Day 7

Zack wasn't kidding.

He is still the best damn dancer. Not only that, but he makes me forget that this evening sucks. He twirls me around the dance floor and then brings me back to his chest.

I remember this. He was always the one that would pull people to the dance floor when the party was dying. He was the first one on the floor and the last one out.

"Damn, Kimmy, do you see all these men giving me the stink eye?" Zack whispers in my ear. "I think they're about to kill me because I'm dancing with you."

I look around and see no man staring. If anything, I see nothing but glares from women my way.

"No man is staring," I laugh. "It's the women. I think I'm their next target."

"Damn, you're right," He grins. "You do know why they are, right?"

"Because of your amazing dance skills?"

"Nah," he shakes his head, "It's because of my damn good looks."

I roll my eyes, playfully, "How silly of me. How could I forget?"

We go back to dancing and this is helping pull me out of my head. I'm trying to forget about dinner and that ridiculous story. I know that if I had stayed sitting down, I would have been dissecting it all night. But I won't. I'll save that until I get back to my room.

"Look at these dance partners," The host roars and the crowd applauds. "We do things differently here on the island. So let's switch it up. Grab a partner from your table, anyone of your choosing, and let's hit the floor one more time."

I nearly sprain my ankle running to Jason. Dancing with Tommy is not an option. I simply can't. The last time we did that, we got into a huge shouting match in the middle of tourist central. Besides, I don't think I'd be able to survive being that physically close to him again.

It's awful but I can still taste him on my tongue, even after all of these days. His taste is forever engrained into my senses.

"Geez, Kim. Don't seem too eager," Jason laughs as he pulls me towards him.

"Oh, hush," I glare at him playfully. "It was either you or Rocky and I don't want to get stepped on."

He looks over at Trini with Rocky and then chuckles, "And you don't care if Trini breaks a toe?"

"She got a gel pedicure," I tell him, "those suckers survive a nuclear war. A couple of steps from Rocky will be fine."

We fall into a quiet rhythm and I smile up at him. This is nice. Spending some time with one of my best friends on the night of his birthday. Thirty years. Thirty fucking years of life. I never thought that when he saved me from Bulk on the playground when I was five that our friendship would span twenty-five years.

I feel tears build behind my eyes. What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I so damn emotional? I know why. Because an accomplishment like this is huge. Thirty years. Three decades that have been filled with laughter and friendship.

I take a look around to see the rest of our friends. Zack and Giselle are having a blast and Tommy and Aisha are laughing about something.

The end of the night can not come quick enough.

"Your palms are sweaty," my face twists.

"Fuck," Jason sighs and then quickly rubs his hands on his pants.

"What's wrong?"

He doesn't immediately answer. Instead, he looks around cautiously as if he were afraid someone would hear him.

"Everything… okay?" I say, looking around as well. What am I supposed to be looking for exactly?

"No," he lets out a deep breath and I can see more sweat building up around his temples. I mean, I know it's warm, but I don't think it warrants this reaction.

What is going on? Are we going to get attacked or something? Does he know something that I don't know? Are we in danger?

"Jase," I say quickly, "Should I be worried?"

"No… it's just that…" he breaths, "Promise you won't say anything?"

Okay, now I really am worried. What the hell is going on?

"Promise."

He looks down at me, a smile creeping up his lips, "I'm gonna ask Trini to marry me."

"What?" I squeak.

"Shhh!"

"Sorry," I whisper and then I smile too. "I just…" My eyes fill with tears and I fight to keep them in. "I can't believe it. She's going to be so happy."

"I know," he grins. "I've been thinking about different ways to do it this entire trip but the timing has never been right. I need this to be perfect."

I shake my head, "Then it's destined to be ruined. You can plan everything and then when it doesn't go exactly as planned, you will be disappointed. This isn't about something extravagant. This is about you two loving each other and making that commitment. Trini will say yes because she loves you."

