HER | ✓

⍣Twenty-Three⍣

Clayton sat there when Farah finished talking. "What happened to your aunt?"

"A massive heart attack." She ran her hands across her pants.

"Is she still alive and doing well?" 

She nodded. "Yeah, she had a heart transplant." 

"Jesus. I'm sorry to hear that. But glad that she's doing well." 

"Me too. I used to cry myself to sleep over it. It was like my worst nightmare came true." 

"I'm sorry." 

"Don't be. We're okay now." 

"I'm speechless, you know I didn't get a number." He rested his head in his hand and rubbed an eyebrow.

"I figured as much." She smiled. "I didn't think you would leave hanging. When I found out I was pregnant with Charlotte I tried to find you on social media but couldn't. There's wasn't a single trace of you there. All these Clayton Jones's and none of them were you." She laughed lightly. 

"I don't do the social media scene." He felt bad. It was the only hope she had left to find him. 

"Unfortunately," she joked. 

"I'm sorry," he said again. 

"Don't, it's okay." 

"No it's not. I didn't think about looking for you on there. It never crossed my mind. Probably because I spent so much time being angry with you for leaving me there." He ran a hand into to his hair. "But it wasn't your fault. You tried more than I did." He looked at her for the first time since their conversation started. He looked saddened and guilt stricken. 

She placed a hand on his arm and looked him in the eye. "Clayton, it's alright. I found you haven't I?" 

He stared at her. Her smile. Her dark hair. Her red lips. And he felt like they were teenagers again sitting by the lakeside, enjoying a conversation. His heart filled with warmth. Right then he didn't feel so ridiculous for clinging on for all those years and smiled back. "We found each other."

"Yes we did." She laughed. "In a bit of an unconventional way but we did." 

"I can't help but wonder what happened to that note. Why didn't I get it?" He eyebrows scrunched in thought. 

"I don't know." 

They both sat in thought for a few moments thinking about the possibilities. Then Clayton started sniffing the air and Farah turned to him with a questioning look. 

"Do you smell that?" he asked.

"Smell what?" 

He rose from the couch and walked through the room, still sniffing the air. "It smells like something's burning."

"Burning? I don't smell anything burning." 

She followed Clayton and his nose to the kitchen where they found smoke rolling from the oven.

"Crap! I forgot!" She yelled.

"You're not the only one who forgot, your fire alarm forgot too," he said looking grave. "Where's the fire extinguisher?"

Without answering she ran to the sink and handed it to him. He quickly put the fire out and they stood in front of the open oven staring at the black crusty remnants of the pizza that was once there.

"Thanks for almost killing us," he said not meaning a single word.

"It wasn't intentional."

"I know." He smiled. 

"I think we'd make a good pair, you and I," she said turning to him.

"What makes you think that?" He kept a straight face.

"We handled that fire pretty well."

"Yeah I suppose we did, didn't we." He cracked a smile.

"I'm sure we'd handle a lot of other things well too." She nodded tucking a strand of hair.

"What kinda things?" Clayton asked standing in front of her now.

"Mmm... like explaining to Charlotte that you're her dad."

He smiled, cupping a hand behind her head. "And how do you think that'd go down?"

"Not good actually," she whispered. 

"We'll see about that," he said still smiling.

He closed the distance and put his lips to hers and her arms came around him. She hugged him tight as though he may slip through her grip at any moment. She couldn't bear the thought of losing him again and she knew he felt the same. Everything she ever wanted to hear was being told to her through his silent lips. He hadn't forgotten her and he never would.

She pulled back to ask a question. "What do you think things would've been like if we didn't lose each other? Do you think we would've gotten bored of the other and turned into one of those young couple statistics?"

"I don't know. I think we already are a young couple statistic." He shrugged.

"Really?"

"Yeah, but let's not worry about it. How does Chinese food sound?"

"It sounds good, I guess." She didn't say anything for a few moments then added. "Really though, how am I going to tell her that you're her dad?"

"He's my what?!"

________________________
AN: Well now we know that she looked for him and couldn't find him because Clayton 'doesn't do social media'. At least we can tell he isn't a true millennial, haha, but thank you so so much for reading this book and supporting me. <3

Next chapter explains what happened after the call ended between Farah and resort staff. 

•Thanks for reading!•