That was exactly how I felt. “I’ll be all right. Don’t worry about me, okay?”
“Well, I hope you can have a good time on your last day there. Your father and I toyed with the idea of showing up and surprising you but decided against it.”
“You should’ve,” I said, even if I wasn’t sure I meant it.
My parents still technically owned the resort, but they rarely visited, having delegated most of the operations to employees of my father’s company. If they’d shown up, they would’ve rattled more than one person here. Normally it was nice to spend time with them, but I couldn’t imagine how I’d have handled that while I was hanging out with Blair. She’d commanded all of my attention.
“Maybe next time,” she said. “And maybe one day we can all meet there with Taylor. He doesn’t get to enjoy it enough.”
“That’d be amazing.” I gazed out at the sun peeking through my window. “Anyway, Mom, I better let you go. Thank you for checking in, even if you were just trying to be a buttinsky based on gossip you heard.”
She chose not to respond to that. “Love you, my son.”
“Love you, Mom. Tell Dad I said hello.”
After she hung up, I tossed my phone and rubbed my temples, considering again whether to just get the hell out of here.
Then there was a knock on my door.
Who the fuck is that?
Not giving a shit about anything, I opened without checking the peephole and nearly fell back at the sight of her.
I blinked, suddenly coming back from the dead as I whispered, “Blair…”
“Oh my God, are you okay?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“No,” I growled. “I’m not fucking okay. I thought you left. I was fucking mourning you.”
Her face reddened. “I never left.”
“What the hell?”
“I never left,” she repeated as she entered the room.
I turned away for a moment and paced, stunned into silence. But as I took a moment to breathe, my anger transformed into joy. She was really still here. I needed to appreciate the second chance I’d been given.
My breath sped up as I faced her. “I don’t understand why you did that, but I’m not sure I give a damn.”
Her face turned redder. “It was an April Fool’s prank.”
My eyes widened. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
I realized it was, in fact, April first. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
She shook her head and looked down at her feet. “I feel so bad. I shouldn’t have done that to you.”
My emotions lurched back to being pissed as I raised my voice. “No shit, you shouldn’t have done it.”
“You look really upset. I didn’t mean for it to play out like this. I left the note super early, and I planned not to let so much time go by. But you must have gotten up earlier than I thought, and I fell back asleep for a bit. I’m sorry you’re upset. It was stupid.” Blair’s voice shook as she started to cry. “Do you hate me?”
“Hate you?” I shook my head and laughed. “No… I’m too fucking happy to see you to hate you. My emotions are just all over the place right now.”
She nodded and wiped her eyes, still looking guilty. “In truth, it wasn’t just about April first.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I wanted you to understand what you gave up.” She inched closer. “How did it feel to think we’d never see each other again?”
