Unexpected

Chapter 16

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Two days later, I rode with Maggie to the airport so I could see her off, just the two of us, as Jack’s flight didn’t leave until the next day. I felt strangely sad to see her go, even though we hadn’t spent all that much time together on vacation and she’d be picking me up from the airport in a week. I think my melancholy was due to seeing her with Jack and knowing that the writing was on the wall -- I knew she would likely be moving to Chicago after we took the bar at the end of July. While I loved Jack and was very happy for her, I was also sad for myself -- I didn’t want to lose my best friend.

When she saw me tearing up, Maggie teased me, “I should be the one crying, I’m going home to less than exciting Nebraska, alone, and you’re staying here in heaven with a hunky guy.”

“I know, I’m just going to miss you. Travel safe, I’ll see you soon. Try not to sell my story to a tabloid,” I said with a smile.

“Good point, I’ll try to hold myself back from doing that but I can’t make any promises. Love you, be safe and have fun.”

“Be safe? Who are you, me?” I teased.

“I know, I know, you’ve somehow rubbed off on me. Just forget I said that and focus on the have fun part.”

“I will, see you soon,” I repeated.

And then she was gone. And it was truly just me and Alex. Oh, and his four bodyguards. Of course.

 

Our final week together was spent much the same as our preceding time, lots of swimming, lots of sex, lots of eating amazing food. We finally tried out Alex’s outside shower, which was an incredibly erotic experience made all the hotter by knowing we needed to keep our voices down. I about bit a hole through my lip, but it was well worth any temporary pain I’d felt.

We did finally risk having more photographs of us being taken by the paparazzi and do a few of the activities we were both interested in --we rode horses one afternoon and snorkeled the next. Alex had asked that we be the only ones on our ride, to hopefully prevent that same guest, or any others, from taking pictures of us they could sell. The Mustique Management Company was happy to comply and I got to see Alex in all his glory atop a horse. He really was in his element and it was super sexy to see.

We also broke our self-imposed television ban to watch a movie one night, and I liked that better than any of the other more exotic things we’d done. It just felt so normal to be curled up together on a couch, watching a romantic comedy I’d seen a million times. It made me sad that there wouldn’t be any other nights like this in our future, that our relationship had an expiration date that was rapidly approaching.

Alex never really brought up how soon we were leaving so I didn’t either, not wanting to waste any of our time in feeling sad about it. But it was on my mind almost constantly -- I felt like there was a big clock hanging over our heads, counting down the hours and minutes until we wouldn’t be together anymore. I was like a graduating senior, everything we did had some sort of significance to me. I’d think, this will be the last time we’ll swim together, this might be the last time I’ll wake up to find myself hanging off the bed because Alex was sprawled across the majority of the rest of it. Ok, so not all of the things I would miss, exactly.

If Alex was feeling the same way, he hid it very well, although I too made every attempt to keep my true feelings locked away.

 

The night before we were both scheduled to leave was tension-filled. I wanted to make the most of our last little bit of time together, but the sadness I felt about leaving Alex and the magical time we’d shared together on Mustique made it hard. Alex was clearly preoccupied as well and we were curt with each during dinner.