"What do I have to do to make you disappear?! Poof. Cya - fucking - nara."

Jorjia stood on the drive. There was no chance I was letting her into the house so instead I nudged her down the front steps and stood in front of her, waiting to hear some grand explanation that would explain why she'd suddenly shown up and attached herself in the most inconvenient way.

"I came to tell you I'm leaving."

"Fucking thank the Lord," I tipped my head back. "But you didn't need to stop in. Simply fucking off would have been nice. I still don't know what the hell you came back for? Just to fuck with me? Just to remind me what you put me through? Make sure I wasn't moving on? Should I expect a visit once every couple of years?"

"Mom came into sell our house we'd been renting out. I figured I would catch up with a few old acquaintances given the chance. Abby wasn't interested. Told me to piss off when I turned up that afternoon. Then she had another go at me about interfering at that party. Said you were committing to one girl and I wasn't allowed to meddle. Not that I needed to."

My teeth ground together and I inhaled a deep breath.

"Seems I wasn't missed," she said. "Not that I expected to be. I was genuinely surprised you weren't available though. I'd been imagining what it would be like to fuck after we'd gained so much more experience. It's no bother though."

"You can leave now."

She nodded but before she could leave, I noticed the Rover coming around the bend behind her.

My stomach fell into my butt when I saw Amalia behind the wheel. Her sunglasses were on and she had her hair half up, half down. She hadn't even hopped out of the car and I was shitting bricks.

Jorjia peered over her shoulder as the car door opened and Amalia slid out wearing a short sundress. It was yellow and looked incredible against her skin tone.

The entire front was button up from top to bottom and the neckline was low and rectangular. Fuck, so beautiful.

Her expression bore confusion as she wandered over towards us. Jorjia gave me a wicked smile. If she so much as considered opening her fucking mouth I was going to pin it shut.

"Hey," Amalia said, standing beside me.

My nerves were shot to hell but I leaned down and gave her cheek a quick kiss. I couldn't kiss her lips. It would have felt so fucking wrong.

"Hey," I said. "You look beautiful. Uh sh—"

"Hi, I'm Jorjia," the she devil interrupted my attempt to suggest we get the fuck out of here.

Amalia smiled. "I'm Amalia."

"Oh I know," Jorjia said. "I'm an old friend. We used to go to school together. Lucas has been telling me so much about you. He sounds so smitten. It's adorable."

Amalia was fooled. She was smiling and totally unaware that Jorjia was mocking her. If I wasn't so opposed to hitting women, I would smack her straight in the face.

"You can go now," I snapped again and saw Amalia staring at me in my peripheral vision. "Bye Jorjia."

She ignored me. "I wish I wasn't leaving so soon. We could get to know each other more. My boyfriend is in town too. Could have had a double date."

"Fuck off," I laughed. "Unless your boyfriend is a six foot fucking dick, you're full of shit. No one wants to spend time with you in case you didn't gather that. Your idea of fun is drinking blood and kicking puppies. Now piss off witch."

Her smile was unfaltering. Nothing I said was going to get to her. Amalia looked at me with disappointment. This was going fucking horribly.

"You know Reece?" I said to Amalia, she nodded. "This is the bitchier, darker, more demonic version of Reece."

She didn't say anything to that and the three of us stood in awkward silence. Well, awkward for me, probably for Amalia too. Jorjia was having the time of her life.

"Bye bitch," I said to Jorjia, taking Amalia's hand. "It was horrible seeing you again. Don't come back."

Amalia and I got into the car which was still running. I put the car into reverse. It was tempting to floor it in the direction of Jorjia and send that bitch straight back to hell. I wouldn't survive prison, so I drove off, furious.

It was quiet for a solid five minutes. Amalia finally broke the quiet when we were almost at the main road into the centre of town.

"Shouldn't we switch places since I know where the surprise is and you don't?"

"Oh shit. Of course."

It was a good thing she mentioned it when we were still able to pull over. So we switched seats and then we were on the road again.

Amalia looked cute behind the wheel of such a big car. It suited her. My mind was all over the place as I stared at her while she drove. I was hoping that seeing her would put things into perspective.

She was beautiful. And I still cared about her so much. Thinking about reaching out and holding her hand made my heart flutter.

But then I thought about Mills and my entire stomach flew into my throat.

Fuuuuuuck.

Amalia cleared her throat. "So," she said. "I'm assuming that's an ex? Or . . . something."

I sighed and slid further down into the soft leather passenger seat. It was probably a good thing she was driving. "Yeah," I said. "Not an official ex. But about as close as I ever got."

"Is that the reason I haven't heard from you this weekend?" She asked, staring straight out at the road. "You've been. . . catching up?"

"No!" I assured her, ready to defend myself until I remembered I'd done what she was insinuating.

Just with someone else.

"Uh no," I said. "She was there for about two minutes before you arrived. She was trying to talk to me all weekend. I was hiding out. I guess she got to me a bit."

