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"I need to talk to you," I nal?" I think he said back

I shook my head "Dinner?"

He nodded, blew me a kiss behind everyone’s back, and was off, herded down the hall and into the elevator

"So how are things?"

Sara shrugged, dragging another fry through ketchup before popping it into her s are fine"

I glared at her Things were always fine with Sara

"I’ back in her chair "There’s so ure out what is truth, and what isn’t"

"Sounds like a good plan," I said

"I’ve known hi it’s just hard to reconcile it all But, honestly, I’ fine"

"Sara, pardon the intrusion, because I suppose technically it’s none of est load of shit I’ve ever heard"

"What?"

"You heard o to France and besides the obvious twelve hundred fifty-four reasons why I shouldn’t go, near the top of that list is you!"

"What?" she repeated, though a bit louder this tio to France! Oh ! And wait, what do you mean ‘me’?"

"Yeah, he wants us to have some time away to reconnect before the craziness of New York is upon us all," I said, before balling upit at her "And I hesitate to leave for three weeks because I’ to walk around the table and huganyone has ever said toher tightly "These were going to be our last three weeks together"

Sara took the seat next to irl, and there are planes I love--love--that you wanted to stay here and take care of ht," she said, wincing a little "You guys need this, and if you can make it work, well, you should throw so thaton her shoulder "God, it would cos so much I’d have to find sos--"

"But would it be worth it?"

I s how excited Bennett had been when he’d told me about the trip, and how his face had fallen when I hadn’t shared his enthusiasthe alar fallen asleep only two hours before I’d worked until al Chloe, but she’d stirred and cli

As if I would have stopped her

I couldn’t really complain that it meant another hour of sleep lost, but nohen her hand reached blindly beneath the blankets, sweeping down my stomach to curl around ht to catch, alone

She was co with a stubbornness all her own that she needed the rest of Friday to get the last few things sorted I would have waited for her, but because the flights were all last hts, nor were there any seats together anyway Deciding to keep et us situated at Max’s place

"I don’t think we have ti it," she said, voice croaky with sleep "This guy," she said, squeezing rip, "thinks we have plenty of ti ht, I need another shower"

"There was that one tisex is never only two minutes," I reminded her "Not when you’re all sleepy and rumpled and warm" I rolled out of bed and walked into roan ed, clean and dressed, she sat up in bed, still huggingshe wasn’t upset that we had to fly separately to France

"Don’t pout," Ito kiss the corner of her mouth "You’ll just confirm what I’ve always suspected: you can’t function without me"

I expected her to roll her eyes or pinch me playfully but she blinked down to my tie and reached to needlessly adjust it "I can function without you But I don’t like being away froo"

Well, fuck

I laidacross the bed and took her face in my hands until she looked up, and could see the effect her words had onout to wet her lips

With one final kiss, I whispered, "I’ll see you in France"

I would lose a day in transit, arriving on Saturday Chloe’s flight was only twelve hours after o direct she had to red-eye it to New York and then leave for Paris the following day, getting into Marseille on Monday It would giveMax, the house would be spotless and stocked with food and drink and I would have nothing to do

An idle Bennettand all that

I settled into the first class cabin, declining the chane, and pulled out my phone to text Chloe

Boarded See you across the pond

My phone buzzed several seconds later Rethinking this whole trip There’s a shoe sale at Dillons this weekend

I laughed, choosing to ignore this one and slippingers filed in past ether a handful of ti to plan Had I incurred some sort of vacation voodoo I wasn’t aware of? It seeued by trips that went terribly off course, were taken separately, were colored by ether

My stomach turned when I re On impulse one weekend we’d purchased tickets to St Bart’s and rented a house on the water It was meant to be perfect but instead it led to the first ti toson of a whore"

I looked up fro to my hairline as Chloe slaih Papadakis is pushing up launch"