipped, revealing something raw and uncertain beneath.

"For a temporary connection that has no future beyond this island." The words were spoken with CEO precision, each syllable a calculated strike.

Lila absorbed the blow without flinching. "So that's it? You've decided it's easier to end things now rather than face six more days of something real?"

"I'm just being realistic," Serena countered, crossing her arms in unconscious self-protection. "We both know I'm leaving. We both know my life is elsewhere. What would be the point of deepening something that can only end in disappointment?"

"The point is experiencing it while it's here," Lila said, her voice softening despite the frustration burning in her chest. "Not everything valuable has to last forever for it to matter or mean something, Serena."

Something shifted in Serena's expression—a flash of vulnerability quickly suppressed. Her phone chimed again from the table behind her, the sound slicing through the tension between them. The perfect escape route.

"I need to take that," Serena said, already turning away, already choosing retreat. "It's likely Ashley with the board update."

"Of course it is." Lila couldn't keep the disappointment from her voice. "There's always something more important, isn't there?"

She stepped backward through the doorway, creating physical distance to match the emotional chasm that had opened between them. The tropical morning continued around them—birds calling from flowering trees, waves breaking against the shore below, resort staff moving discretely along distant paths.

"This isn't about importance," Serena said, though her body was already angled toward her phone, her attention already divided. "This is about reality."

"No," Lila replied, clarity crystallizing through her hurt. "This is about fear. You're terrified of feeling something you can't control, so you're hiding behind work and practicality and all the walls that kept you safe before you came here."

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