AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She looked stunning and tortured all at once.
I couldn’t form words.
I couldn’t think.
Not when she was looking at me like that.
She stared into my eyes, searching for something in my gaze. As if she was looking for some recognition of who I was or maybe traces of who she was when she was with me.
“Livvy…” I rasped, my voice laced thick with uncertainty and concern. “What are you doing here?”
“My flight is in the morning.”
“I know.”
“I couldn’t leave without erasing the last few weeks of our friendship.”
I cocked my head to the side, and my eyebrows pinched together.
“I just want to be with you one last time.”
“Livvy, we just went through—”
“I know. Trust me, I’m fully aware, but I don’t want our last memory of making love to be on a swing before I told you I was late for my period. We can’t end like that, Ethan. I refuse to end like that.”
“It would be so reckless if we—”
She showed me a condom. “And I just finished my period. It’d be nearly impossible for that to happen.”
I thought about it for a second. She was right.
“I know you don’t want to end the way we did either. I know this won’t change anything between us, but I need closure, so I can at least remember our last time being about us and not the desperation of trying to escape. Please… just be with me.”
I didn’t know what to say. I barely knew how to feel.
“I just need a better goodbye before I go. It feels like an elephant has been in my room with us all week, and I know it’s because of how things ended. I know this will help both of us move on. At least it will for me. You’re forever my best friend, but I’m losing my lover, and I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to him. We owe each other that. Don’t you think?”
I narrowed my gaze. “Livvy—”
“Shhh…” She leaned forward, placing her lips close to mine. “Stop thinking. All we have is right now. Just. Right. Now.” Her eyes watered, fighting back the tears. “Please…”
Her pleading tone shook me to my core as a single tear slid down her beautiful face. The next thing I knew, she kissed me, beckoning me to do the same.
“Livv—”
“Shhh…” she coaxed against my mouth. “All we have is right now,” she repeated.
My mind battled my heart, raging a war I never had a chance of winning. Her loneliness ate me alive, swallowing me whole. I decided to do the only thing I could for her and for me. I sought refuge in the right now, which was good enough for me.
So I did what I had to do, what felt right and so fucking true.
I kissed her back with my heart breaking, piece by piece, crumbling to the ground as I made up for the last three weeks that felt as if I couldn’t breathe.
For each tear.
Each regret.
Each moment we needed one another but weren’t there for each other.