He gives me a small nod and then looks over at Trini with Rocky. His eyes soften when they see her. Jason has always been a man's man. Ever since I met him all the way in Preschool. Even with broken arms, dislocated shoulders, torn ACLs, or anything in between, Jason has never shown an ounce of weakness. But seeing him now. The way that he stares at my best friend, I know that it's because she is it.

"I guess hearing how Tommy and Giselle got engaged should be my wake-up call, huh?" He says.

I stiffen at the mention of their names and I try to collect myself quickly before he notices.

"Exactly," I fake a smile. "It has to be authentic. It has to be from your heart. When the moment feels right, do it!"

"When the moment feels right," He repeats as if trying to absorb the words. "Tonight."

"Tonight?" I repeat, surprised. I didn't think he meant tonight.

"Do you think it's a bad idea?" He looks at me, fear etched in his eyes.

Fuck. I don't want to make him nervous.

"No. If you think tonight would be best then tonight it is."

"I have to. I'm going to keep pushing it off and I'm never going to do it."

I give him a warm smile. I love that he's nervous. There isn't a chance she'll say no, but it's nice to see that something like this will make him sweat.

"I'm so happy for you two," I say, my heart fluttering.

"Don't be yet," He gives me a bashful smirk, "She hasn't said yes."

"She will," I swat at his arm, playfully. "Don't even think she won't."

I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him tighter to me. This just made my night.

"Thank you ladies and gentlemen for joining us tonight," The host of the evening says, "I see all the mingling going on in the house and it's beautiful but let's turn it up a notch. It is customary in our tradition to dance with a person we did not come with. So if you're brave enough, look around and choose a partner to dance with to our next song."

I look around and see many couples go back to their table, Giselle and Tommy being one of them. I get it. I wouldn't want Tommy dancing with a stranger either. I was planning on heading to the table too, but seeing as how no one else did, I didn't want to be third-wheeling with them.

Maybe I could disappear to the bar or something. Ugh.

"Excuse me, miss?" I hear behind me in a thick French accent.

I turn around and see a handsome man around his early thirties with medium-length curly hair. He has a short beard and soft green eyes. Um, hello

"Would you like to be my partner?" His accent is to die for. He holds out his hand for me to take and I'm hypnotized by that fucking accent and I take it.

"Of course."

He takes me in his arms and I find myself fit quite well. The man is of average height but drop-dead gorgeous.

"I'm Louis," he says. That voice is beautiful. He could read me the dictionary and make it sound hot.

Maybe I'm more like my mom than I thought. I can see why she ran off with Pascal now. It was the accent.

"Nice to meet you," I smile. "I'm Kimberly."

"Mademoiselle Kimberly."

Swoon.

"What brings you to Santorini?"

"Celebrating my friend's birthday," I tell him.

He gives me a knowing grin, "The big guy with the muscles?"

I smile, "That's him."

"So he's just a friend?"

"Yes."

"Good," Louis says and he pulls me closer to him. His tone has an edge of playfulness, "Didn't feel like fighting anyone off tonight."

Is he… hitting on me? We turn together and I catch sight of Tommy, steaming in his seat as he watches me dance with this beautiful stranger. Giselle is talking to him about something but his eyes are on me.

I swallow, "So, what brings you here?"

I try to start a conversation so that I can distract myself from the heated gaze on my neck.

"My parents are celebrating forty years together and invited my sister and me, along with her husband and kids."

"That's wonderful," I soften, "Congratulations to them."

He smiles down at me and I feel a little flutter in my belly.

"Where are you from?" He asks me and I'm about two seconds from giving this man my home address.

"California," I say casually.

He stays quiet as if in thought.

"Left speechless?"

He chuckles, "I just got back from New York. I'm trying to find a reason to make the trip halfway across the globe again."

Heat creeps up my cheeks. What the hell is going on? This man is very attractive, but just not my type. I know nothing will come of this, but he's making me forget for just a few moments about how badly my heart hurts right now.

"Where are you from?" I ask to try and steer the conversation. As if I don't already know the fucking answer.

"France," he smirks. "Ever been?"

I nod, "My mother lives there. In Paris."

