Chapter 1
The warm light from the terrace caught the wet on my cheek before I felt it. I was smiling. I couldn't stop it. Amber stood a few inches away and I couldn't look anywhere else, and the smile hurt because it didn't match what my eyes were doing.
Behind her, past the railing, Monaco dropped down toward the marina in a blur of lights. The bar stools were empty. The air tasted like salt and warm stone. Her suitcase sat a few feet back on the terrace tiles, patterned, wheels catching the light, packed and ready and pretending it wasn't the reason we were both crying. That was the contradiction I couldn't get past. We kept saying a few days. My chest behaved like it was months.
My name is Jonah. I was twenty-nine and trying not to fall apart on a pretty terrace.
It was just past ten. The terrace was quiet except for the low hum from the bar and the water far below. Amber's hair was pulled back tight the way she always wore it when she was traveling, her silver hoop catching the light every time she breathed. Her pink top was soft against the night air. I watched a tear track down her left cheek, slow, leaving a clean line. I watched her try not to blink it away.
I reached for her without deciding to. Both hands came up and I cupped her face, my palms against her neck, thumbs just under her jaw. She let me. I leaned in until my forehead was almost touching hers and I had to look down to keep from closing my eyes completely. Her luggage was still there in my peripheral vision, wheels locked, handle up. I could feel her breath, shallow and warm. I could feel the small tremor in her shoulders she was trying to hold still.
I tried to speak and my throat caught. The tears were running now, hot, cutting through the stubble on my cheeks. My eyes were red and watery and I didn't try to hide them.
"I didn't think saying goodbye for a few days would hurt this much."
My voice was low and broken. I heard it shake.
She didn't answer right away. She looked up at me and the light made her eyes glassy. Another tear slipped and she didn't wipe it. I breathed in and out too fast and tried to slow it.
"It's because this place only feels like home when you're in it."
May you like
The words came out before I could make them sound steadier. My mouth was slightly open after, breathing. Skin and stubble and tears, all of it too close to hide. I stayed there with my hands on her face and my forehead near hers, not moving toward the suitcase, not moving away.
Amber held my gaze. Her lips parted a little but no words came. The tear track on her cheek caught the terrace light. The city lights behind us blurred and flickered. We stayed locked like that, eyes on each other, breathing, tears still coming, the suitcase waiting untouched on the tiles while neither of us reached for it.
