Page 74 of Almost True
All night, I’d held her and wished this wasn’t an ending. But here we were, descending the steps to a waiting town car. Why would she drive, anyway? She wouldn’t be back.
Each thought came barreling toward me, battering my body with the truth.
The driver hopped out and greeted her. “Ms. Reynolds.”
“Hi. I’ll be just a minute,” she said as he took the suitcases from me and tipped them into the trunk.
“Take your time,” he said, and slipped back inside the car.
Now my heart was pounding, clogging my throat with pressure and a closing of its own. Now my mind was scrambling for something to say. Anything to say.
“I love you, Maddie. Thank you.”
That was all. All I could say that came close to encompassing the enormity of what I felt for her, the way she’d changed me.
Thank you for letting me love you. Thank you for showing me this was even possible.
Another thought thundered to the forefront, so demanding I had to clench my jaw against letting them loose.Stay with me. Come back as soon as you can. Why don’t we try long distance? Are you sure you even want to go back?
“Thank you, Aidan. I’ve loved every minute with you.” Her brows pinched together like they held her tears at bay.
I coughed out a weird laugh tinged with grief and scrambled for something to say to keep from breaking down completely. “Even the part where you were nearly delirious with fever?”
One side of her beautiful mouth slid up into a pleased smile as she nodded. “Even then. Because you were with me.”
She was trying to kill me. She’d leave here, her legacy murder by verbal heart-stabbing. Damn, but this hurt. “It was my pleasure.”
She pressed her lips together and leaned up and wrapped her arms around me and squeezed. I returned the hug, knowing it would be our last. Working to memorize the feel of her once again, the clean, slightly sweet scent, the slip of her cheek against my jaw.
Abruptly, she pulled away and kissed my lips with a quick, brutal press and reached for the door.
They were all right there. The words. The pleading.Don’t go. Stay with me. I love you. Please, please come back.But the last thing I wanted was for her to feel any part of this had been just another person taking from her. So I said the only thing I could think of then, the prayer I prayed even as I spoke the words.
“Stay safe, Maddie. Please.”
She shut the door. The car pulled away.
And she was gone.
CHAPTERFORTY-TWO
Aidan
Forty-eight hours after she left and twelve hours after I’d texted her goodnight, she responded. I’d tried to send the message early in case she’d gone to bed early, but I didn’t hear back. So far, our interaction had been minimal and only messages. I hadn’t wanted to press for a video chat or even a regular call. She’d left, after all.
And yet, despite her absence, my mind still orbited around her existence. Out of sight was most assuredly not out of mind. It did nothing but send more anxious thoughts through me—had she landed? Was her apartment in New York ready for her? Was she feeling okay? How had the first day gone?
I’d sent some of these and she’d responded to all of them. We’d exchanged messages on and off Sunday afternoon and a few late afternoon Monday. But later, as they’d tapered off, I’d sent a simple good night. I hoped she’d slept well.
And though I’d wondered if it was pushing it, I’d saidI miss you.Like a fool, I continued to hang my heart out.
Though, no. I didn’t want to think that way. I loved the woman, and though I wouldn’t keep pressing that, I wanted her to know. Even if I couldn’t ask her to stay, I wanted her to know she’d made an irrevocable impression here, and she wasn’t forgotten simply because she’d left.
But no answer had come last night, and when I felt my phone buzz first thing, it hadn’t been her. It’d been John, the most morning person of all morning people, checking in on me with fifteen memes about healing from heartbreak and a goofy smiling photo of himself where he’d scribbled a mustache and villain eyebrows on for Luca.
What an idiot. Good grief, I loved him.
I’d tried not to betray my bad mood, but it’d crept in more persistently as the hours ticked by and I didn’t hear from her. Rich and I were meeting in ten minutes at the office, and I’d gone home for lunch just to get my mind right.
