I opened my mouth, prepared to lie, but then I saw the sincerity in Vic’s eyes, and I was reminded of myself at that age. Before my mom died, before I became cynical and jaded. I used to believe in things like true love and fairy tale romances. I used to have an unyielding faith that everything would always work out the way it was supposed to, as if loving someone was the only thing that mattered, and that it was all that was needed to make a relationship work.
I couldn’t lie to her. Or to myself.
“Yeah,” I said. “I love him.”
She grinned. “And he loves you. Like, hereallyloves you. And you two make each other happy! You have to get back together. You have to!”
“It’s not that simple,” I started to say but she cut me off.
“Yes it is! You love him, he loves you, what else is there?”
“He wants to get married,” I told her. “And I don’t. He told me it was all or nothing, and I said no, so that was that. I doubt he even wants to see me anymore.”
“He does, I know he does.”
Just then, the front door opened, and Becca walked inside. At the sight of Vic and me, she frowned, then came into the living room and sat down on the ottoman. “What’s going on? Tell me everything.”
Vic gave the shortened version of why she was there, then made yet another plea for me to go talk to her dad, and I once again provided my reasons for why I thought that was a bad idea. Becca was all caught up in a minute or two.
“Hang on,” Becca said. “You can’t hold him to what he said Friday night! I was with him Friday night, at the bar.”
“You were with him?” I made a face. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“Not important,” Becca said. “The important part is that he was really drunk that night. Which, I should add, was my fault. I made him buy us all these drinks, and then I’m the one who said he should come talk to you. I should’ve known he was too emotional and tipsy, of course he said something stupid! But really, you’re going to blame him for something he said while he was inthatstate? That hardly seems fair.”
“Yeah,” Vic agreed. “Not fair at all.”
I shook my head. “You two weren’t there. You don’t understand.”
“And you haven’t been there to see him the last few days,” Vic countered. “He misses you like crazy.”
“And you miss him,” Becca added. “It’s obvious.”
I huffed and laid back on the couch, resting my head on the arm rest. “Well, maybe that’s true, but it doesn’t matter now because it’s too late. Jonah is probably already heading to the airport, unless he noticed that his daughter went missing and he’s at the police station right now.”
“I snuck out my window,” Vic said. “He won’t notice. My grandma is sleeping in the guest bedroom downstairs, and she won’t wake up before her alarm either, it’s fine.”
“Still. He’s going on an international business trip, and I’m going on a family vacation, and I think that’s probably for the best. We could use some time apart.” I felt the threat of tears stinging in my eyes.
Becca reached out and put her hand on my leg. “Is that what you really want?”
I hesitated before answering. “I—I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
I let a single tear trickle down my cheek. “Okay, no. No, it’s not what I want. I want to see him, and I want to tell him that I love him, and then I want to go to Japan with him and have the amazing, romantic trip we’ve been talking non-stop about for the last three weeks.”
“Then let’s go!” Vic said. She stood up and grabbed my arm. “If we hurry, we can get there before his plane leaves. He’s using the company jet, but sometimes they take off early if they get the chance, so we need to hurry.”
“But—”
Becca cut me off. “No buts. We’re going.Now.” She took my other arm and the two of them hoisted me up onto my feet.
“I’m in my pajamas! I look terrible.”
“There’s no time,” Becca said. “If he loves you, then he will love you even with your greasy hair and stained sweatpants.”
“Wait, my hair looks greasy?”