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I finally make it to the front door and burst forth into the hot summer night. The street is still dense with people; there’s a line to get into the restaurant to my left, and a palazzo filled with activity to the right. Fucking Italy. Just like New York. You can never be alone.
“Flynn!” I hear Adelaide’s voice call after me.
I start to quickly walk down the street toward one of the canals. I will happily get lost in the throes of Venice for a few hours, allowing the scent of dying fish to clear my head.
From behind me, I hear Adelaide’s high heels clicking after me. Damn, how the hell can she run in those? “Flynn, please wait! I’m getting blisters.”
I’m halfway over a bridge when she finally gets to me, her hand glomming onto my arm, nails digging through my sleeve. “Stop, please just –”
“What do you want?” I spit, turning around angrily on my heels to face her.
Her blonde hair has fallen out of place, but, of course, her makeup is still pristine even after practically sprinting after me.
“This is all so fucked, isn’t it?” Adelaide asks. She touches my arms softly, gazing up at me.
“You shouldn’t have invited me.”
“Then why did you come? To show off your little girlfriend with her Birkenstocks and Boho clothes?”
I clench my fists at my sides. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
“Flynn, what we had was real. I never stopped thinking about you. I only wanted to know you were thinking about me and then –”
“You actually would have come back?” I ask in disbelief.
Adelaide hesitates. “Maybe.”
Maybe. Typical Adelaide. She is the type of woman doomed to want what she doesn’t have. She will never be happy. That’s what fame and fortune do to you. Always makes you seek out the next shiny thing.
“People aren’tthings, Adelaide. You can’t just discard them and buy a new one.”
“I know that, Flynn, I know that…” She slides her hands up from my arms to my face, as I desperately attempt to move away from her as quickly as possible. “Let me make it up to you. Let me try again.”
I start to shake my head.
“I’ll break things off with Theo. Tonight. We’ll get on a plane. We’ll fly somewhere far away. Just you and me, away from all this mess. And we’ll pick up where we left off. Can we do that?”
My cheek flinches as fury burns inside me. She is so fucking entitled. How could she possibly think I’d agree to this?
“Please, Flynn.”
I don’t even have time to react when Adelaide tugs on my head and pushes her lips up against mine. I turn my head as quickly as possible to avoid her lips, but it’s too late.
Suddenly, the flash of a camera goes off, followed by a flurry of several more. I get a burst of fortitude and push Adelaide off me, scanning the crowd of paparazzi that have found us here on the bridge.
Adelaide clings to me again, her hand on my chest. “Oh my god, how did they get here?”
It’s the tone of her voice, the hollow disingenuousness that catches me off-guard. She’s never been a good actress. And her feigned surprise is proof of that.
She planned this somehow. She wanted us to get caught. A way to get into the news cycle, a PR stunt, I don’t know what it is, and I don’t care. I’m done.
I push Adelaide off me again and elbow my way through the blockade of paparazzi on the bridge. I’ve got to get out of here.
However, at the end of the bridge stands Stella.
From the look in her eyes, I know she saw everything.
“Stella –” I say, going toward her. “Let me explain.”
