Only he had no idea how to go about doing that.
…
Carrie had to go a ways to find a bar where she didn’t think she’d run into anyone, and she found one. At the airport.
Her flight wasn’t for twenty hours, but still, she could sit there and drink until it was time to leave. It was better than hanging out at the resort with all the couples who had just seen her get humiliated.
“Oh, honey, I’m so sorry,” Annie said through the phone after Carrie spilled her guts about the past week.
Carrie sighed and looked around. The announce
r over the airport speaker came on, asking for late passengers to hustle to their gates.
“I did this to myself. Fake. Real. It’s all a mess and I really feel like shit now, so…”
She ran her fingertip along her glass of alcohol.
“That’s because you love him. And that is real,” Annie said. “You did the right thing. You stood up for what you really want. Not the idea of it or a fantasy.”
That word stung Carrie’s heart like it was an angry bee. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Yes it does,” Annie countered. “You’re strong. So start acting like it. Look at how much you’ve been through and you’re still in control.”
“How do you figure that?”
“You could have left at any time. You didn’t. Yet you chose to hold your head high, and you found what you really can handle and that Kevin is not what makes or breaks you. But also realize you’re the one who walked away today.”
“It was humiliating,” Carrie defended.
“Yes, but look at it this way. Kevin had a track record of never being there for you and ditching you. Blake showed up from the start and never wavered. You could count on him. And you ditched him. No conversation. No nothing. After he showed nothing but protectiveness toward you.”
“He said we were fake. I can’t keep living a fantasy. I can’t have these expectations that aren’t real.”
“I know,” Annie said. “But if you feel anything real, you owe it to yourself, at least, to recognize that.”
Carrie closed her eyes for a moment.
“Thanks, Annie. I’ll see you soon.”
“I’ll be there to pick you up in Denver when you land. Just try to rest and think on it.”
Carrie nodded and hung up the phone, then put it back in her pocket, thinking through how today had gone down.
Earlier, she’d stepped foot in the suite to get her things and almost lost it, because it still smelled like Blake, and sex, and them. Spice, sweat, and the ocean.
She drank down her second double vodka and winced. It was strong enough to start to dull the ache of the pain from earlier.
“Do you think we’ll ever not run into each other?” a voice came from behind her. Only it was the last voice she wanted to hear.
“What are you doing here, Kevin?” Carrie asked, not turning around on her barstool.
“Flying home,” he said.
She glanced up. “Where’s Wendy?”
“She’s coming along. Doing her makeup in the bathroom.” He took the seat next to her and grabbed her empty drink to chew on an ice cube. The ease he had toward her was annoying. “I think that we’ll always have something special.”
“What?” she said around a half laugh, half scowl. “You did not just say that to me.”