unsure she was going to answer. “I pictured it being just you and me and our families. But now we’re not together and my family is gone, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.”
She stared down at the paper, a small tear appearing in the corner of her eye. I brushed it away with my thumb, but when she turned to me, I couldn’t move my hand away. I was touching her. I had her with me right here. It was just like before. I could feel the steady beat of her pulse as I slid my hand down to her throat, and saw how her eyes dilated as she looked at me. The air was charged around us as we sat locked in this moment in time. It didn’t matter how much time had passed between us. I wanted her and I was going to have her.
Anna
There was no doubt in my mind what was about to happen. He was looking at me like he used to. I couldn’t deny that there was still a spark between us, but the things that we shared thirteen years ago no longer applied. We were different people. We wanted different things out of life.
He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, but just the taste of his lips brought back all the betrayal I felt after he left me. I shoved him away from me and stood, disgusted that I had allowed him to even press his lips to mine.
“What the hell are you doing?”
He shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”
“I know exactly what you meant. Do you really think it’s that simple? You can waltz back into my life and pretend like nothing happened between us? We’re over and we will never be what we used to be.”
“Anna-“
“No! Don’t you get it? That time in our lives is over. It’s been thirteen years and you just decide one day that you want me? Where were you?”
“I was right here,” he said earnestly.
“No, you weren’t. You built a new life for yourself, one that didn’t include me. You didn’t come home when you heard my mother died. You didn’t come home when I was here for years, struggling to-“
I cut myself off, not wanting to say anything more. He didn’t deserve to hear about what my life had been like. What we had was over, and the sooner he understood that, the faster we could both move on.
“Struggling to what?”
I stomped over the door and yanked on it, but it refused to open. I pulled harder and harder until I screamed in frustration and banged on the door. “Goddamnit! Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
He slowly walked over to me and put his hands on my shoulders, trying to comfort me. “Anna, we were just kids.”
I slowly turned around with tears in my eyes. “We were just kids, but I had to grow up a lot faster. While you were out partying with friends and getting an education, I was halfway around the country. I had no friends. I had no one to rely on.”
“You were with your aunt and uncle.”
I snorted. “They took me in out of some sense of obligation. They didn’t want me there.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
I crossed my arms over my chest, shaking my head slightly as I looked away. “Everything was so broken. I was shipped off to my aunt’s house and you never called.”
“What are you talking about? I called you.”
My head snapped to his. “No, I never got a call from you.”
“Your aunt said that you weren’t taking calls.”
“How many times did you call?” I asked curiously.
He swallowed hard. “Just the once.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Wow, talk about putting in the effort. One whole call before you walked away.”
“Anna, I was a kid.”
“So was I,” I snapped. “Only one of us had to live with what we did.”
“You’re acting like that didn’t affect me at all. Do you think I wanted to be torn away from you?”
“I don’t know, because I never heard from you again. And you know what’s funny? I’ve lived in our hometown for years. I know you come home every weekend, yet it’s taken you this long to actually approach me. Why do you think that is?”
He looked away, and I could tell he didn’t have a good answer for that. The truth was, if Robert really loved me back then, he would have found a way to be with me. He would have