My Favorite Souvenir(52)

Do I sneak into the bathroom?

Do I stay in this corner and hope he doesn’t notice me?

Do I grow some balls and go up to him?

What do I tell Brady?

I couldn’t put Milo in the situation of having to meet Brady, either.

I wanted to cry.

How could this be happening?

As I struggled to catch my breath, Brady turned to look at me. “Hazel, are you okay? Your face is, like, turning white.”

“I’m fine.” I panted.

“You don’t look fine.”

Things only got worse from there as Milo started walking in our direction. It felt like the room was spinning.

Then his eyes landed on mine, and it felt like the world had stopped spinning.

Milo looked straight at me.

His mouth dropped open, and he began walking faster, like he couldn’t get to me fast enough as he weaved through the crowd.

I knew I had no choice but to deal with this situation head on.

Except I had no clue what I was in for.

Because when Brady turned around to face him, the last thing I ever expected occurred.

He raised his hand, waving Milo over. “Dunc! There you are.”

? ? ?

What the hell is happening?

What. Is. Happening?

Duncan is Milo?

Milo is Duncan…Brady’s best friend?

As soon as Milo got to our table, he hugged Brady and let his bag drop to the floor. He took one look in my eyes and pretended not to know me. What choice did he have? Before Brady could introduce us, Milo excused himself to the bathroom, saying he had to go badly after his flight. But I knew better. I suspected he needed to get his bearings. He had looked just as shocked as I felt in this moment.

I sat, still trying to make sense of this.

“He must have really had to go,” Brady said, clueless to my turmoil.

All of the sounds of the bar became muffled compared to the pounding inside my head.

When I spotted Milo walking back to our table, my heart rate, which had already been racing, moved to sprinting.

He took a seat next to Brady. “Sorry about that.”

“Hey.” Brady shrugged. “When you gotta go, you gotta go, right?”

Milo’s eyes landed on mine. If one look could ask a thousand questions, his certainly did. He looked so confused…hurt…angry.

“Dunc, now that you’ve properly taken a leak, I can finally formally introduce you to Hazel. I can’t believe you two are only now meeting.”

“Yeah. Only now. Amazing.” Milo reached his hand out to me.” Nice to meet you, Hazel.”

He squeezed my hand. And in his touch, there again were the silent questions emanating from him. I wanted to cry. But I had to keep my composure.

“It’s nice to meet you, too…Duncan.”

He let go of my hand and explained, “Old friends from college call me Duncan or Dunc. Duncan is actually my last name.” He looked into my eyes. “My name is Matteo.”

Matteo.

Milo’s name is Matteo.

Even though Brady was right there, it felt like we were in our own world as Milo—Matteo—and I introduced our true selves to each other for the first time. It was surreal.

“And I’m…Hazel.”

“He already knows your name, babe,” Brady interrupted.

I ignored Brady’s comment, still staring deeply into his friend’s eyes.

Matteo couldn’t take his eyes off me, either. “Hazel...like hazelnuts…”

I nodded. “Matteo. Like Matthew.”

Brady looked between us. “Okay, this conversation is like an episode of Sesame Street.” He laughed.

Neither of us joined him.

I got chills. To think I’d called my father to check on him after that psychic mentioned the name Matthew, when it was in reference to Matteo all along. He was the one she’d warned me about, and now it all made sense.

The waitress came over and took Milo’s…Duncan’s…Matteo’s drink order.

Matteo.

What a beautiful name. A beautiful name for a beautiful man—one who looked more tormented than I’d ever seen him.

His eyes still seared into mine. “So…what’s going on with you two? Last I heard, the wedding was off. I’m surprised to see you here, Hazel.”

Unable to form words, I looked over at Brady.

“Hazel and I are taking things slowly again. I haven’t had a chance to talk to you since the wedding was called off.”

“Yeah.” He swallowed. “You definitely never mentioned anything.”

“I’m sorry you’d already booked your ticket to Vail,” Brady said. “But I’m glad you got to visit your family anyway, so it wasn’t a waste of a trip.”

“Well, yeah, it was about time I visited the old turf anyway.”

“So, what have you been up to?” Brady asked. “You took some time off from your teaching gig, right?”

“Yeah. Still in the midst of my sabbatical. I ended up staying in Vail for a little while…” He looked at me. “Then randomly ended up taking a road trip from Colorado through the South. Stayed in Atlanta for a while longer than I’d planned, and then decided to go home to Seattle for a week before coming here.”

Brady was still processing. “Wait…you took a road trip alone?”