He hands me his. I crack it open and shake my head, grinning.
“What does it say?”
“Meh.”
“Not a good one?”
“No,” I giggle, “it says Meh.” He takes the paper from me. “Of fucking course.”
“Let’s do half and half.”
He draws his brows. “You want half of meh?”
“Hell yes, I do.”
We each take half of our cookies and pop them in our mouths, sharing a smile before he lifts me off the counter, looking down at me. “You’re awesome.”
“That’s you. And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lash out like that.”
“Don’t be.” He kisses me. “Let’s go back to bed.”
I lift a brow. “Are we going to sleep this time?”
“Maybe,” he grins, and I wrap myself around him, soaking in the warmth of his skin.
“You know, I could get used to this.”
His reply is silence, and it has me on edge, but once we’re in the bedroom, he kisses me back into our lull. After Vera’s next number, he turns to me on his pillow. “Believe it or not, I get exactly what you’re saying. She was incredible.” I nod, wrapping my leg around him and pulling him close. Savoring the feel of him, I drift to sleep just as the movie credits roll.
Lance
Harper sighs in my arms, content as I study her profile in the morning light. I slept harder than I have in months. And it’s the first time we’ve ever had a night in bed together in the entirety of our relationship. I’m way too comfortable. I need to break away. Get my head back on my future. One that will have to exist without her. It was foolish to come here, but I won’t regret it. She’s okay, she’s better than okay, she’s thriving. I saw the evidence of it in my time here. As much as I want to whisk her away and resume my life with her in it, I can’t. She’s barely scratched the surface of her dancing potential. She deserves to live her life the way she’s envisioned it, and any entanglement between us now will only get in the way. I’ll be an obligation she can’t cater to. I’ve been acting like a lunatic in the few days we’ve spent together, jealous of the one thing she loves most in the world, dancing. It’s immature and wrong of me. We managed to recapture what we lost, and it’s more devastating than I can imagine thinking that very soon, I’ll have to walk away from her and the idea of us all over again.
We were meant to be in each other’s lives for the time we’ve had, that much I’m sure, but our paths are so completely different. Hers clearly paved while mine is muddled with what-ifs.
Inhaling her vanilla scent, I give myself another few minutes just to hold her. To kiss her cheeks, her temple, her nose. Pain sears through me as I pull myself away.
It’s time to go.
Harper
I hear the shuffle of clothes and wake to see Lance dressing.
“Hey, you,” I smile, drinking him in, loving the look of him in my bedroom. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” he replies, his voice void of the same life it had mere hours ago.
“It’s early,” I reach out to him, “Come back to bed.”
“I can’t.”
“Where are you going?”
“I have all my stuff back at the hotel, and I need to get back to my dad.”
This grabs my attention. “Is he…is it serious?”
“He’s temperamental these days, it’s always serious.”