“No, Liam, you’re wonderful. This is all me.” I sniffle from my runny nose and sincerely hope the shirt he’s wearing isn’t expensive. “I just feel like I’m stuck, and I can’t move forward. I mean, here I am with you and I’m wishing for someone else. Who does that? Who doesn’t go for the hot British guy?”

“I typically don’t, if that makes you feel better.”

I smile despite myself and step out of Liam’s arms. “Before I came to Italy, I was with someone. I met him in college but then I didn’t see him for years. And then last month, I saw him again, and everything was so different, but it was the same, too. I still cared about him so much.”

I pause to wipe the bottom of my nose with the back of my hand like a post-tantrum four-year-old. “But he ruined it. He was engaged to someone else the whole time we were together. That’s not what love is supposed to be like—that’s probably what my dad would say if he was here.”

A fresh wave of tears hits and Liam hugs me, waiting it out.

“And even after everything I still miss him so badly. All I want to do is see him and talk to him.” I shake my head, ordering myself to tone it down. “Something is wrong with me. You should run before it spreads to you and I make you even more complicated than you already are.”

“I think it would be a near impossible feat,” he says. I look up at him and he wipes a stream of tears off my cheek with his thumb. “What a motley crew we are,” he says, jutting out his chin to gesture to the street below. “What do you think? Should we toss our passports to the wind and wallow out here forever? I’m not much of a weeper, but I’m convinced I could imitate the sounds successfully.”

I laugh and lean into his side. Liam’s smile is somewhat vacant as he looks ahead once again. Whatever it is that he’s seeing, the street or a memory, it makes him sigh before taking my hand and leading me back into the bedroom. We collapse onto my bed, both of us exhausted after our tumultuous night of drinking, breakthroughs and my emotional breakdown.

A few minutes later, I roll onto my side and find Liam resting with one arm behind his head as he looks up at the ceiling. Moonlight slits in through the open window and crosses his face, making his blue eyes even more striking against his fair skin. He’s attractive and strong but he’s so much more than that, too.