My Favorite Souvenir(69)

“Well, remember, we never told each other our names…”

“That’s right. But still.” She shook her head. “Are you going to tell Brady at some point?”

“I honestly don’t know what’s best. I know you’re rooting for me to get back with him, but I’m just not sure anymore.”

Next I told her about my time with Matteo last night and how connected I felt to him.

She smirked skeptically. “Nothing happened?”

“No. We took Abbott for a walk. Then he came back to my place, and we just hung out. We ended up putting on the funniest movie we could find and watching it from opposite ends of the couch—quite intentionally.”

I didn’t need to tell her about our couple of close calls or the fact that I’d sucked Matteo’s fingers. I was pretty sure Felicity already looked at this whole thing as a betrayal to Brady. But I didn’t. Both Matteo and I were victims of bad luck and timing, which had put us in this situation.

“Poor Brady. If he finds out about this… God, I just can’t imagine.”

I sat up, placing my head in my hands. “No one meant to hurt anyone.”

“The more I think about it, the more I feel like you shouldn’t tell Brady. He’ll never look at you the same, and it can only hurt him.”

“I haven’t worked that out yet. A lot of it depends on how Matteo feels. Their friendship is on the line, too, and no matter what, this is going to have to be a decision Matteo and I make together.”

“You sound like you’re a couple or something. Don’t get ahead of yourself here. This is your road trip fling. You need to do what you feel is best for you and for Brady without anyone else guiding your decisions.”

Once again, I found myself regretting opening up to her. She’d never see both sides.

“Do you have a picture of this guy?” she asked.

I searched through my phone and scrolled down to a photo of Milo and Maddie Hooker taken on Bourbon Street. To be honest, I was surprised she hadn’t asked to see a photo sooner.

“Okay. I can see why you’re smitten. He looks like something out of a movie. Love the mop of hair, too. Wow. And those lips.”

“He’s so much more than that, though, Felicity. You have no idea. I know you fully support me getting back with Brady but—”

“He’s a fantasy, sure,” she interrupted. “But I would be willing to bet if you spent even a week with him back in—is it Seattle?”

“Yeah. Seattle.”

“I bet you’d find things to be a lot different in the real world.”

“Maybe. But we did spend an awful lot of time together on our trip. I feel like I know him enough to trust him.”

“Doesn’t matter. You were on vacation. You know how it is. Everyone is carefree on vacation. You weren’t worrying about finances or your job or anything else. You were just living in the moment. But that kind of thing can’t last forever.”

Despite her trying to convince me what I had with Matteo wasn’t real, I refused to believe it.

“Here’s the problem, Felicity. I can’t stop thinking about him. Say what you will about what seems wrong or right, but from the moment I met him, I’ve thought of little else—both before and after I found out who he really was.”

She sighed. “Well, the issue is… You would be taking a very big risk in assuming things would work out. You’ve never spent a single day with him when you weren’t either on vacation or hiding something from your fiancé.”

“Ex-fiancé.”

“Okay, but how can you possibly know what it’s really like to be with Matteo?”

I thought about that. She had a point.

“You’re right. I don’t know what the day to day would look like for us. Heck, I don’t even know where we would live. He’s in Seattle. My life is here. None of it makes sense, and yet…” My words trailed off.

“Yet you still can’t stop thinking about him.”

“No. I can’t. And it’s not fair to Brady. So, I have some real thinking to do after Matteo goes back.”

“When does he leave?”

“In a few days. He took some time off from his teaching job, but he’s supposed to be returning to work after the holidays. So he needs to get back.”

“Well, maybe once he’s gone, you’ll start to forget, little by little. You can focus on Brady and hopefully come to your senses.”

I didn’t want to forget Matteo. Every piece of advice Felicity gave me made me want the opposite scenario. She was slowly and unintentionally showing me what my heart was screaming for.

And that scared me. Because no matter how this all ended, someone was going to get hurt.

? ? ?

Two nights later, I was starting to freak out because I hadn’t seen Matteo since the night he came to my house. Between work and Brady being around, coordinating a meet-up just hasn’t worked out.

And tonight, it was Brady’s birthday, so I had no choice but to spend it with him.

When a text from Matteo came in, my heart sped up a bit.



Matteo: Hey, Brady wants me to join you guys for his birthday dinner tonight, but I told him I came down with the flu. I just wanted to make sure you knew I wasn’t sick. Didn’t want you to worry. I just…can’t.