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He nodded. “I’m good.” Never better, actually. The truth had uplifted him, making him excited for the future. He glanced at the guitarists. They were strumming a ballad, their ability exceptional. He stood, and reached for her hand. “Care to dance?”
She placed her knife and fork down on her plate, next to her half-eaten fillet of beef. She accepted his clasp, her corkscrew pony tail tumbling over one bare shoulder as she stood, revealing her fitted white dress, with its bow on the other shoulder that could so easily be undone to reveal her slender, golden body beneath.
He led her to the small, empty area near the musicians, and gathered her close, inhaling her honeysuckle ambrosia scent that turned him on in every way possible. He could live on her scent for the rest of his days and die a happy man.
She lifted her arms behind his neck, her hands interlacing to anchor herself to him. Her stare held his, her mouth curling into a smile. “I have to admit you’ve outdone yourself. I had plans for our last day together, but you’ve—“
His heart froze mid-beat, his feet then refusing to move to the chords of the guitarists. “Wait? What? Last day?”
She blinked, as though aware she’d said too much even as firm resolve moved over her face. She nodded. “You didn’t really think I’d give up everything to stay with you until you had enough of me, did you?”
His hands tightened at her waist, possibly digging a little too hard into her flesh. In that moment he didn’t care. All he cared about was answers, and he wanted them now. “What are your intentions, Luna?”
“My intentions?” She laughed then, the sweetly tinkling sound verging on cruel. “You’re not really that naïve, are you Aiden? You left me behind like I was no better than garbage. But you don’t feel that way about me now, do you?”
He shook his head, his usually logical thoughts scattering like ash in the wind. “Of course I don’t. I never have.”
“Don’t, Aiden. Please, don’t. At least have the decency to be honest with me, just this once. You didn’t have feelings for me eighteen years ago, but you’ve developed something for me now. End of story.”
Something about the conversation wasn’t right. Luna wasn’t right. She was acting like she was somebody else. A puppet being manipulated by a master puppeteer. “This isn’t the end of our story, Luna, far from it.”
She stared up at him, her eyes devoid of their usual warmth. “I’m returning to my old life tomorrow, Aiden.”
Panic clawed at his chest. “We can make this work. We can figure this out. No one needs to get hurt a second time.”
“A second time?” She stepped out of his arms, her face as taut as her voice. “What about the first time?” she bit out. “Have you swept that under the carpet now?”
He frowned, his stomach crunching uncomfortably. “Of course I haven’t. That was eighteen years ago, Luna. We’re adults now.”
“Let me guess. We’ve moved on with our lives.”
“Haven’t we?” he asked, a savage kind of desperation building inside him. “What is going on, Luna?”
“What’s going on?” she echoed bitterly. Her eyes flashed, something between anguish and deep, dark despair. “We’re over now, Aiden. Finished. After today, you will never see me again.”
Whatever he’d seen in her eyes seemed to now echo right to the depths of his soul. This was all wrong, so very, very wrong. Luna was his in every way, just as he was hers. They belonged together! They’d always belonged together. “You don’t mean that, Luna.”
He was distantly aware the guitarists had stopped playing and were looking awkwardly at one another, while the cruise vessel drew into the quay where it would soon dock to release all its guests.
Luna’s face paled, her lips drawing tight. “I do mean it. This is goodbye, Aiden.”
When she twisted away from him, then walked back to where they’d been seated to grab her clutch bag, he was frozen in place. He couldn’t have moved even if he’d wanted to. This was history repeating itself. Not only had Luna used some of the very words he’d used eighteen years ago when he’d broken up with her, she had the same resolute expression he’d had way back then, too.
She’d made up her mind, and nothing he could say would change it. And who could blame her? He’d broken her heart all those years ago, and now she’d well and truly broken his.
But like a wounded and trapped animal, he didn’t go after her. He couldn’t. What could he say? A million apologies and excuses couldn’t change the past and how much he’d hurt her...hurt them both.
The cruise vessel lurched and rocked the slightest bit, but nothing really registered in his mind. Nothing but the fact the woman he loved was leaving him, her white dress flicking in and out of the crowd of people disembarking.
“I love you, Luna,” he said faintly, his words disappearing into an empty void.