"You can tell me about it," she said, giving me a quick smile before she looked straight ahead again. "If you want. No pressure."

She deserved for me to be honest. I planned to be soon. So I figured I might as well start with Jorjia.

I delved into the truth and explained things from the beginning. The entire time I felt like such a cuck.

I was recounting the details of a story about a girl who had fucked me around and here I was, doing the exact same thing.

The more I talked, the more I questioned . . . everything. Absolutely everything.

Why was I so mad at Jorjia?

Yeah she'd done me wrong when we were younger. She hurt me and ruined my perspective on love. But she was just one girl. The choices I made from then on were my own.

Just like the values that she had were hers.

She didn't come back and force me to almost sleep with another girl. She was honest about who she was and what she wanted.

How could I sit here and talk so much shit about her when she kept it more real than anyone.

Yeah she told me she wanted to have sex. Did she force it? No. Did she get me drunk and leave me alone with Milly? No. That was all me.

She did stand there and jeer at Amalia right in front of me and that was a bitch move.

Perhaps if I hadn't been comparing her to pure evil all weekend, she might have had a bit more chill.

But aside from that. What happened wasn't her fault. It was mine. I made the choices and by the end of the story, I was beginning to realise what I needed to do.

"She sounds like a bruja," Amalia said as she pulled into a parking space in front of the tattoo parlour.

She killed the engine and I sat up straighter, staring at the building.

"Mhmm, whatever that means," I said dismissively. "Um, what are we doing here?"

She opened the centre console and revealed a set of keys.

"Pete gave me a spare set. Just for this morning though. We have the parlour to ourselves until one. So come on."

Before I could extract more of an explanation from her, she hopped out of the car and skipped towards the footpath.

So with an upset stomach and a dry mouth, I followed her. At least this offered us some privacy so I could come clean about what had happened with Mills.

Fuck, it hurt to think of her hurting though. She didn't deserve it. She didn't.

She unlocked the front door and then locked it behind us. It was odd to see her walking through the parlour with the keys hanging from her finger while she slipped her glasses on top of her head.

What in the actual fuck was going on?

"Amalia?"

I followed her through into the first studio. The portable table was set up with ink, a gun, gloves and pens.

"Why did Pete give you the keys to his parlour? What's going on?"

"I actually have a couple of things I want to talk about," she placed a hand on each shoulder and gave me a gentle shove so I was sitting in the long leather chair. "I guess the first would be that this is where I've been every day after school. Pete has been letting me practice so I can give you a tattoo. You'll be my first client."

She did a little bow. It was adorable. She was such a sweet girl. What the fuck was wrong with me?

"But the news isn't all good," she said. "I have to tell you something and it's sort of been making me feel a bit ill since I found out a few nights ago. I've actually been so anxious about it."

I swallowed as she stood beside me. My heart was beating so hard it hurt. She knew. And she was going to fucking murder me.

"Dad's been sort of— well— sort of suggesting that I don't let things become too serious between us," she said. "I thought he just didn't like you or he was being protective. But now I know why."

She inhaled a deep breath.

"He bought an art studio in Philadelphia. It's been in the works for a while now but he finalised things last week and he's kept it to himself this entire time. He didn't want to tell us if he wasn't sure. So. . . we're moving to Philadelphia in three weeks."

I blinked once. Twice. Three hundred and seventy seven times.

"You're moving? You're leaving? In three weeks?"

"Please don't be upset," she held my hand in hers and I thought my brain might have fallen out of my head. "I've been thinking about what I should do and where we should go from here. I gues—"

"Didn't you just move here? Like, not that long ago?"

"Yeah," she said. "Dad has been watching this gallery for a long time though. It came up for sale and he jumped. He's sacrificed a lot for Bernie and I. I wouldn't want to stop him from chasing this dream of his."

Was I upset? Was I relieved? Did I want her to stay? I didn't have a fucking clue. It was as if I couldn't even begin process it.

"We could keep in contact?" She said. "See how things go? I'm just not going to ask that you commit to something long distance on such short notice. I mean, when Dad told me we were leaving, I cried all night. I wanted to call and cuddle. But I knew I needed to get myself together first. Plus you had a game the next night."

"You knew before the football game?"

"Yeah I just needed to think before we talked. We're in a kind of weird phase. We're not official but it's been such an amazing two weeks."

This was too much. It was too much to comprehend. If this news had come to me before the weekend, I would have been up in arms and suggesting we run away together.

Now I wondered if this was something good for her. At least she wouldn't have to look at me all the time after I was honest about what I had done.

"But," she said and took a step backwards. "You proved that I meant a lot over these two weeks. I'm not disregarding that this could have been something special. So whether we keep in touch not, this is something I want and that I'm okay with."

She started unbuttoning the front of her dress, the top of her dark purple bra peeped out.

She seemed nervous but there was so much confidence. She was giving herself to me, before she leaves. As some sort of reward for being loyal.

She did look gorgeous. The purple lingerie against her velvet skin was breathtaking.

