"Are you sure that you have everything you need?" Kristoff asked as he looked at her trunk. Just one small duffel bag, her easel and art supplies. It seemed like such a meager collection of things to bring on a two week journey and a even smaller collection of things to take home. There were almost no souvenirs unless you counted the three paintings she had finished while she had been here. It made him wonder if he had made her vacation everything she had hoped it would be.
"That's it," she admitted a little wistfully, looking out at the beach with longing in her eyes. "I wish I didn't have to go home today. These two weeks just flew by, didn't they?"
Kristoff closed her trunk lid and felt the thud reverberate through him. This was it. Their vacation was really over. They were heading back to their lives as though none of this had ever happened. He felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest and thrown at her feet, but she didn't even notice. Never before had he felt for anyone the way he did for Anna. Letting her go was a physical pain in his chest and he wasn't sure he could breathe without her.
"Anna…" he said slowly, a million words running through his mind as she turned from her view of the sea to look back at him. The morning light shone through her hair, giving her a red-gold aura that seemed unearthly. Her shirt had slid down her shoulder, revealing that perfect expanse of skin that he loved so much. Everything about her shone so brightly, like her inner light radiated through her and enhanced the air around her. How was he going to let her go?
"Kristoff, thank you so much for the past two weeks. You have no idea how much this meant to me," she smiled and he could see tears shining in her eyes. She reached out for him and he was instantly at her side, scooping her into his arms and lifting her off the ground. He didn't want to let her go, but knew that he didn't have a choice. They had said that their "relationship" was for the duration of this vacation and as much as he wanted to press her for more, he had the feeling that there was a lot more to Anna's situation than she had told him. She had come to recover from a bad break up, which he hoped he had helped with, but he knew there was something else that she wasn't telling him. He wasn't anything but a stranger to her, after all, so it was inappropriate for him to ask. But damn… he wasn't sure he could watch her walk away without part of him leaving with her.
"Just…" he hesitated again, his head full of things he wanted to say to her, "drive safe, okay?"
It was lame, but the words were as sentimental as he could get without downright admitting that he didn't want to watch her drive away.
She smiled again and brushed his cheek with her hand. "You too," she whispered. "Don't forget about me, okay?"
He turned his lips into her palm and kissed it gently. "Never," he promised. "I could never forget you."
He had never spoken truer words.
Tears filled her eyes and she pulled away, an unspoken something hovering just beneath the surface. "Kristoff… I…"
"You're going to be late for brunch with your sister," he reminded her gently. He was proud that his voice didn't crack with emotion as he spoke. He felt like he was falling apart.
"Right," she whispered, looking to the car and then back to him. The air sizzled between them, filled with the heat of the passion they had shared and words that neither of them could fully express.
Kristoff was the first one to break the moment. He took her arm and led her to her car, tension running down his arms as he forced himself to stop touching her. "Who knows, maybe we will run into each other in Arendelle," he suggested, though he doubted it. If they hadn't run into each other in the past 20 years, why would it happen now? They ran in different circles. It wasn't meant to be.
She bit her lip as she slipped into the drivers seat, but she nodded in agreement. "Yeah, maybe we will."
Before he could stop himself he bent down and kissed her one last time. He placed his hand on the back of her neck and held her close as his tongue swept through her soft, warm mouth. He couldn't say goodbye without a last kiss, could he? Wasn't it right to send her off with one last memory of him? He wasn't sure, but that wasn't going to stop him. He was going to wring every last drop of time with her that he could before she drove away from the cottage and out of his life.
When she pulled away there were trails of tears down her cheeks in twin rivers. "I wish things could be different," she whispered so quietly that he wasn't sure that was what she actually said. "I'll miss you, Kristoff."
Without thinking about whether it was a stupid thing to do, he grabbed her phone out of her center console and quickly put his phone number in it. "Here," he said, handing it back to her, "If you ever need me for anything, or if you might want to make this something more permanent, you have my number now."
She looked down at the phone and then back up at him, her eyes a mixture of emotions. "Are you sure?"
About her? Damn sure. Not that he could tell her that after only knowing her for two weeks.
"I'm here if you need me," he said again, more firmly this time. "Goodbye, Anna."
"Goodbye, Kristoff," she whispered and closed the drivers side door. She put her key in the ignition but hesitated, looking at him with a longing that he was sure was reflected back in his own eyes. Then the moment passed and she backed out of the drive, making her way back to the highway… leaving him standing in front of the cottage, feeling as though his heart had followed her little Benz back home.