Page 134 of Tempting Me

Luca still hasn’t called or texted or anything.

I thought he would have reached out by now.

I want to apologize and tell him that it will never happen again.

I was scared, and what I did was wrong. I fully messed up.

It’s been three days, and I’m starting to think that I’m not going to get the chance to tell him any of that.

“Are you really?”

I shrug and force a smile as my eyes start to burn with tears.

“It’s all I can be right now.”

“Oh, Shay.” She pulls me in for another hug.

The tears are uncontrollable.

She nods toward my office, and I follow her in.

“I messed up so bad,” I say, but I’m sobbing now, and I’m not sure she can understand me. “I spent the last two years giving this place my all, and I was scared that it was all about to be taken from me.”

“I know.” She rubs my back. “I know.”

“And now I’m losing it anyway, and I lost Luca, too.”

I drop my face into my hands and just let myself cry. I cried the night he left, but I’ve felt pretty numb since then.

It’s a weird feeling when you realize that even though you gave it your heart and soul and manifested it as hard as you could, the dream you spent your whole life imagining is just … gone.

I know how dramatic that sounds, but I saw it. My life. Here. Forever. And then this summer happened, and I saw that life with Luca.

Fear makes people do stupid things and now I’m paying for it.

“Have you tried to call him again?”

I shake my head.

“I figure that after he ignored ten of my calls the first two days, he knows to call me when he’s ready. If he’s ever going to be ready.”

With a big sigh, Ruby sits on the edge of the desk.

“He’ll come around; I know he will. I just wish I could tell you when. Soon, I hope.”

“I know, and I wish there was something I could do to make it happen right now.”

A smile touches Ruby’s lips.

“Maybe we need to do something big for him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Something huge where he has to notice you and talk to you.”

“I like where you’re going with this, but what if I do something that draws attention, and he ignores me?”

“He won’t.”

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