"Il y a plus en France que Paris," He smiles. (There's more to France than Paris.)

I bite my lip, "Et il y a plus en Amérique que New York." (And there's more to America than New York.)

He cocks a brow at me as if surprised. "Tu parles français?" (You speak French?)

Just what I took in high school and what I've learned from my mom and Pascal. Which in reality is not much. My extent of the language doesn't go very far.

"Un poco," I reply

He throws his head back and laughs, "That's Spanish."

"Well, I'm not fluent," I blush.

"Then we should continue the lesson off the floor," he looks at me.

If this was any other life, I would say yes in a heartbeat. But Cole and I just ended things and I am without a doubt not over Tommy. Thank you Mr. French man, but I'm not ready to give my heart another break when it hasn't even healed in the first place.

"I apologize," he says suddenly, noticing me withdraw, "I didn't even ask if you had a boyfriend. I saw Mr. Muscles with you earlier and I assumed."

"No, it's okay," I give him a small smile, "I'm not seeing anyone but I just ended a relationship and… things are complicated for me right now."

He nods as if understanding.

I stop us from moving, "Thank you for the dance."

"Of course, mademoiselle," He gives me a small bow. "Enjoy your evening."

I watch him leave, suddenly feeling my thrill dissipate.

What a long fucking day… and it's not even over yet.

My eyes close and I make the decision to go back to the table to get my purse and make my way to the bar. That's what I need.

As I make my way through the sand, I catch sight of our table. Tommy is sitting down while Giselle has her arms wrapped around his neck. She's whispering something in his ear while smiling. An ache builds inside of me once again and I do everything to suppress it. He is her fiancé. She should be able to love him openly without me feeling like this.

This moment is intimate and private and I feel a little weird about watching from afar. Maybe I shouldn't do this… but then again, I really want my fucking drink.

He says something and she throws her head back and laughs. That was me a few days earlier.

Stop it. I reprimand myself. Don't feel this way. It's over. I told him everything was a lie. I'm sure he hates me.

I step closer towards them and I see her pull him into a kiss. Tommy pulls back as if surprised and her brows furrow with confusion. He doesn't let another second go by before he pulls her down to him and kisses her firmly on the lips.

Ouch.

—-

Sand is being kicked everywhere.

"Kim!" Trini yells from behind me but I ignore the voice.

My heart aches in my chest. How can something that hasn't seen the light of day physically hurt so much?

"Kimberly," she says again.

My heart is shattering inside of me, crumbling to dust with every step that I take.

I can't stop. My feet continue to move below me and I reach the bathroom and push myself inside, leaving the people waiting in line with their chins to their chests. Tears are flowing from me at this point and I'm scaring the shit out of the other women in the bathroom but I don't care. I don't have it in me.

"Kim?" Trini says, walking into the bathroom. She sees me and immediately throws her arms around me. When I feel her embrace, I cry the hardest I ever have before. Stronger and harder than when Tommy first left all those years ago.

"Kim?" I hear Trini's voice crack, "What's going on?" My head is on her chest while her arms are wrapped protectively around me.

I say nothing because I can't tell her anything. It's killing me keeping this quiet, but I can't talk about it. There is nothing I can do.

"Please tell me, Kim," She pushes the hair off my face, her tear-filled eyes mirroring mine, "Please tell me what has you like this. Please."

I shake my head and continue to sob. I want to. God, I want to. This pain is unbearable.

"Did the guy do something?"

"No," I croak out.

"Is it Tommy?" She asks and when I don't reply, she presses her forehead to mine. "It is, isn't it?"

I'm so tired of this. I've lost all strength and all I can do is give her a weak nod.

Her eyes fill with tears again, " …I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." She breaths into my hair. Our friendship is one that I can't live without. It is one that will last a lifetime.

And this reminds me of when I was fifteen, crying on the floor of the school bathroom after a first heartbreak.

"Let's go back to the hotel," She says soothing my back.

I would love nothing more than that, but we can't. I refuse to be the reason that Jason doesn't propose and I refuse to not be here to witness my two best friends getting engaged.

