Page 144 of To Love or to Lose
“I think I’m sunburnt,” I groan as I walk up the stairs of the beach house.
“I’m sure you are.” Jameson’s hand is on my back, guiding me toward our bedroom. The others are still sitting in the living room finishing the movie we started last night, but I’m too tired, and too miserable from the warmth of my back.
Our bedroom is the first on the right at the top of the stairs, and once we’re inside, I flop on the bed as Jameson walks into the bathroom. He returns with a bottle of aloe.
“May I?” He asks, nearing the bed as he uncaps the bottle.
I grab a pillow from the head of the bed, laying the side of my face on it while I nod. “Please.”
Jameson unclips the back of my bikini top, letting it fall off my shoulders and leaving my back bare. He sucks in a breath through his teeth when he sees the redness of my back compared to the pale skin my top was covering.His knees hit the bed as he leans closer to me, pressing light kisses to my shoulder bladesand the back of my neck, making my skin heat—and not solely because of my sunburn.
“You know this isn’t good for your skin, Genova,” he whispers. Then, I feel his hands, covered in the cool gel touch my lower back.
“Why do you call me that?”
I’ve asked him many times before, almost every time he’s called me it. He always responds with something like ‘ask me another time.’
I figure maybe since I’m in a vulnerable position—sunburnt and practically topless—he’ll feel more inclined to tell me.
“You’ve never heard of Genova, Italy?”
For a moment, I think he may be mistaken. Either that, or my brain has been shot from him rubbing his hands up and down my spine. “I know of Genoa, Italy.”
“They are the same place,” he clarifies. “Genoa is what it’s more commonly referred to, but it translates to Genova in Italian.”
“So…” I trail off. “What does that have to do with you calling me Genova?”
“I went to Genoa with my mum for the first time when I was eleven,” he starts, pouring more aloe on my back. “I fell in love with the city, with its beauty, and to this day, I still adore it.”
I hum, letting him know I’m still listening even though it’s becoming harder and harder to keep my eyes open.
“When I heard your name was Genevieve, I immediately made the connection.” He squeezes my shoulders the tiniest bit, making me sigh in pure contentment. “It was ironic, and felt a little like fate, especially when I came to realize that, if you were a city, you would be my favorite.”
My mouth drops open at his confession.If you were a city, you would be my favorite.I sit up, holding the bikini top close to my chest so I won’t flash him.
The only words I’m able to utter are, “It does feel like fate, doesn’t it?”
He nods, pulling me close and kissing me softly. His hands grab the sides of my neck—really the only parts of my body that aren’t sunburnt—and my hands wrap around his neck, falling into his hair.
I pull away saying, “Plato said once that ‘Love is the motivating force that pushes a person to think deeply about beauty.’” Jameson finding me beautiful enough to give me a nickname referencing his favorite city may just prove that.
Jameson smiles at the Plato reference. “He also said: ‘Love is born into every human being; it calls back the halves of our original nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature.’”
His reference causes my smile to mirror his, bright and full of life—exactly how I feel in this moment. Hell, this is how I feel every moment with Jameson: Happy. Alive.
The ancient Greeks, like Plato, believed everyone was born with four arms, four legs, and a head that shared two faces—that they were once attached to each other in perfect unity. One day, the two beings were ripped apart.
They believed that the soul torn apart from you—your other half, per se—was your soulmate.
I used to believe it was bullshit.
Until I met Jameson.
Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t believe the two of us were joined together at one point, but I do believe we were destined to find each other.
Born on two separate continents, coming from two different sides of the earth, somehow the universe still pulled us together, and we fell in love.
If that’s not fate, I’m not sure what is.
