Page 115 of Don't Be in Love

I care for you.

You keep me up every night.

I dream about things that haven’t even happened.

Tell me to stay.

It had been so long since my heart felt like this that I almost forgot it had the capacity to break.

Don’t be in love with him, my heart pleaded.Please don’t.

With the lampposts as my consoler, I followed the dreaded path that Dorian and I usually took to my flat. Only, this time, I stopped at the café across the street and asked if they could make a milkshake. (They had ice cream on the chalkboard menu.) The barista either thought I was really affected by the windchill, or knew I had been crying, because she didn’t say no.

“You’re home!” Mia cheered as I walked through the doorway. Her smile fell as she noted the milkshake in my hand and the redness under my eyes. “How’d it go?”

“The equivalent of a car crash.” I lifted the straw to my mouth.

“Are you alright?” Sabrina’s voice shocked my system. I looked behind Mia and found her on the living room floor, her suitcase exploding with clothes and wrapped gifts. She had no earrings on but fresh lip gloss.

I sniffed quickly and pulled together a smile. “I dropped one of my keychains on the way over and it broke. I didn’t mean to be so dramatic about it,” I laughed, quickly pulling my layers off.

“I can fix it, if you’d like?” she offered, standing.

“No, no, it’s fine. I want to hear all about Paris.” I pulled her into a hug. “I missed you,” I said into her floral-scented hair.

“I missed you too,” she urged, squeezing me. Pulling away, she gasped. “Before Paris though, I have to tell you that your idea worked!”

“My idea?”

“About post-grad! I told my dads about how I planned on finding an interior design position.”

“You weren’t supposed to tell them that until you actually got the position,” I reminded her.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. My dad apparently had this lab interview lined up in Edinburgh and he said if I took it and got the job, he’d get me a part-time design position with this huge home design studio to work on the side. And part-time positions usually lead to full-time positions, so I’m basically hired!”

“Andrew came up with this?” Mia asked in disbelief.

She nodded uncontrollably.

But that was the last thing I was thinking about.

“Edinburgh? As in Scotland?” I asked.

“Yeah …” she said, realizing. “It’s only for the summer. If the position goes well, they have an office here in London I could transfer to. I just have to deal with lab life for a few months.”

“What are you doing after graduation?” I turned to Mia. It was only four months away but suddenly it was on our doorstep.

“If I can’t get a full-time job, then I’ll have to go back,”to Washington. “The rent has been affordable thanks to Sabrina’s dad, but I can’t live off a part-time job forever. My parents already want me home and they’re paying for my student loans so ...”

My heart dropped. I felt sick.

Sabrina’s moving to Scotland, and Mia’s moving back home.

I was trying to digest it, but it wasn’t working. I knew distance would form between us at some point in life, but I didn’t expect it to happen this quickly. Not right now.

“We still have a few more months together,” Sabrina said.

“Yeah, there’s still a ton of time for me to find a job,” Mia smiled.