It's time to grow the fuck up. It's time that I rein in my emotions and face the consequences of my actions. This night won't be ruined because of me.

"No," I shake my head and swallow the painful knot in my throat. It burns all the way down to my stomach. "I'm okay."

"No you're not," she pulls away enough to see my face. "You're a mess."

I let out a deep breath and wipe my many tears away, "But I'm going to be okay. I will. I know I will."

"Kim—"

"No," I say firmly, "I am fine. I just need a few minutes to collect myself and then I'll be fine. I don't want to go back yet. I'm having fun and I haven't even had my complimentary cocktails."

She gives me a sympathetic smile.

"Please, Tri," I look at her. "There's still so much of the show left."

She's quiet for a moment and I know that she doesn't agree with anything that I'm saying but she doesn't push. She knows that once I've made up my mind there is no changing it.

"Okay," she says softly. She grabs a napkin and lightly wets it under the sink and starts to dab the mess I've made of my face.

The napkin is soft on my skin as she wipes away the tear tracks of my mascara.

We don't talk but I know she's put everything together in her head. I think that we've known each other long enough that we don't have to know the full story to know the details.

I stare at my reflection and sigh. My nose is pink, my eyes are swollen, and my skin is pale. The stress that I head kneaded away this morning has come back with a vengeance.

Trini is watching me and I wonder if she sees it too. That I'm a shell of who I used to be.

"Ready to go back," She asks, gently.

I nod and allow her to escort me out of the bathroom. We run into Tommy once we get outside and he stops us once he takes one look at me.

His hand comes to my elbow, his eyes searching mine, "Are you alright?"

I pull my arm back.

No, I'm not alright you fucking moron. I just saw you kiss your beautiful fiancé and I want to take the nearest vase and throw it at your stupid head.

"Yes," I say and try to push past him but he doesn't let me. He doesn't believe me. His eyes narrow, "Did that fucking guy do something?"

I don't miss the jealousy in his tone.

"No." This time I push harder and he stumbles back a step. With my path clear, I storm back to our table.

Giselle bumps into me and she sees me too, my eyes red, my breathing hard. "Are you okay?"

I don't answer her.

"Kim," Tommy calls after me but I ignore him. I can't. I need a moment before I burst. I need to calm myself down.

I need that fucking drink.


Thirty minutes later, I'm standing to the side of the bar while I wait for my drink. I asked for a Manhattan because I wanted to be far away from Greece as possible. Can someone actually not have fun on a ten day magical vacation? Apparently! I'm the dark cloud over everyone.

Tommy and I have never been a love story, we've always been nothing more than a greek tragedy.

"What the hell happened back there?" Tommy storms towards me, his chest heaving.

I blink at him, "Excuse me?"

"Are you on your fucking bitch pills?" He growls at me, and I feel that heat within me build. "Be a bitch to me all you want, but Giselle did nothing."

I can't be upset that he's standing up for her. He's right. She did nothing to me… nothing that she knows of. Nothing that warrants me being a complete asshole to her, but she was just a casualty of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I would have done that to anyone.

"Tell your girlfriend I said sorry," I move past him and he grabs me by the elbow hard.

"She's my fiancé," He says and I don't miss the stutter.

Un-fucking-believable.

"Now she's your fiancé, huh?" My eyes narrow and I pull my arm away from his grasp, "But all fucking week she was your girlfriend."

He shakes his head, almost like he couldn't believe that I was bringing this up.

"You said you didn't want me. You said that it was all a lie," He sneers, "I'm done playing fucking games, Kimberly."

He looks over to where Giselle is, making sure to keep his voice down so that she doesn't hear.

"I can't do this with you," He huffs, "I'm not spending another ten fucking years thinking about you. I just can't. I'll die out there. "

"What was I supposed to say, huh?" My eyes fill with tears and I slap them away quickly. "She was right fucking there. Did you want me to tell you to dump her right there in front of everyone?"

"Yes," he snaps. "That's exactly what I wanted you to do. I wanted you to tell me that what we had was worth saving. That what I felt was fucking real."

