On the way to the airport, I click through the photos I took this weekend. The plane, the vineyards, the estate. I stop when I get to a picture from last night. We had just gotten out of the tub. We were both naked and I made a joke about his shriveled-up dick. He attacked me from behind, throwing me down onto the bed and pinning me under him. He then proceeded to tickle the hell out of me, while demanding I take it back.
He grabbed the camera from the bedside table and started snapping pictures of me laughing as he continued to tickle me. I screamed and begged him to stop, but it wasn’t until I warned him I was going to pee the bed did he stop. He dropped onto the mattress next me and turned the camera around, snapping a photo of the two of us.
I didn’t think about it at the time, but he probably wasn’t thinking when he did it, lost in the moment, because if I wanted to, I could leak the photo with the possibility that someone he knows would identify him. I wouldn’t do that, though.
My finger glides across the small screen of the two of us. Our heads are close together. My cheeks are flushed, and I’m laughing, my eyes staring directly into the camera. Liam’s gaze is on me, though, and if I didn’t know better, I would think it was love shining in his eyes. And maybe it was… Maybe, even though he knew we didn’t have a future, he allowed himself to fall for me the same way I allowed myself to fall for him.
A fresh sob escapes past my lips, and I close my eyes. I’m twenty-three and experiencing my first broken heart. I laugh out loud at that and the driver glances back.
I click to the right to bring the images back to the first one, knowing that was the last photo we took before Liam set the camera down and then wrapped me in his arms, telling me how much he loved the sound of my laughter. He told me whatever we did tomorrow he wanted it to be fun, so he could listen to me laugh all day.
I don’t know why he made me believe he wasn’t leaving until Monday, or why he left without saying goodbye, but maybe it was for the best because feeling the way my heart feels now, I can’t imagine actually having to say goodbye to him. Maybe he knew how hard it would be and wanted to spare us both the hard goodbye.
I refuse to believe he left the way he did to hurt me. That he would do anything to hurt me. And when I look back at our time together, I’m going to remember the man who came into my life and showed me how a man is supposed to treat a woman. I’m going to remember the way he looked at me, not like I was an escort, but like I was a beautiful, special princess. He’ll no doubt be the man I compare all future men to, and one day, when I meet my Prince Charming, I’ll tell him all about the man, who in such a short time, changed my life for the better.
The car comes to a stop and I glance up, realizing we’re at the airport. After paying and taking my luggage from the driver, I walk up to the airline counter.
“How may I help you?” the woman behind the counter asks.
“I’d like to purchase an international flight,” I tell her, thankful that Amber convinced me to get my passport recently, in hope of convincing me to go visit Aria in Italy.
“Where to?”
“You pick. And make it good. It’s the first of many places I plan to travel to.”
Chapter Seven
Natalie
Eight Weeks Later
“It doesn’t matter how many you take, the results are going to be the same,” Aria says with a small laugh. She’s leaning against the bathroom door, her arms crossed over her chest, and is smirking at me.
“This can’t be happening.” I groan, dropping the fourth pregnancy test into the box and tossing it into the trash.
A few weeks ago, while making my way through Croatia, I started feeling sick. I thought maybe it was the food or the water. I mean, I had visited several new countries in a short amount of time, so anything was possible. I could’ve picked up anything. But as the weeks went on, and I didn’t get any better—instead getting worse—Aria insisted I make a pit stop in Florence, Italy. I listed my symptoms and then she asked me one question: Have you had unprotected sex? She took one look at my guilty expression and had Giovanni run to the drug store to pick up a box of pregnancy tests.