Moonshine Eyes by Alexa Padgett

Author:Alexa Padgett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Alexa Padgett

10

Ramona

Nerves flitted through my middle, and I pressed a hand there as I led Seth toward the pseudo-privacy of the elevator alcove. I stopped walking and turned to face Seth. He stared at me for a long moment, just taking in my pale skin and the faint smudges underneath my eyes caused by a restless night.

“I am sorry,” I said. “I should not have assumed you are like Aldo.”

Seth crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell me. The whole story,” he urged when I hesitated.

“Aldobradino was my ex-boyfriend. Ex-fiancée, as you know,” I corrected, trying to ignore Seth’s stiffening shoulders next to me. “He wanted me to be…more like my mother.”

“You’re saying your ex expected you to have sex with him. Like, immediately?” Seth asked, his eyebrows drawn tight. His voice was unyielding and he stood straighter. No longer a kind, shy young man, this Seth prepared to protect what he saw as his. In this case, that was me.

I shook my head, miserable. “No. I told him I needed the commitment. So, though it had only been a few weeks of casual dates, he asked me to marry him. But clearly, he did not care for me because he…” My cheeks heated again, and I shook my head, unable to discuss sexual activities with the same ease Seth could. “Aldo is about to become a father.”

“Huh. So you got engaged, and he screwed around. I’m assuming while you were dating, too?”

“Who is to know? What I can tell you is he took me to visit his parents. His…his mother knew of my mother’s reputation. She…she did not say nice things. I left. Aldo did not follow. The next day, he asked for his ring back. In class.” That was the part that hurt me most.

“Of course, I gave it to him. And the following week he gave it to his mistress, the woman who is the mother of his unborn child.”

“He fucked you over good. That’s why you came to Barcelona,” he guessed, eye widening. “To get away from him. And you think I’m going to do the same thing.”

Aldo’s deception had wounded my self-worth, but, as I’d told Giorgi, I wasn’t in love with him. What I felt for Seth…this was much stronger, visceral, a need only Seth could meet. We hadn’t known each other long enough for me to be so desperate for more.

I was also glad for what Aldo had taught me. I didn’t want to belong to a man. Any man. I wanted to be in a relationship. No, I craved a partnership while he was looking to pass the next two weeks with the cute European he met. Maybe to keep the boredom of touring at bay, maybe because he really did like me. Either way, I wasn’t capable of giving Seth what he wanted, just as he couldn’t give me what I needed.

I blinked the tears pressing against my eyelids as I stepped back. I pushed out some words before the tears clogging my throat managed to cut off my ability to speak.

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