I swallowed hard and took a minute to think about how this would have been going down if I hadn't screwed up the other night.

She wouldn't have been undressing herself, that's for damn sure.

I could've let her go along with this. I could've kept quiet. Had her and let her leave without ever finding out about Milly.

But no. I couldn't do that. I meant it when I told her she was more than just sex.

She had the perfect figure, her hair, her smile and those gorgeous eyes. Her confidence was her sexiest feature of all. She was a prize and it was painful as hell when I stood up and shook my head.

"Stop. Wait," I pleaded and felt another wave of nausea when her fingers paused on the button below her naval, her chest and firm torso exposed. "Do the— um— do the buttons up. I ca— we can't do this."

As puzzled as she appeared when I started pacing the suite, she didn't argue.

She knew how much I wanted her. But here I was, declining to have sex with her on a tattoo lounge seat before she gave me an actual tattoo because she'd been practicing.

Fuck, this girl deserves the world.

"Is this because I'm moving?" She asked. "I'm sorry if I seemed casual about it. It's been sort of hard and I guess I didn't want to let it get to me. You're mad righ—"

"Amalia, no," I met her uncertain stare. "No, that's not the reason I can't do— that."

She folded her arms when she'd finished doing up her buttons. Men are so worthless. We can have a girl like that and ruin it without thinking twice.

"I kissed Milly on Friday night," I spat it out. "Look, I'm gonna be honest. Which probably seems a bit far fetched given the situation. But all I can do is be straight up about what happened. Which was, a lot of alcohol and confessions and if we hadn't been interrupted, we would've had sex."

I decided to leave out the part about Jorjia confusing me and screwing with my head because that would have felt like I was putting the blame elsewhere. And it didn't belong elsewhere.

Total silence. Amalia stared at the floor. I wasn't sure if she was going to flip out or leave or beat the fuck out of me.

I didn't think she would hit me though. Not after the situation with her mom. But I'd deserve it.

"I am genuinely sorry, Amalia," I told her while she was still. . . processing. "I don't know what happened, well, I do. Mills is— I've always—"

"Lucas," Amalia interrupted and I stopped pacing to meet her stare. "It's— it's okay. I'm not mad."

"You're not mad?"

She tucked her hair behind her ear. "I'm a little jealous and I guess a bit sad. But I'm not angry. At you. We weren't labelled or official. From the beginning this was you hoping to become the sort of person who can be exclusive and I guess I just kept reminding myself that I shouldn't get my hopes up."

"You didn't think I could do it?"

She gently shrugged. "I used to have a boyfriend back in San Fransisco. He cheated. But it was different. We were together for about seven months. We'd said I love you and all of that. It's just. . . men. It's hard for them to change. Even if they really want to."

It felt even worse to know she'd been screwed over before. "But I called you Mi Amor? My love. That's almost the same."

"Yeah and you said it within a week of knowing me. So I didn't take it too seriously and I didn't say it back. I mean, I appreciated the effort and I did enjoy how you put me above everything else. I thought if you really could prove to be decent and committed, that would be great. We could do serious. But I didn't forget that you'd been screwing around a lot and you sort of sucked me into this whirlwind romance which happened so quick. I always kept it in the back of my head that it might not last."

What she said made sense. She was right after all. It still sucked to know I couldn't be the one to prove her wrong.

"But don't get me wrong," she added after a moment of silence. "You are an incredibly sweet person. You're attentive and passionate and you'd be an amazing boyfriend if only, maybe you grew up a little first? You treated me so well. I'm not going to disregard that. But the trust is gone."

I sat down on the chair, resting my elbows on my knees because I felt drained. Just drained and depleted.

"I do need to grow up," I said, inspired by what a rational girl she was. "That's sort of what I realised. I need to figure some shit out. I need to be alone for a bit. I wanted too much too fast and I wasn't ready for it."

"We should have spent a bit longer getting to know each other I think," she said. "We should have gone slower."

"I really thought I loved you and wanted you to have my babies."

"Passionate," she smiled. "Like I said, if you could work out those kinks, you'd make a great boyfriend. Perhaps just work on that filter a little bit. It might get you into trouble."

"Yeah," I said, not sure if I wanted to change that much about myself. The cheating thing, for sure. But keeping things real is who I am.

It was quiet for a minute.

"This isn't quite how I saw the morning going," she said.

"Trust me, me either.

"I could still do the tattoo," she said. "If you want? I have been practicing."

"You aren't gonna get some payback, are you? Tattoo the word scum across my forehead or something like that?"

"No," she went over to the portable table and picked up some gloves. "Only because I haven't been practicing letters," she grinned. "And this is art. I don't disrespect art."

______

Okay. Here's an important update. This book is going to be two parts. Part two will be sort of like a sequel. But I'm going to keep it in this book so that I don't have to make a new one. So part one will have an epilogue. And then part two will begin about a year later but part two will be in Max's POV. All of the existing characters will return. Does this make sense?