Packing that weekend felt a lot like slamming the door shut on the entire summer.

And, as much as I had hated every second of that revolting season, I couldn't say the same about everything that had happened because of it.

That summer internship had introduced me to brand new feelings I had tried to avoid for years.

Pain had accompanied the memories, but relief soon replaced the aches, just as it had for Emma whenever she danced that night and forgot about the bruises on her feet, the soreness in her ankle. Every limitation.

Moving was no longer about outrunning the memories. It became all about a new challenge. I had survived the weirdest summer of my life, bruised and bloodied but still alive. Australia couldn't possibly be tougher than this, but I couldn't waist to find out.

A breath released some of the tension from my shoulders as I zipped up the last of my two suitcases.

I smiled to myself as I recalled the showcase when Emma came running into the auditorium just in time to take the seat next to Ace. She was still dressed in her dance costume, mumbling I-don't-know-what in his ear throughout the skits the drama club performed.

Miles hadn't been as pleased with my honesty as I assumed he would. He hadn't slipped his hand out of mine, but after the last performance, he shifted in his seat to face me, continuing the conversation as if there hadn't been an hour-long pause since I last spoke. "But you're leaving," he had reminded me as I looked away.

As I pulled my suitcases to stand on the ground, I wondered what that had to do with anything. I could like Miles just fine from across the globe.

Six months wouldn't be enough to wipe from my memories the last trace of the smile I had never managed to shrug off since I met him.

I didn't think I would be able to forget the way his hair never listened to reason or the permanent teasing note in his voice that had made the harsh weather much more bearable. Not any time soon, anyway.

My mind had taken the time to capture, with uncharacteristic attention to detail, the look on his face, stripped of the playfulness I was used to.

When my phone rang, I tried to chase away the optimistic thought that Miles would be the one calling. I hadn't seen him or heard from him since the night of the showcase when he drove me back to my apartment.

Even though I had tried to manage my expectations, I still found myself disappointed when I glanced at the screen—with a look I had intended to be casual.

"Mom?" I hid any hint from my voice that I had wished for a much different voice.

"I've been enjoying your weekly email updates a lot more lately." Good. I had been putting a lot of thought into these jokes. "Nervous?"

I shrugged though she wouldn't see it as I walked through the rooms where I had scrubbed the rugged ceramic tiles into crystals.

The subtenant would have nothing to complain about.

"Not really," I told her, opening the blinds to check that I hadn't forgotten anything important like my heart or something. "I'm looking forward to it."

"I'm glad." She chuckled at something someone said on the other end of the line. "Your dad wants to say hi."

"Kelly." His voice sounded different than I remembered it. It had been months. "I checked the weather—it's pretty hot in Australia right now."

I groaned. "Thanks a lot for the reminder."

"I have good news," he announced, and I instantly knew I had every reason to dread whatever would follow.

"Your dad and I are planning a trip to Newcastle in October," Mom said before Dad could finish his sentence. "We might get to visit you at your place in Sydney for a week."

I hadn't expected anything less from them. "Why don't you just stay for the whole month?" I mumbled, then my eyes widened as I realized I was only giving them ideas. "I was kidding, okay? That was very much a joke."

Mom laughed. "Oh, we got that. Say, when are you landing again? And that would be at Sydney Airport, correct?"

"Give me a second." I sighed as I looked through my purse for the information.

As I paced the hallway in front of my door a few minutes later to kill time before I had to leave for the airport, I nearly crashed into Crazy Marge as she was coming out of her own door.

"When did you get back?" I asked and surprised myself when I realized that I had missed her.

She didn't look like she had had a stroke less than a month ago. She had a renewed cheerful expression painted over her features as she leaned against a quad cane for support.

"Last night. As much as I enjoyed being around my daughter and grandchildren, if I didn't leave that house, I would lose my mind."

I bit my lip to keep myself from pointing out that I didn't think she had much left of it to lose, anyway.

"You wouldn't believe how loud teenagers are!" Then her eyes zeroed in on me, and she gave me a skeptical look that confused me as she spoke, "I didn't think you were home last night because I heard nothing from my side," she told me and gave me a grin. Her free hand tapped on the wall in between our two apartments, "despite the thin walls."

