Pretty Please Don't Pinch Me

54. Cold Encounters

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The first few seconds when I wake, I am ignorantly happy. My bed is warm, and when I roll myself over to hold my boyfriend, I instead feel empty space, and then I remember.

I sit up and rub my eyes, trying to adjust to the brightness of the room. Scarlett is freshly showered and tying up her shoelaces on the end of my bed. "Oh sorry, babe, I didn't mean to wake you."

"No that's okay, I need to be up anyways," I reply.

"I hope you don't mind, but I borrowed some of your clothes for work today. And by borrowed, I mean I am never going to return, because this dress looks fabulous on me," she says, and I laugh.

"I'm pretty sure I 'borrowed' it from you to begin with, so no harm done," I reply, and she acts shocked.

"Speaking of work, can you please stop being all famous and come back? I need my partner in crime!" she pleads. "I've been forced to work with boring Marion and all she ever does is talk about her abundance of cats. But Auntie Vicki says she has some plans for me soon, so fingers crossed I'll be doing something different for the store."

"Yeah, that sounds really good," I say excitedly. "I'd love to work with boring Marion over sitting at home avoiding the world," I state. "Sometimes it's legitimately scary Scar. I'm hoping it dies down though seeing as he's not here at the moment," I yawn.

"Yeah, about that," she trails warily, sitting over by me and showing me her phone.

I'm silent as I scroll through the numerous online articles and photographs of us from yesterday. The photos range from us driving, to checking in at the airport, and annoyingly, even some were taken of our final embrace, and I am brought back to the moment when I see the image of me after he departed through those doors. I want to forget how I felt then and there, and want to focus only on seeing him again.

"At least you look good," she admires, looking on the positive side. "And the articles were actually quite positive about the relationship."

She's right on some level, though it doesn't take away from the fact that it's still annoying.

Will any public events remain private anymore?

"Alright Ave," she says, kissing me on the cheek, "I've got to run – I'm already late. Message me about how today goes!" she says, half running out the door.

Max.

I almost forgot about that...

I roll over onto my stomach and cuddle my pillow for warmth.

"Ouch!" I cry out as something pointy scratches me.

I am suddenly reminded – "Check underneath your pillow!"

I anxiously throw my pillow to the side and find a folded note, along with his gold crucifix necklace. I hold the necklace to my chest and hug it tightly before hurriedly putting it around my neck to wear. I unfold the note and my eyes read over his neatly scrawled handwriting.

"Ava,

I've left you the only special thing that I brought with me to Australia, and now I'm leaving behind another. See you soon H x"