The Perfect Stranger

Chapter Eighteen

"Vacation!" Olivia called out, holding a bottle of champagne over her head. "Happy to see you guys! We're just waiting on Eli and Matty and we can leave for the airport. Let's go pop this baby open," she grinned, walking back into her front room. Tatiana, Luca and I followed.

My heart was pounding and my palms were sweaty. I hadn't seen Alex in person since I left a little over a week ago. We had been talking, a bit, on the phone at night. We both had stopped drinking as much and I'd been staying with Tatiana for the past few days since I'd come back to Asodoria. I knew Alex was here already, he'd texted me to tell me. All of our friends knew we were fighting. Most of them didn't know what we were fighting about, and Alex had asked everyone to not mention it.

Alex and I had decided that after the vacation, we were going to sit down and either break up or resolve our issues. We had decided to try and be as civil with each other during the trip so we wouldn't ruin everyone else's fun. Max and Olivia hadn't been on a vacation in a long time, and since I'd completely ruined Tatiana and Luca's Valentine's Day vacation, I owed it to them to come along as well.

Tatiana and I walked inside, following Olivia. Luca was getting our luggage from Tatiana's car. My heart leaped in my chest as I unexpectedly ran straight into Alexzander in the front hall.

"Sorry," he said with a sheepish grin. His hand was on my elbow and he let go. "I'm just going to help Luca with your bags," he said.

"Okay," I replied, feeling a blush creep onto my cheeks. He kept walking to the front door, and I watched him walk away for a second. Tatiana cleared her throat and I jumped. Olivia was holding a glass of champagne out to me with a smirk. "Oh, thank you," I said, blushing deeper.

"Vacation," Olivia sang, tapping her glass with Tatiana and I. We all took a sip and Max walked into the kitchen.

"Hello, ladies." He said, giving me a friendly hug, then the same with Tatiana. We greeted him, exchanging pleasantries as he grabbed a beer from his fridge.

"Your house looks so different when it's not a party going on." I mused, looking around. I heard the clattering of luggage inside, and Luca and Alex's voices in the front hall.

"Hi, Luca!" Olivia said, waving at him as Luca and Alex rounded the corner.

"Hello," he said cheerfully, crossing the kitchen to stand next to Tatiana and kissed her forehead. She smiled at him.

"Hello!" Eliana called from the front room. She and Matteo rounded the corner and she embraced Olivia in a hug. She hugged everyone else, lingering on Alex for a few moments longer than necessary, and giving me a sympathetic smile before she hugged me.

Tatiana, in a classic bitch move, reached out to grab her drink from the counter when Eliana reached out to hug her. Eliana just moved on to Luca and linger on him for a moment too long too. Tatiana raised an eyebrow my way.

I noticed Alex was watching us and tried to pay attention to the chatter going on around me.

"Mykonos?" Olivia was asked, crossing her arms. "The Parthenon is not in Mykonos."

"I know," Matteo said. "But their the ones paying for it, and they want us to go Mykonos now." He shrugged. "I mean, we're all together, we don't have to pay for much, why not, right?" He asked, holding his camera up and grinning at us.

"We're going to Mykonos now?" I whispered to Tatiana.

She nodded.

"Honestly, I think it's going to be way more fun!" Eliana exclaimed. "We can go to the beach and the pool, there's a tour of the city we're going on..." she trailed off, looking around.