Striding down a long hallway, I turn the corner, entering the lobby, and turn toward Candlelit Hall when fingers slide between mine. The large shadow of Aleck’s physique casts over me as he matches my pace, stride for stride. I turn my head, my eyes falling on his confident stare, and I smile.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to meet the other men in your life.”

“Aleck…” I tug at his arm, slowing to a stop.

Only then do his azure eyes take me in with a sparkle of contentment.

“What’s the point of this?” I ask.

“You’re being a brat, Winter.”

“I’m not…”

He tilts his head and arches one eyebrow.

“Okay, maybe I am, but that’s not my intention.” I step closer and curl my arms around his neck. “I want you to meet my family, but not if you won’t be around tomorrow. When you never come around again, I’ll have to explain you away, and honestly…” I take a deep breath. “When I go back to my life, I don’t want any remnants of you in it.”

“Ouch,” he whispers, sliding his hands up my back. “I said we’ll figure it out.”

You’re a lawyer, you only speak in definites and that is not a definite. That’s something you say to someone you don’t want to tell the truth to.

But I don’t say it.

Instead, I take a step away from him before I’ve even decided to. My body's natural response to him in the name of self-preservation. He steps forward, erasing the space I just put between us, sliding his hands over my cheeks.

“Talk to me…” he says quietly, losing his playful expression.

“It’s fine, Aleck. This is what we agreed to. I always knew what this was. I just didn’t plan…”

To fall for you.

I didn’t plan on falling for you… I swallow down the words before they’re spoken.

“What?” he whispers, grabbing my hips, pulling my body tighter against his. “You didn’t plan what, baby?”

I lift onto my toes and nestle my nose into his neck. That smell… Fighting the tears so they never reach the surface, I release a breath, my heart along with it.

“Nothing.”

“Look…” He slowly swipes a piece of hair from my forehead. “The thought of leaving you tomorrow makes me sick, and frankly, really fucking angry. We’ll figure it out, just not right now. Can’t we just stay in our bubble for one more day? Just this one last night before we have to ruin the charm of us with reality?”

I nod, not sure if that comforts me or worries me, and I force a smile. Again.

What did I expect, exactly? This was always the plan. This is what I agreed to when I leapt into his arms after he told me, “While we’re here, I want everything.” I knew what that meant and I went about it anyway because I wanted him enough to ignore how he’d shatter my heart into an unmendable pile of heart rubble.