The old version of myself might have wanted to stay at the Swan until close, but New and Improved Jessica is tired. I’ve spent the last however many days working on the move to Seattle like it’s my magnum opus. I haven’t left any detail unplanned.

This is not a spontaneous flight from the city. Not by any means.

My friends are still having a lovely time, although many of them have had a little too much to drink.

“Don’t go,” Christian says for the tenth time when I make a move to stand up. “It’s your going-away party! When will you have another one of these?”

I roll my eyes at him and give him a teasing push on the shoulder. “None of you are going to leave the city any time soon. I’ll only be a flight away.”

Fifteen minutes later, after picking at another round of small plates passed around by the wait staff, I can’t ignore the fatigue settling behind my eyes. If I have anything else to drink, I’m going to be miserable in, what, six hours? That’s when I need to be up to catch my flight to Seattle. Once I land, I’m going to be going to Jamie’s place to stay for a few days while the movers bring my things across the country, and I’m going to look like an asshole if I show up exhausted and hungover.

“Dessert!” Christian appeals to me as I stand up, pointing across the room to the waiters carrying more gleaming silver trays.

I shake my head. “I don’t need any more dessert, Chris. I’ve got to get going.”

“But it’s so early! You can’t leave yet!”

“My flight leaves at 8:00.” I lean down and kiss him on the cheek. Why is he being so insistent that I stay?

“Fifteen minutes, Jess,” he says, vaguely indicating the rest of the table. Carolyn is in deep conversation with her date, John, who she’s seen a few times and seems to like quite a bit, so I know she won’t be leaving soon, and everyone else is invested in a conversation about whether it’s better to visit Italy in the summer or the South of France.

Yes, the timing is perfect.

“Thank you so much for the party,” I say, smiling, and then make my way around the table, collecting hugs and good lucks as I go.

When I get back around to my seat to pick up my purse, Christian looks up at me, something strange in his eyes. “You sure you won’t stay another few minutes?” His phone, face down on the linen tablecloth, buzzes and he snatches it up, glances at the screen, and looks back at me again.

“I can’t,” I say, an ache beginning to form behind my eyes. Purse in hand, I make my way away from the table, stopping once to wave at all my friends. My throat tightens—I’m going to miss them—but I smile as brightly as I can before I turn around. I wouldn’t want them to think I was second-guessing myself.

I’m not second-guessing myself. I’m feeling nostalgic for the way things were before Alec came into my life and turned it all upside down.

I laugh a little to myself as I head toward the coat check. Things weren’t simple then. Not any simpler than they are now, except for the added heartbreak. Part of me wanted to skip town, or skip jobs, do something differently.

The girl in front of the coat closet takes my slip and comes back with a lightweight rain jacket that I brought in case the storm hit when I was making my way out. Lucky for me, the boom of the thunder—I can hear it clearly now, away from the music in the Swan’s main room—is right on top of us.

Outside, the rain is coming down in sheets, but I’ve walked home in worse. I’m not going to walk all the way back to the apartment—it’s at least fifteen blocks from the Swan—but there’s a long line for the taxis and only two or three waiting. I could be standing here another hour.

The dress I’m wearing isn’t one of Carolyn’s, it’s mine, so if it gets wet I won’t feel bad about it. There’s a subway entrance a block and a half from here. I’m going for it. Pulling the hood of my raincoat up over my hair, I step out from under the Swan’s awning and into the deluge.

Despite the raincoat, I’m immediately soaked. It’s a warm rain—today was ungodly hot, the kind of sticky New York summer day that makes you desperate for a storm—and the cold front that brought the thunder and lightning doesn’t seem to have chilled the droplets at all. It wakes me up a little. I pick up the pace.

I haven’t gone thirty steps when there’s a shout behind me. It’s hard to tell, but it sounds like my name. Did I leave something at the table? Did Chris realize how hard it’s raining and chase me out here to give me a ride? That guy is too much sometimes.

I turn, a half smile on my face, ready to tell him that it’s too late, I’m already wet—he should go back inside and have another drink. Maybe two, considering he probably didn’t bother to put on a raincoat. It’ll be something we can laugh about later, when I call him from Seattle to tell him about my new place, about my new life.

But Christian isn’t the one running toward me in the rain, soaked from head to toe, green eyes alive and fiery even in the dim light of the streetlights.

It’s Alec.

My heart literally skips a beat, then crashes against my ribs as my brain registers his face, his wet clothes, his hard muscled body, coming toward me as fast as his legs will carry him.

“Jessica!” he calls again.

He’s here.

Alec came for me.