Chapter 26
Somehow, Aspen managed to hold herself together as she watched Eve walk away. It took biting her tongue so hard it nearly bled, but she did it. She didn’t shout after Eve to stay. She held back the tears that built and built and built until she could barely make out the shape of Eve as she gathered her things off the far end of the conveyor belt. She kept her feet rooted to the floor and didn’t run after her.
She held herself together by the sheer force of her will and the burning desire to not let Eve see her break completely.
She dug her nails into her palms and gritted her teeth, and she held herself the fuck together until Eve had turned the corner and disappeared from sight. And it was only then that the tenuous grasp she had on her self-control snapped, and regret like she’d never known punched her in the chest and ripped out her goddamn heart. Her shoulders rounded under the crushing weight of what had just happened, and a low, keening cry scraped its way out of her throat as the tears that had been blinding her sluiced down her face.
She’d let her go.
She’d just stood here with a bullshit fake smile trying to be strong and let her fucking go.
She wiped angrily at her eyes. What kind of idiot just stands by and lets the woman they love walk away without fucking telling her?!
The looks from passing strangers ranged from pitying to outright concern, but she couldn’t summon the energy to do anything but stand there and cry her eyes out. She knew that she should move, but she couldn’t. It was as if, in her determination to stand tall and be a beacon of strength for Eve, her feet had grown roots and she was now anchored in place, unable to do anything but hope against hope that their whirlwind, storybook romance would magically find its way to a magical ending.
They deserved that much, right?
Surely, they deserved at least that?
But the minutes ticked by with nothing but more pitying looks and hushed comments that raked across her wounded heart like barbed wire. And when Eve’s flight status changed from ‘boarding’ to ‘departed’ on the television overhead, she was forced to accept that while their whirlwind romance might be something out of a storybook, their ending was still unwritten.
The roots holding her in place snapped one by one, leaving her feeling adrift and unmoored. Eve was gone just as she’d always been destined to be.
It was a harsh, bitter pill to swallow after everything, but she was a big girl, and she’d find a way to choke it down.
With nothing keeping her there any longer, she turned dejectedly toward the exit. Her steps were heavy with resignation as she placed one foot in front of the other. She could do this. They would be okay.
She had to believe that they would be okay.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket just as she stepped outside, and she threw a mental middle finger up at the universe for having the audacity to kick her when she was already so clearly down. She very nearly sent the call to voicemail, but answered at the last moment, instead, her voice barely intelligible to her own ears as she rasped, “Hello?”
She hadn’t expected to hear Eve’s voice on the line, but that didn’t stop her stomach from twisting painfully and making her feel like she might throw up when it was, in fact, someone besides Eve who answered.
“Hello, dear cousin,” Michael greeted her cheerily. “How’d it go with Eve?”
“You talked to her?”
“Just got off the phone with her, yeah.”
Aspen dragged a hand through her hair and seriously considered chucking her phone as far across the parking lot as she could. “Look, I know I deserve whatever shit you’re about to give me, but I’m really not in the mood right now. Can we just save it for a different day? Please?” she added, hating the way her voice cracked around the word.
“Oh, Aspen,” he murmured. “You really went and did it this time, didn’t you?”
Aspen sighed. Of course they were going to do this now. Because why the hell not? “If by ‘it’ you mean fall in love with your best friend who you explicitly told me to leave alone, then yeah. I did.”
“People don’t fall in love over a long weekend, Aspen.”
“I know, right?” Aspen choked on a laugh as a fresh wave of tears stung at her eyes. “Except I did. And I just had to watch her walk away from me, so if you could find it in your heart to give me twenty-four hours or something to just, I dunno, try to fucking deal with it before you start piling on—”
“I’m not— Where are you right now?”
“At the airport,” she snarled, waving a wild hand at the terminal behind her. “I told you I just dropped her off for her flight!”
“Inside?”
Aspen wanted to crawl through the phone and beat his ass. What did it matter? Eve was gone, and here he was, being his usual asshole pedantic self about her exact location. “No. I’m at my fucking car. What does it matter?”
“Go inside.”
“Why? So I can be reminded that she’s not here? Jesus, Michael. I get that you think I fucked up, but when did you become such a goddamn—”
“Aspen, I need you to hit pause on the dramatics and listen to what I’m telling you: get your ass in the airport right the fuck now.”
She whirled around to glare at the airport in question, prepared to absolutely fucking unleash all her hurt and anger and frustration on him, but the tirade got lost somewhere between her brain and her mouth because Eve was sprinting out of the terminal like the building was on fire, and making a beeline right for her. “Holy shit. Eve…”
“Ah, never mind, then,” Michael laughed. “Go get your girl, cuz. We’ll talk more later.”
Aspen barely heard him as she dropped her phone in her pocket and took off toward Eve, who launched herself into her arms with a sob. Her heart felt like it was going to beat right out of her chest as Eve’s momentum sent her stumbling back two steps. Still, she didn’t let go. She’d never let go again. “You’re here,” she muttered, still not quite believing it even though she held Eve in her arms. “You’re really here.”
“I am.” Eve choked out a watery laugh, her hands visibly shaking as they lifted to tenderly cradle Aspen’s jaw. “I just couldn’t—” Her voice broke off, and she caressed Aspen’s cheeks with her thumbs. “I love you, and I just couldn’t—”
Aspen cut her off with a slow, deep, exquisitely tender kiss that trembled under the weight of her emotions. Eve was really here. She was her in her arms and somehow, miraculously, she loved her, too. “God, Eve…” She nuzzled Eve’s cheek, the last vestiges of her heartache forgotten as clear blue eyes blinked slowly open as if waking from a dream to stare into her soul. “I love you too.”
A tremulous smile quirked Eve’s lips. “You love me?”
“I do,” Aspen murmured. Her heart squeezed at the way Eve’s smile solidified and widened at the reassurance, and she kissed her softly. “So much.” A delighted whoop escaped her as she tightened her hold on Eve’s waist and whipped her into a joyous spin, and she sighed as she slowed to set Eve back on her feet. The joy dancing in Eve’s eyes made her feel like she was flying, and she made a vow to herself then and there that she would do everything in her power to make Eve smile like that every day for the rest of her life.
Eve’s fingers played lightly at the back of Aspen’s neck as she held her gaze. “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”
Aspen smiled and shook her head. She may have fallen hopelessly in love over a long weekend, they could take things a little slower on their way to forever. “I love you.”
Eve’s answering smile was pure sunshine and radiance. “I love you.”
Aspen hummed and smoothed her hands over Eve’s hips. “I can’t believe you’re really here.”
Eve laughed. “I am.”
“But what about your show?”
“I can prep for it here just as easily as in New York. I…” Eve licked her lips, a hint of nerves pinching the corners of her eyes. “I can work anywhere. And I want to be where you are.”
“Even if that’s here?”
Eve’s fingers tightened on the back of Aspen’s neck as she nodded. “Yes, Aspen.” Laughter danced in her eyes. “Even if it’s here in Aspen.”
Aspen rolled her eyes fondly as she allowed the press of Eve’s fingers to guide their lips together. “We’re gonna need to move somewhere else just so you can’t keep making those jokes, aren’t we?”
“Maybe,” Eve chuckled as she kissed her softly. “But we don’t need to rush. We have time to figure it all out.”
“Time,” Aspen sighed as she angled her head to chase after Eve’s lips.
“A lifetime’s worth, if I have anything to say about it,” Eve murmured.
Aspen smiled. “I really love the sound of that.”