The Coldest Summer✓

Thirty-five

My evening goes smoothly after an hour of walking at the beach. I'm about to hop in the car when a buzz of my cell phone stops me halfway. I slam the door sharply before rummaging inside my bag. A hard scowl appears on my face as I find a new number.

Hesitantly, I tap on the screen to accept the call.

"Hello?" I croak.

"Where are you? We need to talk." It's Liam's voice.

"Liam," I breathe softly, a bit surprised.

"It's good that you know my voice. Where are you, Kira?" he exhorts impatiently.

"Liam, please, not again." I sigh, running a hand through my curls. I'm tired and the last thing I want is to argue with anyone. "I'm leaving this place. You told me to choose and my choice is leaving because I don't want any more heartache."

"Will you stop being stubborn, Kira? I know you don't mean that! If you do, then face me and tell me that we have means nothing to you! Tell it to my face and we'll end it!"

Damn it! He's driving me crazy.

"What for, Liam?" I yell at him. "Let's just stop this, shall we? I don't think any of this is real and you know that! Why are you so determined to make me stay, huh? Yeah, you claim that you love me, but do you really? Are you sure what you're feeling is real? From what I heard you just broke up with your girlfriend of six years, and it happened only recently! How can you say that you love me when we have known each other for . . . ten days? Fuck, we barely know each other, Liam, so I think we are both insane if we think this is love."

And do I even know what love is? Fuck!

A long silence prevails until he says, "Does it really matter how long a person has known someone to love them? Do you think time is important in love? Well, perhaps what you're saying is true. I agree. But here we are, knowing so little about each other. We still have time for things to change, right? What do you want to know about me, Kira? I want to answer any question you may have, and clear any doubt. What do you want to know about me?"

Tiredly, I lean against the car and suck in a deep breath. Orange-yellow sun rays pierces through the evening clouds and disturbs my sight momentarily. I close my eyes and breathe again.

"I want to know all of you, Liam. The young you, the current you, and even the future you. It's crazy, right?" I reply with a small smile. "I think it may take years to really know a person. I can ask you so many questions right now but I don't think they'll be enough to know you."

"So then, do we have to sit by and wait for years to pass until we decide that we know each other well enough to fall in love?" Liam remarks, making me laugh this time.

Tears well up in my eyes as I puff a breath.

"No. I don't think waiting is an option, or else we may grow old trying to figure out what we truly feel inside." I mop a hand on my face and laugh again.

Smoothly, Liam laughs along.

"I broke up with her after a long time of trying too hard to convince myself that we still had time to fix things between us. But that time never came, and when I realized that, it was already too late for my feelings to stay the same," he says gently. I sniff, but I say nothing. "You may be right that I'm possibly infatuated by you; that it may not be love, as I stubbornly want to believe. But what I see when I look deeply into your enchanting brown eyes is something I've imagined so many times in my mind. I see the future—the future I do not want to alter."

My heart rate increases and soft sobs escape my mouth.

"Now tell me, Kira Jones," he utters with a pause. I hold my breath, pulling in the last thread of composure left in me. "What do you feel when you look me in the eyes? What comes to your mind when we're together? What do you desire when we kiss? How do you feel when we're apart?"