“No! Plans don’t change. I’m tired of plans changing and never working out as I want them to. It’s just a… blip. There, you made me repeat it. But that’s all this is. We’ve been spending some time together lately, that’s all.”

“Some? No. A lot of time. Tons of time. All the time. You sounded happy on every call, and I don’t remember Max being mentioned too much in our conversations. It’s not always as black and white as you want it to be. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart. If you’d just be honest with yourself, you’ll see that all signs point to… you having feelings for him.”

“The only person I have feelings for is Max.”

“Max is a unicorn. A one-day adventure. What you and Ethan share is much more—”

I interrupt her. “Either way, did you hear me? Ethan has a girlfriend.”

“Yet he spent all of his time with you. I wonder about this out-of-the-blue girlfriend of his.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m in love with someone else.”

I walk out of the bathroom and into the restaurant as stealthily as possible. I’m one with the wall, away from their eyes. I peek around the corner and see them talking and laughing.

“Maya, you sound like a robot. Listen to yourself. In love? You are in love, alright. But it’s not with Max. I hope you won’t regret this stubbornness of yours and you won’t wake up too late to see what’s in front of you,” she says and that stings. Because it is too late. And the proof is wearing a summer dress and smiling with her perfect teeth at this man who is not a blip, and who is not Max, and who was not in my plan. But who I love! Oh, God! I do. I love him. Despite everything, despite myself.

Instead of walking toward the table, I do a 180 and go for the door.

Did he do this to humiliate me? He never planned to tell me who Max is, did he? All he wanted to do was play with me. Is this his way of taking revenge on what he thinks I did to his friend? He read my book, he knows how much that day meant to me. How could he do this?

I can’t love him. I should hate him, just like I told him so many times; instead, I hate myself for feeling so strongly for him. I’m not mad because Max is not here, am I? I’m not mad that Ethan’s not telling me who Max is. I am mad because sometime between my arrival here and today, I fell in love with Ethan. Although I knew it was a bad idea. I knew it, and it still happened. And now I’m hurt beyond measure. He used me to get publicity, which is probably why we continued to go out to all those places. Always public places. People saw us together all the time. How foolish I have been! How stupid and gullible. How could I fall in love with a man like him? With his charming smile and his good manners, his perfect sense of humor and playfulness. He knew exactly what buttons to push to keep me hanging and only ever gave me enough to hope, but never to be sure.