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“To our weekend in bed.” I lifted my glass to his, warmed by his smile and the heat leftover from the scalding Italian sun. “And maybe sightseeing before we leave?”
“We can do whatever you want, as long as you don’t forget our bet.” He lifted his eyebrows. “And you need to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?” I placed my empty glass on the railing and turned to Rhys, closing my eyes as his palms folded over my shoulders, his thumbs tracing circles below my collarbone.
“Forget about everyone and let go,” he replied.
Wrapping my fingers around his wrist, I lowered his hands and stepped closer to him, his body warm against mine. “That’s two things.”
“You’re ridiculous,” he taunted, skimming his hands down my back and around my hips, lifting me into his arms. “I’ll show you one thing I promised you,” Rhys challenged. Rushing us back into the bedroom and dropping me on the mattress, it was seconds until his shirt was off and I greedily reached for the waistband of his sweats.
* * *
Tangled and depleted, I actually woke feeling relieved. Bells rang throughout the city, breaking the morning and forcing us awake. Rhys was on his side, facing the window. I wasn’t sure if he was awake, but that didn’t stop me from scooting toward him in bed and wrapping my right arm around his stomach.
“Good morning,” he groggily whispered, turning onto his back. Resting my chin on his abs, I smiled at him when he twirled stray hair from my eyes and held my cheek in his warm palm. “What do you want to see before we go? I imagine your history professor mind is simply restless,” Rhys teased.
“It is,” I agreed, dropping my ear to his stomach and exhaling while I mindlessly traced my finger in swirls around his abs. “But I need water, coffee, and something to eat before you show me everything there is to see, and then I want to get to the weekend you’ve promised.”
Rhys wiggled down on the mattress so our faces were touching, softly kissing my lips before he rolled us over and held me beneath him.
“The weekend’s started,” he murmured against my neck with his teeth burning a path along my skin.
All I could think of after we’d showered and dressed was how it already was the absolute perfect weekend, and it had just begun.
The bells had long since silenced; the city erupting with the exhilarating clamor of life. We walked a few blocks from our hotel to meander along stone roads not big enough for the foot traffic filling them, everyone eager to access the cafes and shops along each road.
I waited for Rhys along the piazza outside the Cathedral of Santa Maria, almost lost in the crowd of tourists posing for photographs with the famous dome. He couldn’t help but take pictures, and I loved watching him capture a moment.
Loved. The word was still out there, but it didn’t scare me. Not when I watched Rhys tuck in his camera and walk back to me with a beaming smile.
I slept later on the trip to our ferry ride, tucked against Rhys with jetlag and the rocking sway of curving roads putting me under. Famished once we arrived, the first thing Rhys did was find a place for us to eat an early dinner.
“There’s a café just up that street,” he told me, intertwining our fingers.
Holding hands was simple, yet it seemed heavier to think of doing so back where our family was. Because there was so much more now. Passion, affection, desire, and longing melded so perfectly with the solace and comfort we felt together. We were more than friends, more than lovers, and more than being godparents to Sadie and Matthew’s baby, if we still were. They, and the wedding, were on my mind as we took our seats outside the café.
“What are you smiling about?” I inquired, peering over the menu I couldn’t read to catch Rhys.
“You’re even more beautiful today,” he asserted. “How could that be?”
His flirtation paused once the server arrived, speaking enough English to support Rhys’s attempt at Italian and translating the menu.
We weren’t too far from the port, as we noticed a few small groups of tourists wheeling their luggage behind them while walking along the streets near the café. We watched them together, trying to piece together stories about whoever caught our eye first.
Rhys rested his head against mine, whispering into my ear. “That one,” I followed his gaze to the young couple glued to their phones, “maxed out his credit card to bring his girlfriend here to impress her, but she’s going to find some brooding Italian who will take her away from him.”
“Sounds nice,” I taunted.
“It is,” he chuckled. “Even better if they’re feisty Italian-Americans though.” Kissing my forehead, Rhys wrapped his arm around me, and we continued to watch people while waiting for our dinner.
The warm coastal breeze took away my breath when I looked across the cobblestone road to the next group of people passing by. Rhys took the glass rattling in my trembling hand and scooted closer to me.
“What’s wrong,” he pressed, placing my glass on the table before cupping my cheeks. “Mia?”
“H-how far is Germany from here?” My skin grew cold, even with Rhys wrapping his arms around me and tipping my head back to catch my gaze.
“Not far by plane,” he replied. “Why? Mia, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” I think he brushed my hair around one side, kissing my shoulder, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from the street to thank him for his attempt at calming me.
I’d erased the memory from my calendar, tried to not care as much by telling off my mom at brunch. I found an exceptional man, an honest one full of adventure who made me feel things I’d never felt, even if I thought another path was my future a year ago. Whatever present and future Rhys and I promised, I had control in it. Tears blinded my view while I gaped at the street. I was far from in control.
Filling with unease, I felt like I’d somehow been lying to Rhys by not telling him what he meant to me, by still fooling myself into believing I cared about the past. And Caleb.
“I think I have,” I finally answered Rhys about seeing a ghost.
Blinking away my tears, I felt Rhys’s thumbs wipe them from my cheeks before holding my head in his hands. With our foreheads together, I quietly confessed to him that the ghost haunting me over the last year was right there, with us in Portoferraio, when he should’ve been in Germany.
I resented the tears that fell and landed in dark spots on Rhys’s lap, even more so when he wouldn’t say anything.
