Harry was broken. His art suffered, but his heart suffered even more. What made it worse was the fact that she had left him almost two years ago.

After she left, he took the first flight home only to see that all of her things were gone. It was like she had never even been there at all.

But, she couldn't take the memories with her, he still had those. Every laugh, every smile, every frown, and every tear. All of it.

He trashed the place to find something, anything that would give him a reason for why she left him.

She said yes. Why would she say yes if she was only going to leave him right after?

Harry had pulled on his hair and thrown things around, ruining the place that he loved because the woman he loved had left him.

For months, he tried to find her. He'd called her phone countless times and practically lived at her shop, just waiting for her to come back so that he could understand and maybe get her back.

The number was out of use only a few days into his heartbreak and Carter hadn't come back. Pandora had no idea where she was, she hadn't told her anything since the day before that night and she was just as upset as he was at her disappearance.

He didn't sleep at night and all of his money and energy went to finding her. She had shops everywhere now so it was far less easy than it was back when they had first met.

It didn't help that he still had to paint. It was his calling and he couldn't step away, even if he just wanted to give up on everything.

His masterpieces went from beautiful and happy, to gray and depressed. Everyone noticed, but his works were still top quality and he was still getting paid and being asked to attend shows.

He lost all interest when people started asking about where his beautiful fiancée was and talking about how adorable it was when he asked her to marry him.

The shows and the gallery's missed his breathing presence, but his art lived for him.

Aurora learned of the split eventually and tried to weasel her way back into his life, but he pushed her efforts aside until she finally left him alone.

Currently, he was flying back to England for the holidays. Carter had a shop there too and he planned on continuing his search there.

In the recent months, his fervor to find her had died down, but he wasn't going to give up. She wasn't going to walk out of his life forever.

. . .

Carter threw her head back and sighed at the familiar sensation building in the pit of her stomach. She rocked her hips against Jacob's a little more forcefully than she had been doing, her eyes fluttering shut as she grew closer and closer to that mind-blowing feeling and Jacob's fingers dug into her hips.

His hips bucked up against hers harshly and a breathy moan left her parted lips.

"Harry..."

Suddenly everything stopped.

Carter looked at Jacob with wide eyes and he stared back with a look that was closer to a frown than it was a glare.

"You said his name again."

His hands left her waist and fell to his sides, defeated.

Her eyes were glossy and her lips were trembling, "I didn't mean too. I don't know why it happened this time."

She didn't bother apologizing because she had done it so much that the words meant practically nothing anymore and they both knew it.

Jacob sighed and she removed herself from him only to sit beside him with her back resting against the wall.

"Were you thinking about him?"

Carter shook her head and didn't bother to wipe her eyes, "No."

She lied. She was always thinking about him, even two years later when she was with another man.

She wondered where he was and how he was doing. Did he have somebody else? Was he with Aurora? Did he still think about her as much as she thought about him? Was he still in love with her?

Despite the fact that he knew that she was crying over Harry, Jacob pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. He wasn't going to ask the question of why she was crying because the answer was obvious.

"I'm sorry. I just-I don't know what's wrong with me. I left him but he still won't leave me."

He knew the feeling.

"Do you still love him?"

"No." Lie.

Jacob shifted slightly to make himself more comfortable, "You say his name in your sleep sometimes, you know."

Carter pulled back from his embrace to look at him with wide eyes, "I do?"

There was no way, she hadn't ever talked in her sleep before. Ever.

He nodded and his frown deepened, "Yeah."

"I'm sorry." This time she meant it. She hadn't intended to string him along at all, but it looked more and more like that was the only thing she was doing.

She liked him though, she really did, but she didn't like him near enough to how she had liked Harry when she tried to stay away from him.

He was a good guy, didn't really do anything wrong and had a normal job, but normal and Carter didn't go well together and, when she got bored, she went right back to thinking about Harry.

Jacob knew it, but he wasn't going to leave her because he had fallen in love with the masterpiece that was Carter Holloway, even if she didn't love him the way that she should have.

He was a safety net, a rebound, but she wasn't going to leave either. Jacob was her distraction from the pain in her heart.

A few months back, he had asked her to marry him. The actual proposal itself wasn't as beautiful as the one Harry had done, but he had tried really hard and she did enjoy that.

She'd said yes, but there wasn't any heart in it or any real thought. It was almost a mechanical answer accompanied with a bright and fake smile. The tears were real though, but they weren't for him, they were for Harry and the love that she had turned away.

She wasn't really paying attention to the conversation that they were currently having and soon enough they were laying down with the lights off and the sounds of the city floating through the window.

Jacob held her closely and almost mumbled when he spoke in the darkness, "I love you."

Carter closed her eyes tightly, a few tears leaking through as she cried silently, "I love you too."

Lie.

. . .

She was just leaving her shop when she saw him.

He stood by a nice black car, with his hands shoved deep in his pockets and his nose and cheeks red from the cold.

He'd been standing out there for hours, just to see if she was actually there. If he had gone inside, she would have hidden and refused to see him, so this was the next best option.

Carter's eyes widened considerably at his appearance both because he was there and because he looked awful.

There were dark rings that circled his pretty green eyes, his sharp jaw was even sharper now and his cheeks looked hollow. He'd lost a lot of weight and his sweater was too big. She hated that his sweater was too big and that he looked like death because it was her fault and she knew it.

Her legs carried her past him quickly, even as he called her name out in one of the most heartbreaking tones she had ever heard from him.

She ignored it all until his hand was gripping her wrist and stopping her where she stood.

Tears were streaming down her face and she hadn't even realized it until she looked at him and he dropped his hand to gently wipe them from her face, just like he used to.

Her voice was small, fragile, and weak as she spoke, "W-what do you want?"

His heart broke all over again seeing her so upset at the sight of him.

Harry looked down at her with soft eyes, pleading, his lips parted slightly but the words wouldn't come out when he wanted them to.

"You, Carter. I want you."

She didn't say anything and only cried even harder. He wasn't supposed to be there; he wasn't supposed to find her again. He wasn't supposed to love her.

Carter forced the words from her throat, trying and failing miserably at putting any conviction behind them, "Move on, Harry. I did."

The hold he had on her wrist loosened and his face dropped even more than it had only moments ago. He didn't believe her because of the tone in her voice when she had said it, but it still hurt. It fucking hurt like hell.

"I can't."

"Well, you should."

His gaze dropped and that's when he noticed the ring.

Tears welled in his eyes like fresh springs, "Y-you...you're engaged?"

She wouldn't look at him and she wouldn't answer.

"Carter!" He was desperate for her to say no, to tell him that it wasn't true.

A broken sob fell from her lips, her breath visible in the cold air, "Why are you doing this?"

His throat constricted upon itself and he could hardly breathe, "Is it true?"

She nodded quickly, another sob leaving her lips as he let her hand drop.

"I have to go."

Cater turned to walk away again, but this time she ran, her hands wiping at her eyes and her cheeks stinging from the cold. She ran away from him and all he could do was stand there.

His feet were frozen to the ground and his body just wouldn't cooperate when he needed it to the most.

She was walking away again, but he couldn't stop her even as he yelled, "I just want to know why!"

People were staring at him, but he didn't care even as he stood there crying and mumbling to himself, "Please, just tell me why."