At some point, once she was well away from the restaurant and didn’t have to worry about Seth coming after her, she used her phone to call a cab and had it take her to the airport.

Seth knew he’d made a huge mistake as soon as the words This is just a friend were out of his mouth. But he’d been taken off guard seeing Amy after so long. She was so strongly associated with Shiloh; it had jerked him back three years. And once he’d said what he’d said, he hadn’t been able to gain his footing enough to figure out how to fix it—not in the moment.

Knowing Tia was upset, he kept looking over his shoulder toward the bathroom. He did it so often that Amy noticed and said, “Do you want me to go check on her?”

“Would you, please?”

“Of course.”

She circumvented Serge and strode down toward the entrance. While she was gone, the waiter brought the food he and Tia had ordered, but Seth had completely lost his appetite. He tried to keep up small talk with Serge, but even that was impossible. For the most part, he just sat there, feeling sick inside, as he waited for Amy to bring Tia back.

But when she returned, Tia wasn’t with her.

“She’s not in there,” she said, alarmed. “I asked the host if he’d seen her, and he said she walked out right after we were seated.”

The pressure on Seth’s chest was so great it felt as though an elephant had just sat on it. “Walked out?”

“Yeah. And he hasn’t seen her since.”

“You’ll have to excuse me.” Seth threw two hundred bucks on the table and hurried out after her. Where would she go? he asked himself. How would he find her?

He used his phone to call her, but she didn’t pick up. Her voice mail came on.

“Hello! This is Tia. Leave me a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

“Tia, I’m sorry,” he said. “Please...come back. Let’s talk about it. I didn’t mean... It caught me off guard, that’s all. I was stupid. I’m sorry.”

His heart was racing when he gazed out over the crowded wharf and didn’t see her. He jogged to Pier 39, which was the most popular pier, checking faces as he ran, and when he got there, stood on a wooden bench and searched the sea of people for her beanie.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t there. It was crazy to think he’d be able to find her even if she was still at the water’s edge. The piers ran from 1 to 45. She could be anywhere.

He checked his phone. She hadn’t called back.

He tried a message. I’m so sorry. Please answer your phone. Don’t leave like this.