Anna

I scooted into the crook of his arm as he balanced a gift bag on his stomach.

“Whatcha got there?” I asked.

He pulled me closer to him. “It’s for you. A present.”

“Oh, I heard that girls who are into anal get gifts.” I laughed. “You had this planned all along.”

“Anna,” he growled, letting me know that he didn’t approve of my joke. He’d never bought me a present before. Not that I’d particularly noticed. Was this going to reveal his awful taste? Doubtful since his flat was amazing and his dress sense was impeccable . . . although he didn’t seem particularly interested in clothes—unless he was peeling me out of them.

I turned the bag to reveal the Hermès logo. I pursed my lips, trying not to grin.

“So what’s this for?” I asked.

“Well, like you said, I appreciate your ass.”

I play-thumped him on the chest. “You pig.”

“You love me.”

“I do,” I said in a small voice.

He’d meant it as playful banter but he’d brought it up. I loved him and we had promised not to keep things from each other. “No bullshit.”

He knocked the bag to the floor and pulled me down the bed and crawled over me. “You better,” he said. “Because I hear it’s no fun being in love with someone if they don’t love you back.” He paused. “I love you, Anna. No bullshit.”

I held his face in my hands as he looked at me, his eyes sparkling. He was happy. We were in love. Everything was perfect.

* * * * *

The Hermès bag contained scarves. Scarves to hide Ethan’s marking of me. I’d been wearing turtlenecks a lot recently, and the weather wasn’t really cold enough to justify it. I liked the idea of wearing a scarf, especially one that Ethan had bought for me.

“What about this one?” I posed in the bathroom doorway, naked apart from a scarf tied around my neck.

“I’m thinking this is shaping up to be the best Friday night I’ve ever had,” Ethan replied. “And I can think of several uses for the scarf. I like the thought of tying you to the bed. I think I mentioned that before.”

“One kinky step at a time, mister,” I replied as I unknotted the scarf, threw it at him and crawled back into bed.

“Okay, we can leave that until next weekend.”

My stomach dropped at the mention of the following weekend. It was the last full weekend we had together before he was due to leave.

We’d never spoken about him going. He’d forwarded me a couple of emails that set out details of his departure dates but I hadn’t replied and he never mentioned it when we were face to face. I took a deep breath and tried to bury the thoughts of him leaving. Two weeks was plenty of time. Plenty of time for him to ask me to go with him.

“Next weekend we’re carving out a bit of the USA here in London and having Thanksgiving dinner at your sister’s, remember? You can’t tie me to a bed for Thanksgiving.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I’d be very thankful if you were tied to the bed.”

I bit into his shoulder in response and he pulled me over his body. I wanted to ask him what happened next. I wanted to ask him if he thought we could do long distance. I wanted him to ask me to move to New York.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, brushing my hair away from my face.

I shook my head. “I was imagining being tied to the bed.”

I grinned but he didn’t. “Don’t bullshit me.”

I looked down at his chest and traced my finger across his hard muscle. “Not now. Not yet.”

He lifted my head up but I kept my eyes low. “Look at me, Anna.”

I wasn’t ready for the conversation about what happened next. I wasn’t ready for it to be over, either. I wanted to keep enjoying what we had. I wanted Ethan for longer than three months. This wasn’t how this was supposed to have gone. This was supposed to be the guy that helped me move on. This wasn’t supposed to be the guy I fell in love with.

I lifted my eyes to meet his and his gaze was dark, intense—as if they were trying to pull something out of me. “When?” he asked. “We have to talk about it sometime.”

I pulled my face from his hands and lay my cheek on his chest. “Soon,” I mumbled.

* * * * *

We had dinner regularly with Daniel and Leah—Daniel and Ethan seemed to hit it off.

The boys were having a game of pool before dinner in Daniel’s games room leaving Leah and I to catch up in the kitchen, pretending we were cooking, when Daniel’s housekeeper had done it all and we were just warming stuff up.

“So, I’m in love with him,” I said abruptly to Leah as she poked about in the oven.

She spun round to look at me. “You’re finally admitting it?”

“What do you mean ‘finally’?”

“Well, you’ve been in love with him since New York.”

“I’d only known him a week in New York.”

“Doesn’t mean you weren’t in love with him.”

Leah had turned into a hopeless romantic since getting together with Daniel. There was no point in arguing with her.

“I told him.”

She stared at me as she took a seat at the breakfast bar, nodding at me like a lunatic. “And?” she asked.

“And what?”

“Don’t be obtuse. Did he say it back? Ask you to move to New York? Did he propose?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, trying to come across cool.

“He didn’t say it back?” she asked, scrunching her eyebrows together.

“Yes, he said it back.”

“Well, that’s great. You’ve both finally admitted what we’ve all known forever.”

“Stop, Leah. There are no happy endings here. We live on different continents. Our lives are on different continents.”

“Are you telling me that if he asked you, you wouldn’t go to New York? And don’t you dare say no. Because he’s totally worth it. He makes you happy and you love him and he loves you and treats you like a queen and—”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t go, for god’s sake, Leah.”

“So you would go?”

“Yes!” I was exasperated. She was making me talk about things I really didn’t want to verbalize but I spent every spare minute thinking about.

“Have you told him?”

I shook my head. “We agreed to live in the present and not worry about the future while he’s here.”

“But—”

“I know. I’m just not ready to lose him if he doesn’t want what I want.”

“But he loves you. What makes you think you’re going to lose him?”

“It’s complicated.”

“What’s complicated?” Daniel asked as he and Ethan clattered into the kitchen.

“Making risotto balls,” I said quickly.

“Yeah, like you were talking about making risotto balls,” Ethan said. “You can just about fry an egg.”

“Whatever.” I shrugged and he wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Don’t worry, you have other skills that keep me coming back for more.” He buried his head in my neck to kiss me.

“Eww. TMI!” Leah exclaimed.

We all laughed and set about dishing up dinner. I was relieved to have Leah and Ethan distracted at the same time.