“It’ll be okay,” Aspen murmured thickly, her strong arms flexing around Eve’s waist as she held her tightly.
Eve whimpered and buried her face in the crook of Aspen’s neck. She knew Aspen was right—hell, she’d insisted the same in the car—but right now it didn’t feel like it.
Right now, it felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest.
She clung to Aspen as travelers jostled around them, no doubt throwing god knows what kind of looks their direction as they passed, not caring that they were basically blocking the entrance to the security checkpoint. They could deal with it; she was saying goodbye to the woman she loved.
Her breath caught as her brain caught up to what her heart had declared.The woman I love.She pressed her lips to Aspen’s throat as the simple truth of it all overwhelmed her. Somehow, over the course of a few short days, she’d fallen in love with Aspen.
She was in love with Aspen Collier-West.
Holy fucking shit.
Eve flattened her hands on Aspen’s shoulders as she pulled back to look at her, and felt like the world’s biggest idiot for not realizing what this golden, glowy feeling she got in her chest meant sooner. Her heart shouted at her to confess her feelings, but she bit her tongue and held it in as she stared into Aspen’s swimming, brokenhearted eyes. She couldn’t tell her now. It’d be too cruel to say those words and then leave.
“Aspen,” she sighed.
“I know,” Aspen whispered. Her lips were soft against Eve’s forehead. “You need to go.”
Eve clung to Aspen’s jacket and nodded. The airport wasn’t large, and security would be a breeze, but her flight was going to begin boarding in less than ten minutes, and for as much as she wanted to stay here forever, Aspen was right. She needed to go.
If only for now, if only for a little while, she needed to go.
She pressed onto her toes and captured Aspen’s lips in a messy, tear-filled kiss that was at once agoodbyeand anI’m sorryand a solemn promise to return. She made no effort to stifle the whimper that escaped her when she pulled away, and she smiled at Aspen weakly as she forced herself to take a step back.
I love you. I’m sorry. I’ll be back. We’ll figure this out,she promised as their eyes locked and held. The way Aspen inclined her head and nodded ever so slightly gave her hope that her expression conveyed even some of what she was feeling, and shelicked her lips as she took one last moment to etch the face of the woman she loved to her memory.
The left side of Aspen’s mouth twitched with a pained smile as she asked, “Call me later?”
“So often you’ll be sick of me,” Eve promised.
A more genuine smile tipped Aspen’s lips as she murmured, “That’s just not possible, Eve.”
And, god, it should be illegal for a woman to look that sad and beautiful at the same time, Eve thought as she forced herself to take another small step backward. It wasn’t any easier than the first had been, and she knew that the next however many she took until she was back here in Aspen’s arms would be equally difficult. “Just a few weeks,” she promised.
Aspen nodded and shoved her hands into her pockets, her shoulders bunching like she was actively resisting the urge to reach out and pull Eve back into her arms. “Just a few weeks.”
I love you.The words were there on the tip of Eve’s tongue, begging to be said, but what came out instead was a broken, “I’ll call you.”
Aspen’s throat bobbed heavily, and she raked her lower lip between her teeth as she squared her shoulders. “I’ll be here.”
Eve smiled weakly and nodded. “Goodbye, Aspen.”
Aspen’s lips quavered, her smile falling like a house of cards as she whispered, “Goodbye, Eve.”
Somehow, Eve found the strength to turn away from Aspen. She could feel Aspen’s eyes on her and she wanted to turnso badlyto look at her one last time, but she knew that she couldn’t. If she did, this perilous control she had over her emotions would shatter completely. Her eyes swam with so many tears as she made her way through security that she could barely see where she was going. Every step was a fight. A battle. But she did it. With tears in her eyes and her heart breaking more and morewith every step, she did it. She didn’t look back. She held herself together.
Held herself together by a string and the burning desire to not let Aspen see her break completely.
She gritted her teeth and she held herself the fuck together until she’d turned the corner to the concourse and Aspen could no longer see her, and then she shattered.
A ragged sob tore itself from her throat as she sank to the floor, pressing her back to the wall that separated her from Aspen, the tears that had been blinding her spilling free in a torrent. She’d done it. She’d walked away.
Why the fuck had she walked away?
Jesus, what kind of idiot walks away?
She wiped her nose on her sleeve and her hands were shaking so bad when she went to pull her phone from her pocket that she dropped it twice before she managed to hang onto it. She pulled up her contacts, and pressed the name at the top, praying to any deity that might be listening that the call would be answered.
