Gone

Chapter 1: Summer Lovin

I will be taking down all old chapters once I upload Chapter 2.

Also will be changing the cast. Felix is so ugly to me now, lol. So lmk who you'd like to see, ultimately it's my choice.

*Always assume they're speaking French*

The dating pool becomes small when you can drive to the other side of my island in 2 hours. If I haven't dated them, one of my friends probably did. Also, something was in the air; all the men weren't shit.

My last boyfriend was in my first year of college. Other than a few dates here and there, nothing ever made it past a third date, and believe me, I tried; my standards were beneath the ground at a certain point, but even those standards were too much. So I was interested when this Handsome tourist insisted on only being served by me every time he ate with us.  He could barely speak French when I met him, and within a month, we were having full-on conversations, Broken French and English but conversations nonetheless.

I wanted him to ask me out; I don't think I could've made it more apparent, and when he did, we were inseparable.

Not to sound like that guy from Riverdale, but I'm a 'weirdo'; you don't notice because I'm hot. I'm not trying to be cocky. It's just a fact of life. The issue with being hot and weird is that most guys are only attracted to the hot part. Men didn't like me when they got to know me. I'd pretend to care about their stupid little games and movies and their silly little soccer players; I'd listen to their beats, I even let a guy play the guitar at me, and he wasn't good, but they only wanted me for how good it made them look to stand next to me, a trophy.

So when he let me tell him about mushrooms, I discovered on my last walk, and when he asked me about my crochet projects and insisted I teach him how to make a chain, then returned with a poorly made granny square, I fell hard. Like, come on, wouldn't you fall for that?

"Aw, come on, I was trying to surprise you," Felix disappointingly says as he walks into his bedroom with a tray containing a large array of breakfast foods. Fruits, bacon, french toast, pancakes, sausage, everything you could think of. "I'm going to hike the Carbet waterfall today; I was wondering if you wanted to come with me. You could call out of work; what do you say?"

I take a bite out of the best French toast I've ever had in my entire life. I've spent almost every day with him for the past three weeks. In less than two months, I've fallen so hard and so fast; no relationship has ever compared. "Are you trying to get me fired?" I tease him.

"Your father is going to fire his only daughter?" He says. He knows my dad doesn't care whether I show up; he only cares that I not ask him for money, work for it.

I graduated with a Horticulture degree, and even though I don't regret it, I don't know what to do with it. While I was figuring that out, my dad let me pick up shifts at his restaurant. My dad had one of the most known restaurants on the island. He was once upon a time a Michelin chef in Paris, but he left it all behind for my mom, and they moved here to build his dream, a beachfront restaurant.

"If you don't come with me, I'll have to change my flight again to get more time with you." He meant that too; Felix had changed his flight three times since we'd met. I had no idea what his deal was, I'd never been treated like this before, so I'm just kinda going with the...flow? I knew he had to leave, but I'd keep living the dream while I had him.

"Don't you have a Job?" I ask jokingly but genuinely. Obviously, the answer is yes, but what Job did he have where he could decide to extend his vacation by weeks? What kind of Job did he have where he could stay in what might be the best house I'd ever stepped in? "Or like I don't know a family?"

"I have both, but they work perfectly fine without me. Now stop worrying about my job and family and tell me you're coming on this hike with me." He says, sliding in behind me and pulling me into his arms.

Leaning back into him as he intended, I respond, "Kinda hard not to worry, it feels like you're running from something, and you're hiding here with me." I say now, getting a little serious, thinking about the things I've refused to think about. "I feel like a distraction."

"What's wrong with that? You're a great distraction."

There it goes. While I'm just a distraction, Felix will live in my head rent-free for the rest of my life as the one that got away. He would return to his regular life; this was just a fantasy. "This is my life, Felix; I live here; when you leave, I'll be left with all the reminders of our time together. I won't be able to lay under the same tree at the beach because I'll think about us there and the days we spent just lying there until the sun went down. I won't even be able to do my job without thinking about you watching me from the corner booth." I could now feel the tears pulling around my eyes; I'd ruin this. Why couldn't I just learn to live in the moment? I pulled myself from between his legs.

I can hear him trying to talk to me as I grab my stuff from the ground. I run to the bathroom as he says, "That's not what I meant-"

"I know, but it's true. "Before I realize I'm saying it, "I'm just some island fantasy to you, and meanwhile, I'm the idiot that falls in love in 2 months-" I cover my mouth and rush to his bathroom. Stupid, stupid, stupid, way to ruin everything. Why couldn't I just eat the freaking French toast and keep my mouth shut? Now instead of the mysterious island girl he spent all summer with, I will be the crazy girl. Why'd I go to the bathroom? I should've just left. I'm stuck. I CAN NOT look at him; I'm mortified.

"Montana, talk to me." He says through the door. "What kind of a man cancels a flight 3 times for a girl if he isn't falling for her too?"