When she uncovers his plan to lead an entirely uneventful life, Mia Evian is determined to teach Preston Maddox how to stop living like a ghost, but Mia and Preston have history, tension, and a lot of complicated feelings.
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ओह! यह छवि हमारे सामग्री दिशानिर्देशों का पालन नहीं करती है। प्रकाशन जारी रखने के लिए, कृपया इसे हटा दें या कोई भिन्न छवि अपलोड करें।
Christmas break lands at the perfect time. While I'd not go as far as saying that Preston is back to normal, he's well enough to spend time at home in Cardiff–something he's desperately needed since things went awry. He's eating again, he's sleeping without much trouble, he's leaving his house, he's reconnected with Rhys, and he's finally accepting external help through his doctor. He's not been back to uni, but his first semester deadlines have been postponed until after Christmas through extenuating circumstances.
New Year's Eve proves to be a lot less eventful than last year's, but in the best way. Aiden, Caleb, Margot, Joe, Preston, and I spend it in the cosy confines of Aiden's otherwise empty flat, playing board games, drinking wine, and eating pizza like we're actual adults or something. None of us get very drunk, not even Aiden, and my heart is so full by midnight that I literally cry, and the six-way hug Caleb instigates in an attempt to comfort me just makes me cry harder.
Before I know it, it's the first of January, and I enter the new year with unrelenting optimism. After everything, maybe it's misplaced, but I'd rather run into the future with hopeful naivety than spend every moment crippled with uncertainty-induced anxiety. Naivety is in my name, after all.
By the time Preston and I are returning to London a week or so later, he's well enough for me to move back into my own flat. It's weird at first. My flatmates from first year and I renewed our tenancy for the same place, so it's not like I'm living with strangers or anything, but a loneliness haunts the space. I'm so used to Preston's company, so familiar with his presence, that it feels like a part of me is missing.
Within minutes of me returning to my flat, I want to visit him, but I resist. I can't. We've been living on top of each other for nearly two months, and we need to give each other space. We need to get back to normal, to where we were before summer–before Easter–and we can't do that if we're together twenty-four-seven. So long as I know he's safe and okay, that's all that matters. That's what I have to be content with.
It's not easy, but I get there–we get there. Lectures kickstart again, Preston works on his postponed assignments, I get back on the dating scene, and we keep things strictly platonic between us. Preston gradually returns to Typewriter Magazine meetings, and he starts socialising beyond Margot, Joe, and me. He and Dana even seem to be hitting it off again, which is great. Obviously, that's a great thing.
He still has days–he won't ever not have days–where it takes him longer to get out of bed, where he doesn't see anyone, where he doesn't eat as much as he should. But everything, especially given how horrifically things could've gone after Robbie's visit, is as close to perfect as it could ever be.
And I'm fine. It's fine. We're fine.
It's mid-February, Aiden's in London for the weekend, and it's not until we've been sitting in Dolly's cafe with Margot for a whole fifteen minutes that I notice the glances. Aiden's sitting opposite me while Margot's to my left. I'll be in the middle of saying something, and they'll just flash each other a nondescript look, their lips twitching as if I'm interrupting some private conversation.
