Mr. Big(51)

Cautiously, she slowed down and turned to glance over her shoulder. He was not there. She went home and collapsed on the sofa in her living room, wondering what had gotten into her that would make her go to his building. She knew she had no business there. She knew that she had to let him go, and that holding on to every little scrap of him that she had, from memories and voicemails to taking another date to his favorite restaurant and walking past his home, was not going to bring him back into her life, it was not going to suddenly make her matter to him, and it was certainly not going to help her get over him.

She sighed in frustration and admitted to herself that what she needed most was to get away. Far away. As far away as Italy. She went to her room and began to pack her suitcase, not wanting to wait any longer than she absolutely had to. She was packed and ready within two hours, promising herself that she would figure out all of her Italy trip on the way to Rome. It didn’t matter where she went when she got there, just that she had left to get there. That was all that mattered. That was going to get her far enough away from Alexander Daniels that she would be able to get over him and focus on anything other than him.

She phoned the airline and made her reservation, and half an hour later, she was in a taxi on her way to the airport.





Chapter11



The closer she got to the airport, the better she felt. She was going to get away from it all. She was going to find some reprieve, and it was going to make everything in her world that much easier, better, and brighter. As she waited for her flight to take off, she looked up several cities in Italy on her phone, trying to decide where to go and how much time to spend there. She decided to begin with a few days in Rome, and then she thought that she would head down to the Amalfi Coast and stay in Positano.

There was saltwater, there were huge mountains, and there were small, seaside villages that promised peace and a world away from everything and everyone she knew. As the plane climbed higher into the sky, she felt a surge of hope welling up in her; a promise in her heart that she was going to be happy again somehow, some way, and that she was on her way to that happiness, and it was going to feel like a whole new life to her.

Mia fell asleep and before she knew it, the flight attendants were waking her, telling her that they would be landing soon, and she gathered her things together and prepared herself for one of her lifelong dreams to come true.

The plane touched down and the air crew welcomed them to Rome, Italy. Mia felt excitement mounting in her along with happiness, and it was a welcome change to all the sorrow she had carried since Alexander had walked out of her office.

She stepped foot into the airport and made her way through immigration out into the warm Italian air. All of her senses came to life, and everything in her felt more alive and awake than it had in longer than she could remember. She took the train from the airport into Rome, and the almost hour long ride gave her views of the countryside as she watched it passing by her window. She soaked it all in, every part of it, loving what she saw and relishing the way it made her feel, as if every single second was another new chance at happiness, and she grasped every one of them.

She stayed her first night in Rome at a hotel not far from the Coliseum. Mia dropped her bags at the hotel and went out to walk among the ancient ruins of the inner city. She was so enraptured with them at first that Alexander did not cross her mind, but by dinner time, when she was seated at a table on a side street near a restaurant, she began to feel the edges of sadness creeping in around her.

There seemed to be couples everywhere she looked, and in the deepest part of her heart, she felt an ache for him that she wished would go away. She tried to distract herself with everything she could; being in the Eternal City, she expected that she would be able to forget about him completely, but everywhere she looked and went, it felt as if there was a great void with her that she could not escape from.

She began to wonder if she hadn’t gotten far enough away, and after two days in Rome, wandering about the old streets, seeing all of the old sights, eating gelato and drinking cappuccinos, she decided that she needed to be a little further away and she got on a train to the Amalfi Coast.

The train took her drifting through the countryside, past small towns and little villages. It coursed over meadows and farmland and through the hearts of hills. She closed her eyes part of the way through, and fell asleep from the rhythmic rocking of the car she was riding in. A while later, she arrived in Naples and got on a ferry to head toward Sorrento; a coastal town sitting atop a long expanse of cliffs overlooking the sea.

She sat in the ferry, watching the blue waters of the sea go splashing by her and she tried to focus on where she was. She tried to think only of the history of the places, the natural wonder and beauty of the area, and the fact that she was finally there, but Alexander hovered at the edge of her mind and the center of her heart, constantly tugging at her to remember him and think of him.