Separated by the Sea

What Now?

Piero's POV
I stood in the parking lot for a few minutes before my mind could process what just happened. She didn't want to kiss me. Did I move things along too fast? Did we even have a thing in the first place? I screamed out in frustration and angrily slammed my car door after getting in. I turned the keys into the ignition and drove back to the hotel I was staying at. At the hotel, I went straight to Ignazio's room to give him his keys back. I knocked on his door and waited an eternity for him to open the door. Ignazio opened the door and seemed surprised to see me. "You're back already?"

"Yeah," I stated plainly while handing him the keys. He grabbed the keys and asked,

"How was it?"

"I don't know," I told him. Dinner had gone well, but when she pulled back from my kiss, I got thrown off track. Was I stupid assuming that she felt the same way I did toward her? What did I feel for her? Friendship? No, you wouldn't kiss a friend how I kissed her. Ignazio must have seen my irritated expression because he asked me, "Do you want to come in and talk about it?"

"Yeah."

He opened the door wider and allowed me to enter his room. I sat on the edge of his bed and he sat on a nearby chair.

"What happened?" he asked.

I ran my fingers through my hair and explained, "Dinner was great. We talked and I got to know a little bit about her, but still not her name."

"And then what happened? What got you so ..." He was looking for a word to describe how I was acting but couldn't think of one. "Not yourself," he continued.

"I think it was my fault. I shouldn't have done that."

Ignazio's eyes widened. "What did you do Piero? Did you embarrass her or something? No, it was something even worse. You spilled soda on her!"

"No, Igna, I kissed her."

Ignazio gawked at me. "You what?"

"I kissed her, but I don't think she wanted to. She pulled away," I sighed while looking at the floor.

"Is it because you are a bad kisser?" Ignazio asked.

I groaned. "Don't you get it, Igna? I have feelings for her, but I don't think she has feelings for me."

"Maybe you aren't getting the whole picture. What if she does like you, but you are too blind to see it. When was the last time you cleaned your glasses?"

"I cleaned my glasses before I left!"

"What was the last thing she said before she ditched you?"

I glared at him and took a few seconds to remember what she actually said before she left. Oh, dear. I just now realized what she said. She didn't want to let me in because I was going back to Italy and there was a large chance that we would never see each other again. I am the biggest idiot ever for not getting this earlier. I should have went after her. But what would I have done? I'm still going to go back to Italy...

"She didn't want to get too close to me because I'm going to go back to Italy and we will never see each other again. Everyone knows that long distance relationships never work out."

Ignazio nodded in understanding.

"I don't know what to do. It's not like I can stay here and there is no way she would give up her whole life just to go back to Italy with me. I could never ask her to leave her home."

"Don't get mad, but I think you should just forget you ever met her. You don't even know her name."

Ignazio was right, but when I thought about leaving her forever, a wave of sadness enveloped me. How could I just forget her? Instead of erasing her from my mind, she became my main focus. Why was I so drawn to her? She was just some girl. I tried to find reasons to forget about her, but I couldn't find any. In fact, I could only find reasons why I should get to know her better. I growled and then whined like a child, "I don't want to go home! I want to stay here."