Page 209 of Valentino

We will never get over this; I can never come home to Milan.

Eventually he pulls the car to a stop out the front of my parents’ house and turns the car off; we sit in the dark locked car. Him in the front, me in the back.

A million unspoken words between us.

My fingers twist in my lap, I know I need to rip off the Band-Aid and get out of the car, but I also know that this is probably the last time we are ever going to see each other.

He knows it too.

“I was in a dark place back then,” he murmurs.

I watch his face in the rearview mirror.

“I was so…” he swallows the lump in his throat, “…insanely jealous of the two of you.”

My eyes well with tears.

“I just….” He screws up his face as if fighting tears too. “I couldn’t stand that you’d been with him.”

The tears break the dam and roll down my face.

“It ate me alive.”

I angrily swipe my tears away.

“And it poisoned me.” He runs his finger around the steering wheel as he thinks. “And it poisoned my mind….” He rolls his lips. “And I let it poison us.”

“You broke my heart,” I whisper through tears.

He nods, his eyes rise to meet mine. “I broke mine too.”

I screw up my face in tears, the lump in my throat becomes painful. “I have to go,” I whisper.

Click.

The doors unlock….

I wait for him to say something…. Anything…but there are no words left to say. Our time is over, and no matter how much I wish it were different.

It just isn’t.

“Goodbye, Valentino,” I whisper.

“Goodbye, Anna.”

I get out of the car, my heart breaking all over again. I stumble inside and eventually hear the car pull away.

And it’s a good thing because I got away from him…and it’s a bad thing, because he got away from me.

I screw up my face in tears as I lean against the back of the door.

He’s gone.

3 years to the day.

My shoulders tingle under the sun’s kiss, hmm…sunscreen on before I burn to a crisp. I make eye contact with the waiter as he walks around the pool and he gives me the nod, he begins to make his way over as I squeeze the tanning oil into my body, it’s not 100 percent sunscreen but surely fifteen-plus oil is better than nothing.

“Can I get you anything?” the waiter asks.