AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes,” I answered quickly, his ire prompting me to respond. “I’m good. I packed some snacks. I’ll eat a meal on the flight. I... I’m good. Thank you,” I added hastily at the end.
Dante nodded, but he didn’t take his eyes off me. I thought he wanted to say more, but he didn’t. He just... stood there.
“Thank you,” I said again. “For driving. Lilly is tired. And upset. I’m glad she doesn’t have to drive back.”
“It’s my pleasure,” he replied, but he said it as if it were anything but.
My eyes shifted to the ground.
“Have a safe flight,” I heard him say just as his feet started to move out of my line of sight.
“Wait!” I cried, looking up at him as he started to walk away. He had his back to me already but froze when I reached out for him.
He turned to me with that unfamiliar look in his eyes. If he had any idea how much I needed him at that moment. How much I regretted the years of conversations we’d never had. How much I wished I had been a stronger woman, that I was the type of person who went after what they wanted and accepted nothing less than what I deserved. He told me once to not be afraid to take what I needed, to ask for what I wanted, but the words stuck in my throat, leaving me to swallow hard as I felt my cheeks start to burn.
“You wanted something, Noemi?”
How could he just stand there? In the last ten years, was that all I was to him? Just someone he gave a ride to the airport? Was there really going to be no hugs, no parting words, no bittersweet goodbyes?
The tears pricked my eyes again, but I pushed them away.
“I just thought... Well, I wanted to say goodbye.”
He blinked a few times. “Goodbye.”
What the... He turned and walked away?
My heart pounded as my body screamedNo!That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be! I couldn’t let him go. Maybe he had no need for more, but I did.
“Dante!” I called out, my bag hitting my leg as I ran to get to him.
“What?” he snapped, spinning around.
The anger in his eyes made me stop in my tracks just inches away from him.
“What do you want, baby girl?” he asked smoothly as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “I said goodbye. What more do you want?”
“What do I want?” I repeated incredulously.
“Yes,” he barked then enunciated more slowly. “What do you want? You have a plane to catch and you’re wasting my time.”
“Wasting your... I... I wanted...”
I had no idea at that point what I wanted. Certainly, nothing I could tell him. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted his mouth on me. I wanted some show of emotion that said I meant something to him, even if it was just friendship. That if my freaking plane crashed on takeoff, he’d feel more than just annoyance because I’d wasted his precious time by trying to prolong our separation.
“I want a proper goodbye,” I said quickly.
“A proper goodbye?” His eyebrows rose. “I thought ‘goodbye’ was a proper ‘goodbye.’”
He angled his head and studied me. “But you want more, don’t you?”
That husky note returned to his voice as his eyes swept over my face.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“What?” he asked as he closed the remaining distance between us. “What more do you want, Noemi? Something to keep you from being disappointed? Something to make the agony of parting even greater as you fly across the ocean? Something dramatic and heartfelt, perhaps?”
I shook my head at his nonsense. “No. Nothing like that. I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I thought we were friends. I thought... Is a hug too much to ask for?”
