‘Want some company?’ Erin asked.
‘No, I’m good,’ Alex replied quickly. ‘I need to make a couple of work calls anyway.’
‘On a Sunday?’
‘Publishing never sleeps,’ she heard herself reply. ‘Barbie sounds amazing though. Won’t be long!’
Really, Alex, she thought.You make up shit for a living and that’s the best you could come up with? Eejit.
Once out of view from the house, Alex quickened her pace, down past the sandy part of the beach to the embankment where she’d previously met Aiden. She spotted him, perched on a rock, knocking sand out of one of his trainers.
‘I thought you’d left,’ Alex said as she approached him. ‘Tara said you’d gone.’
‘I did,’ he replied, pulling his trainer back on. ‘I had to. Despite what she and undoubtably everyone else thinks by now, I do have a heart, Alex, and right now it is pretty beaten up.’
As she saw his eyes glisten, she swallowed hard. He looked gutted.
‘Anyway, I just wanted to say goodbye properly.’ He sighed, staring down at his feet. ‘How is she?’
Alex felt the weight of his question. ‘She’s pretty upset,’ she informed him, a lump forming in her throat. ‘She’s not showing it, but we all know. The house feels a bit weird at the moment.’
‘What a mess. Alex, I’m sorry. Maybe I—’
‘It is a mess,’ Alex said, doing her best to maintain composure. ‘But now we can just forget this ever happened, move on—’
‘But I don’t want to forget this happened!’ he exclaimed. ‘Even if we never see each other again, I don’t want to forget a single thing about you or our time together. Why would I? It’s been the greatest three days of my life.’ Aiden took her hand. ‘And I know it’s wrong, this whole thing has been doomed from day one, but I’m not sorry we met, I’m only sorry that this is all we get.’
Alex began to reply, but her words vanished as her lips met his. It was soft at first, gentle but then something more urgent took over. She felt one hand in her hair, the other moving down her back. Those few seconds felt like forever until she finally, reluctantly, moved away.
‘I have to go,’ she said softly. ‘But I’m not sorry we met either. Believe me.’
He nodded. ‘I know. I just couldn’t leave Kerry without telling you how I felt.’
Alex turned and began walking back to the house, half floating on air, half determined not to fall apart and become a blubbering wreck. How would she explain it? How would she ever explain any of it?
‘Publishing world still surviving without you?’ Erin asked as she wandered back into the garden. ‘Barnes & Noble still in business?’
‘Yeah,’ she replied, holding up her phone to imply that her business calls had definitely happened and she wasn’t a dirty great liar.
‘You look kinda beat,’ Erin commented. ‘Though I think we’re all pretty wiped. It’s been a hell of a day so far.’
Alex nodded. ‘Yeah, I think I might take a nap before dinner, unless you need a hand with anything right now?’
‘All good,’ Erin replied. ‘We’ll start setting up about half seven.’
‘Sounds grand. I’ll see you in a bit.’
Alex made her way upstairs as quickly as she could, swiftly closing the bedroom door behind her. Then, face in a pillow to muffle any sounds, she finally allowed herself to cry.