"Then I'm telling you now," I cry, "I'm telling you right now. It was all real."

He takes a step back, his hands running through his hair and down his face, "I don't fucking believe you."

His words slice right through my skin, burrowing deep within my bones. "Why?"

"Because you told me the opposite!" He growls, "I stood in front of you, practically begging for a chance and you turned me away. I believed you then. You killed me."

"I'm sorry," is all I could say.

I look at him, his own eyes filled with moisture. I'm not sure if it's sadness reciprocated or from anger.

"Where's Cole," He asks, his voice low and dark. His gaze doesn't waver. I feel smaller than before with his heating gaze burning me. "And I want you to give me the truth."

My stomach is in knots and I would much prefer him scream in my face than speak to me with the voice he uses to speak to his enemies.

"You told Jason he had to be at work. Is that the truth?"

I sniffle, looking down at my toes in the sand.

"Why isn't he here?"

I look up at him, my eyes burning red. My arms come around my body, "…Because I broke up with him."

And there it was. The cold hard truth.

He stares at me, the anger from his eyes fading and turning into regret.

He opens his mouth as if he was going to reply, but the feedback running through the speakers pulls us from our conversation.

"Can I have everyone's attention," I turn to see Jason holding a mic right at the front of the stage.

What the fuck? Oh my god. He's doing it. Right now? This was the moment he was feeling?

Jason's eyes are squinted as he tries to see past the blinding lights that are illuminating the stage. His gaze falls through the crowd as if scanning for Trini.

He points to her when he sees her. "Trini!" He says, his hand covering his heart.

The crowd turns to her and she gives an awkward smile to everyone.

"Baby," he grins, "I love you."

Tommy falls silent beside me, both of us lost in what we're seeing.

"I lived the first ten years that we met throwing dirt at you because I never thought that you would see me as anything more than your annoying friend. I then spent the next five years dating all of the wrong people. We went to prom together by default," He clears his throat.

"You were too busy planning it and I was too busy playing every sport known to man. Somehow we were both dateless and we decided to go together. After too many cups of Zack's spiked punch, you asked me if I ever thought of you. I told you no." He swallows.

"But what you didn't know was that I lied. Because I did think about you… all the time. I would come home and do nothing but think about you. I would fall asleep and dream about you. When we were six and you said that you liked Brian Jenkins because he knew how to ride a bike without training wheels, I begged my parents to let me take my training wheels off. They said no but I didn't listen." He points to a line on his arm where his bone had stuck out of his body, "This is the scar of my devotion to you."

Trini giggles.

"Then when we were thirteen, we camped out in my backyard and Kimberly forced you to play MASH and you got that you would marry me. As we all know, that's as close to seeing the future as it comes."

I smile, tears falling down my eyes.

"You acted grossed out but before anyone saw you, I saw you smile… and I knew… I knew then that one day I was going to marry you."

"We've let distance get between us, people, jobs, but somehow we've always found our way back to each other. I don't want another moment to go by without you."

My head drops, feeling his words hit too close to home.

He gets down on one knee and I lose my ability to breathe. "So Trini, will you marry me and live with me in a shack in Antarctica with our twenty-four kids while you ride a tractor to work as a professional sign spinner?"

She laughs, tears running down her face and nods joyfully.

He jumps off the stage while she runs up and they meet in the middle, their lips catching. The crowd erupts in applause and I don't think Jason and Trini hear any of it, too engrossed in each other.

When they pull apart, Trini gives him her shaky left hand and he carefully glides the beautiful ring on her finger.

I turn to see Tommy with his hands on his hips and his gaze on the sand below us. Is he thinking it too? Seeing something so unplanned pan out so beautifully?

Without a word, I walk back to the table. Trini stands as she sees me and I throw my arms around her and cry. But unlike the hundreds of times I've cried on this trip, these are of joy.


Author note: Hey guys! More to come very soon. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. There isn't much to the story left. Only a few more chapters to go. As always, let me know what you think in a review or PM. It always makes my day!