I returned her smile, and she nodded towards her door before pushing it open.

"I know you're leaving soon, but I think some snickerdoodle cookies would make you feel much better about your trip."

"The way to my heart."

Later, as I rolled my suitcases into the living room, I stopped to pick up something I had left on the center table.

I wrapped Grace's necklace around my wrist in thin knots that would probably take me forever to undo. But it was too small for my neck, so it would have to do.

The gold chains on my wrist held the weight of two lives.

➷➷➷

I struggled to navigate the airport when I landed twenty-four hours later, of which I had felt every single second, unable to fall asleep.

My limbs whined as I continued to pull on my two suitcases, as crowds rushed past me without sparing me a glance.

Good. I figured I looked like a wreck with hair sticking out in every possible direction from a messy bun.

My bloodshot eyes blinked under the bright lights as I tried to create a path through the dozens of people waiting with cardboard notes they waved in their hands.

As I sleepwalked my way through, I looked past the guy with the glittery sign, the woman stretching beside him, Miles, the toddler on the floor, and—

Then my gaze retraced over the track it had just run. It landed again on that guy who had his hands in his pockets and didn't display the same impatience as everyone else. The mad strands of his hair kept him from blending into the rest of the crowd.

I squinted my eyes to check that the lights weren't toying with me. I questioned Miles's presence even as he left the cluster of people behind him to walk towards me. Even as he tilted his head to the left and stopped right in front of me. And especially as he opened his mouth and said, "Hi, stranger."

It had to be because I felt exhausted—I was hallucinating, obviously. But the mischievous expression on Miles's face looked so painfully real.

"How—How are you here?"

"I might have enlisted your mother for help." His voice sounded just as real as everything else about him. But that, too, had to be a trick from the chaotic chatter in the airport that overwhelmed my ears.

"But..." My stuttering voice struggled to express all the questions I wanted to ask. "But, your book? Aren't you working on publishing it?"

"I guess that's one of the benefits of signing with Alec. He doesn't care for me to be physically there."

"You're in Australia," I said as he guided my hesitant legs to move and released my grip on my suitcases to roll them himself.

We stopped several feet away from the crowd by the vending machines in a secluded corner.

"I didn't do it for you." The hint of a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. That smile. "I'm here on important business, of course."

"Of course," I repeated as I struggled to hold back the laughter from slipping past my lips while he pulled my suitcases up onto their wheels to let them sustain themselves.

"Perk Number Eleven." His words came out in a whisper as he drew closer to me and his breath made the loose strands on my face flutter back. "The truth might just lead you to an unexpected ending."

"Is your version of truth sneaking behind my back to grill my parents for information and stalking me across the globe?" I asked as I grinned at him in amusement.

"Irrelevant." His hand grazed my cheek, and warmth radiated from the contact even though the airport was freezing. "I think I'm going to kiss you now."

"I'd be upset if you didn't."

My eyes snapped shut instinctively from the touch as he leaned in.

When his lips touched mine this time, every muscle of my body responded to my commands, to his.

My fingers reached up to his hair, and the other hand rested on his chest, clenching fists of his shirt as I pulled him closer. His hands slipped from my face to my waist as he practically hoisted me up onto my tiptoes. Personal space and breathing became secondary issues that I couldn't be bothered to think of at the moment.

Every exhausted and every drowsy part of me woke up all at once under his insistent touch—every cell animated by the same fire I had read in his eyes.

Detached and unbothered, my foot!

Miles's presence was sure to introduce a new trick to the few months I would spend in Australia.

But as I kissed him back, I decided that I was up for a good challenge.

➷THE END➷

A/N: Thank you for reading to the end, friend!

@Avery-Reeds remembered that hint about traveling when I discussed that other publishing company, chapters ago, and that made me so happy!

This book is officially completed (well, the first draft, anyway).

Move on to the last author's note page if you want some fun facts and to answer some fun questions for me!

-D.T. ➷