Page 107 of Mine Again
What if Sebastian heard? What if he knew?
I try to replay the moment, but the fragments of memory slip through my fingers like water. A name was on my lips. I felt it. The weight of it. Was it real? Or just in my head?
The memory flickers like a struck match, quick and bright, lighting up everything I tried to bury.
It… he was so real in my mind.
His mouth. His body. His voice.
I slide under the sheets, needing to hide from the world. Or more accurately, from Sebastian.
How am I going to face him?
Argh! What a perfectly awful way to start a new life with someone.
But the worst part?
I feel like I betrayed Luca.
Not in the technical sense. In the way that matters.
I let someone else touch me while my heart was still holding space for him. I let another man call me his while the ghost of Luca still lives inside me.
Fisting the sheets, I lie there for a moment. That’s when I feel it.
Pressure on my finger.
I rub over it with my thumb and brush against metal.
A ring.
I reemerge from my cocoon and hold out my left hand.
My wedding band catches the morning light. It’s beautiful, but…
I stare, my brow furrowing.
It’s not how I remember it from when we picked up the rings at the jeweler’s yesterday.
Mine had little diamonds all around it. Sebastian was so proud of it when he showed it to me. He had the jeweler here in Vegas make it after designing it himself.
But this ring is simple. No diamonds. Just smooth gold. Classic. Quiet.
Did I ask for something else? Oh God, that would’ve been incredibly rude after all the effort Sebastian put into it.
And where is my engagement ring? Did Sebastian take it off to make room for the wedding band?
I rack my brain, but nothing surfaces. It really irks me.
Then again, I can’t seem to recall much about anything from yesterday, least of all my own wedding.
Great. What will I tell my children one day? That Mamma got too drunk to remember saying, “I do”?
I tilt my hand in the light, staring at the ring.
It’s strange. This ring seems more honest. Not flashy. Not for show.
A quiet promise.
