Temptation [h.s.] ✔

Chapter 54.

The hotel is no different than the one I was in six hours ago, except this one has no Harry. It just has me. It's quiet. Too quiet. It doesn't matter that I've slept since I got here. It just matters that it's quiet. If you don't count my tiny sniffles.

It seems like ages since I arrived at the airport, ready to jump on the next flight here, and was directed through first class to Harry's parents' jet. It hasn't been long, not at all, but that's the funny thing about time. It never feels like a true representation of the seconds that tick by. It's either slow or fast... Or standing still.

I cried the whole fucking way here. From the second I got on the plane, I let my broken heart consume me until I climbed into bed with nothing left but the bare shell of me.

Only from a shell can I grow, can I become the person I can need to be.

I get out to bed to grab my phone and climb back in. The picture on the screen stares at me.

Me and him, happy and smiling in a goofy-as-hell selfie. I want to smile, but the image only invokes a fresh flood of tears.

Thank you.

I send the text to him, something so simple. I don't know why he had the plane there ready for me. If I were him, I would have made me fucking walk. Hell, I should have walked.

When minutes pass with no reply from him, I rest my phone on the nightstand and pull the covers up to my chin. I'm aching everywhere. It's dull but heavy, my heartbreak weighing on me everywhere.

Except my heart isn't broken. Not entirely. It's breaking slowly, every piece that chips off shattering and pulsing through my bloodstream.

My hotel door opens, and something in me tells me that I should be looking for who it is. But I don't. I lie here, staring at the wall.

"Oh, baby."

I drag my eyes away and they collide with Dayton's. "What are you doing here?"

She walks over to the bed and perches next to me. "As soon as the plane arrived back in Santa Barbara, Harry flew to Seattle."

I swallow.

"Harry drove straight to our place and told us everything. I was packed and out the door in ten minutes." She pushes hair from my face. "Tessa is here, too. She's getting nonalcoholic wine and ice cream."

I try to smile but it fails. "You didn't need to come."

"Of course we did," she replies as I sit up.

"Your party is tomorrow. I packed my smile especially for it."

Her lips quirk. "Liv, I don't give a shit about that. I care that you're okay. You're more important to me than some stupid wedding."

"Some stupid wedding, huh?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Well, as long as no one is pissing me off, we're good." Her eyes crinkle as she grins.

"Wanna talk about it?"

I open my mouth to speak as Tessa walks in. She appears in the doorway of the bedroom and my eyes find hers. The eyes that are so similar to Harry's. The same long, curly eyelashes.

I lean forward as tears fill my eyes again. Dayton's arms circle me and she pulls me into her.

I cry into her shoulder, the warmth of her embrace exactly what I need right now. Tessa climbs onto the bed and sits next to me. She lays her hand on my back and rubs slowly, resting her cheek against my shoulder.

Neither of them speaks. What is there to say?

Nothing can possibly ease the pain of being away from him.