for June

5. Letter

June hovered over Chad in the wee hours of the morning, still unsure whether she was doing the right thing. Would he hate her when he woke? To find that the woman he'd been wanting to spend his life with had abandoned him, like a floozy, spent on a hotel bed, even if it was within an expensive suite?

So many questions she wanted answers to, but all were questions she was forcing on him, them.

Placing the bundle of papers she'd carefully folded on the empty half of the bed beside him, where she should have been, she rose to her feet. The temptation to kiss him goodbye tugged at her heart, yet the fear that she might wake him stopped her. The last thing she wanted was for Chad to wake up and try to stop her from leaving. But she had to hurry. He was usually an early bird, so she had to be gone long before he woke. After all, she still had to get back to the house and throw a few things in a bag and leave. Where to? She still had to figure that out, but at least for now, her plan was to leave, step away from Chad for a bit. Give him the space and the time to work through the torrent of a mess that was her life. A plan she hoped worked. If not, she was possibly destroying the best thing to happen to her.

June slid the heavy ring off her finger with trepidation. She wasn't rejecting him. She wasn't. This wasn't what it was. She was giving him a chance to reject her. Every groom should have that opportunity, just like every bride should have it too. To assess whether their decisions and their partners were wholly what they wanted, scars, warts, and all.

She placed the glinting diamond on top of the letter and, with one longing look at him sleeping, before she grabbed her purse and quietly slipped out of the suite, tears stinging her stubborn eyes. They would not fall. Not if she could help it.

♥

Chad turned on the bed and reached his leg out playfully, as he often did to nudge June's legs. She hated being woken up with a kick, however playful it might be, and he loved fake annoying her as much as he could. Last night had been incredible, and he wanted to stay cuddled up in that opulent bed with her all day if he could. But he had a meeting about a book tour he was leaving on next month and he'd promised to drop June off at the big bookstore in Sydney on his way to Terry's office.

He kicked again, a playful smile quirking his lips, but the space beside him was empty, and unusually so. He peeked at the other side of the bed, thinking perhaps the bed was far too big for them, and thus, she was out of reach. However, the other side of that vast bed was empty.

"June?" He shot up and glanced around the empty room. His ears perked to see if he could hear her in the bathroom. He eyed the radio clock on the stand beside him, wondering about the time. He was usually up before she was. The clock told him it was well on its way to eleven in the morning. "Bloody hell! Why didn't you wake me up already?" He scrambled up and attempted to locate his underwear, which was caught in the shambles of the covers.

"We're meant to check out by midday at the latest! And I'm supposed to be meeting Terry in half-hour. Fuck!" He shuffled himself into his briefs and clamoured to the bathroom. "She's going to kill me for being late again..."

The bathroom, too, was empty. What the? Chad called out for her again. "June?"

He scanned the room dubiously. Had she left for the bookstore and let him sleep? He moved to the table, expecting to see a note, as was customary of her whenever she left to do something, and he wasn't aware. Usually, her messages were short and cute, like 'Going for a jog, would love a coffee when I get back!'

The table, too, was empty. However, he could see that the notepad and pen were in a position as if they'd recently been used. The notepad was rather thin compared to when they had checked in. He lifted it off the table and spied indentations on the blank page. June had written something, and something long. So where was the note?