UNCONDITIONALLY YOURS

Pains of hiding a secret // 45

I spent the rest of the day alone with my thoughts in that small hotel room. I thought, then I cried, and I thought again, and I cried again. 

The only thing that could have made me feel better is being in the comfort of Parker's loving embrace, but even if I were with him, the embrace would feel cold. Not physically, but in my head, it wouldn't be the same. Because all the other times I had hugged him, it had been with the utmost trust. Eventually, evening came, and after some time, I cried myself to sleep.

The next morning I rubbed my puffy eyes. I was ashamed to say that the only clothes I wanted to wear were Parker's hoodies. Seeing as no one would see me, I put one on anyway and it somehow made me feel the slightest bit better. 

I decided it was time to search for a flight, seeing as the longer I stayed at the hotel, the more money I would be spending on my room. I looked at the price of the flights first. They were pretty pricey. I wasn't sure I had enough money in my account to spend of flights. 

It would use up the majority of my money, and I had to get myself sorted once I was home. I had no where to stay, no job to go back to and if I had no money, I wasn't sure was I would do.

I checked my account. I had a good idea of how much I had in there, but I was planning to get the exact number and work out how my money would be best spent. I needed to think about flights, food and having somewhere to stay. 

But when I checked, there was a recent transfer. For a lot of money. I mean, not just enough for me to get flights, somewhere to stay, and food, enough to get myself to hire my own private jet, to buy a mansion and to eat caviar for the rest of my days. I told him I didn't want his charity. There was a note next to the transfer. 'Please, just take the money. I have more than I need.'

Without a second thought, I began the transfer back. I transferred every last bit of the money back to him. In notes next to the transfer I wrote 'I don't want your money". I sent the money back, put my phone on silent and threw it onto my bed to shut everything out of my mind. 

I got some paper and a pen and started to work out the best ways to spend my money and an action plan for the future.

Parker

A week had passed since I saw Riley and I had stayed moping around in Italy. I took the flight home at the time originally planned, except I was on my own. Before I left, I made sure she wasn't still in Italy looking for a flight because even if I had to kidnap her, I would not leave her alone in a foreign country without enough money. 

But she was gone, she had found her way home herself, and I never truly doubted she would. When she needed to, she was amazing in dealing with what to do and I believed she could make the most out of the money she had. She was incredible and smart. I transferred some money anyway because I wanted her to have the best rather than living off scraps of money, but unsurprisingly she sent it back.

When I got home, I went straight to Noah. He was my best friend, I couldn't even comprehend how he had betrayed me like that. I knew I needed to tell her, and I planned to. But it was also something I needed to do myself and I just needed a little more time. 

Noah knew I was planning to tell her, so I did not know what the hell must have been going on in his head when he thought it was a good idea to tell her. He was sitting casually on the surface in the kitchen of my house like nothing even happened.

"Noah what on earth were you thinking!?" I shouted across the room and then quickly walked up to him.

"Parker..." He began gingerly.

"No! I'm talking! Why? How could you betray me? How could you tell her when you know how damn much I love that girl? For goodness sake, you were the one who told me I shouldn't tell her at all!" I addressed emotionally.