"Something happened. Otherwise, you'd still be hanging out with her. I know you're only here because you two aren’t talking anymore," he said.
"It's not like that," I started, defensively.
"Nate, it's not a big deal. I know how it goes. What happened between you two?"
"I couldn't do it to her anymore. When the summer ends, I'm going back to LA. She's staying here."
"I think she knows that, brother."
"It's not right. I can't make her believe this can be a real thing and then just up and leave at the end of August."
"You didn't want to hurt her?"
"Yeah. I mean, it's shitty leading her on like that. It's better if she doesn't have any expectations. Then, I can't disappoint her."
"I can see why you did it, but, tell me something, are you happier that you did?" he asked.
"What?" I frowned.
"Are you happy with that decision you made to cut her off?"
"No. I liked hanging out with her. She's a great girl."
"Do you think she's happy about it?"
"Definitely not. I think she hates me for what I said to her."
"Love's a scary thing, but you can’t be scared of it," he said.
"Whoa, who's talking about love?" I asked.
"I'm just saying," he said. "Love makes its own decisions. It's a mystery, it can take you anywhere. Make you do anything."
"I'm not in love with Abby."
"I never said you were," he said, looking over at me.
"So what's your point?" I asked, angrier than I wanted to sound.
"My point is you made that decision for a reason, but if it isn't making you happy, then maybe it's not a good enough one." I thought about it. Love? He had to slow the hell down; we weren't doing all of that. We had slept together a few times. We weren't in love.
"By the way, if you're willing to torture yourself and her because you're afraid to hurt her, you are in love," he said.
"You're single. I'm supposed to take your advice why?" I asked. He laughed.
"I'm not single because I want to be. I don't have a choice. You don't have to be single. You made that choice." I thought about what he had said the entire way back to the resort after the hike. Maybe he was onto something.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Abby
This was my fourth summer at the Four Seasons. I loved my job and the position it put me in to meet new people every day. Never in my four years had I thought that my job was boring. It wasn't. It wasn't even that now. There was always someone new or something new happening. It was not boring. It was just normal now.
The weeks I had gotten to spend close to Nate were behind me now, and if I tried, I could pretend that nothing had happened. It helped that I hadn't seen him and he hadn't called
the front desk. He must have locked himself up in his suite again. If that was what he had done, then, oh well, that was what he wanted to do with his time.
It was callous to say he wasn't my problem anymore, but I realized around four days in when I had still been feeling like shit, with Makani's help, that there was a difference between mourning and moping.