“Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.” We haven’t moved yet. “I’m just remembering the crash.”
“We don’t have to do this.”
“Just don’t go too fast, okay?”
He laughs. “This thing is incapable of going fast. Hold on, and yell in my ear if you want to stop.” The Vespa lurches forward and I squeeze all the air out of his lungs. After a few seconds my stomach settles, and I open my eyes.
“Oh.” I exhale softly.
At night, London sparkles. Theo points out buildings and landmarks as we cruise past, and it feels both magical and impossibly real at the same time. A perfect date with the boy I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since we met.
There were so many moments—allthe moments we’ve spent together until tonight—when I didn’t think a night like this was in the stars for us. I press my cheek against his shoulder and memorize the feel of my heartbeat against his back. Fate might have us in her crosshairs, but in this moment, everything feels possible.
Theo stops the Vespa on a wharf by the bank of the Thames, in front of the glittering Tower Bridge. I unbuckle my helmet and wipe the tears from my cheeks, unsure if they’re the product of windburn or the cacophony of emotions in my chest.
Theo catches a wayward tear with his thumb. “Was this a bad idea?”
I shake my head, the emotion in my throat making it difficult to speak. “It almost made me feel like we could be normal.” I push myself onto my toes to kiss him but stop short. I look around the dark wharf. “Are we going to be seen?”
Theo removes his helmet and replaces it with a baseball hat from his back pocket. “Everyone thinks I’m at the party right now, but if anyone gets too close, my guards will take care of it.”
We watch lights dance on the water and talk until our bodies are stiff from sitting on pavement, and then I get on the driver’s seat of the Vespa and make a few jerky trips up and down the empty boardwalk while Theo tries (and fails) not to laugh at me.
When I give up and admit defeat, he kisses me for a long time and whispers, “Do you want to get out of here?” and I’ve never agreed to anything faster. We drive back to Clarence House and climb back up the tree and to the open window. He hesitates, but I grab him by the lapels and pull him in through the open window.
“Tonight’s been my favorite night in a very, very long time,” I say.
He draws back, his eyes lit with excitement. “I forgot to tell you the news. I got the final, official word today: we’re not married.”
My hands drop from his jacket. “Oh.” There’s a sudden pit in my stomach. “Are you sure?”
“We triple-checked. There’s a process to getting legally married in Greece that includes a bunch of paperwork and fees and registering the marriage within forty days at one of theiroffices. You’re officially free to make all your own choices without worrying about me or the Firm or anyone else.”
“Well, that’s… that’s, um, obviously that’s—” My stomach is in knots, and not the good kind. I reach for the missing chain around my neck that I got so used to wearing.
This is good news,I tell myself.
Thisshouldbe good news.
I imagine Mom, Dad, and Brooke exchanging a triple high five across the pond as Brooke makes a crack about not starting freshman year as a divorcée.
I’ve been waiting for this answer for weeks, but it doesn’t feel like I thought it would.
“What does this mean for us?”
Theo nudges my chin up. “Do you trust me?” he asks.
I don’t hesitate. “I always have.”
“We’re going to make our future on our own terms, Wheeler,” he promises with a light in his ocean-blue eyes that I’ve never, ever seen. Not when we washed up on the shores of Amorgos, and not when we stood under the stars and saidI do.
Whatever he’s doing, whenever he’s ready to tell me, it’s going to work.
“What are you thinking?” Theo asks as he runs his fingers through my hair, his hand cupping the back of my neck.
It’s hard to think aboutanythingwhen he’s this close, but I go with the simplest truth. “That I love you, and I’m so glad the world didn’t end.”
He laughs, and I cut him off with a slow kiss, pushing his jacket off his arms and letting it fall to the floor. He presses his body to mine, and I shiver as he walks us through the room until the backs of my knees hit the bed and I fall back onto it. He falls on top of me, careful not to land on my sore arm, brushinga featherlight kiss over my shoulder. I nudge his arms over his head and pull his shirt off and then he does the same, staring at me like he can’t believe I’m real.
