[24]

You know that feeling you get when your parents are meeting your boyfriend for the first time? And you have to stand there and watch them grill the poor dude with their eyes, all the while increasing the tension. Twiddling your thumbs and shifting your weight from foot to foot.

The English dictionary would describe it as embarrassment or awkwardness. With my head bent down and my cheeks hot, I felt eighteen again.

This embarrassment was probably as a result of the fact that I hadn't believed that I'd find love at Mida's wedding. From the arched eyebrow on my mom's face, she was certainly wondering how her daughter, who had practically died in the things of love, was now seeing a man.

"So," I heard dad begin, "this is the man you got." There was no mocking in his tone, just a double scoop of teasing.

The heat spread further as I stayed quiet. I raised my head and took a breath.

Mom had a smirk on her face by now. She nudged my father with her shoulder and shook her head, then walked closer to Parker, inspecting him. Like he was under a microscope. Amazingly, Parker didn't seem dazed. In fact, he was smiling at the both of them like he'd known they'd do this.

I had known they'd do this, but I wasn't smiling.

"Won't you introduce him to us, Camsy?" Ah, the dreaded question.

I cleared my throat and bit my tongue, warning it not to let out anything stupid. "Mom. Dad." They raised their eyebrows at me. I exhaled and slipped my fingers between Parker's, holding onto him for dear life. Mom's mouth formed an 'o' as she watched us, her gaze flickering to her husband briefly.

"This is Parker, my...er-" I cleared my throat again. "-my man." Whoo, that was weird.

Parker laughed while I fought the urge to hide behind him. Simone and Marcus's eyebrow waggling wasn't helping. Neither was Mida's smirking. The only person in this group that seemed to have pity for me was Shawn, who was encouraging me with multiple thumbs ups.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Colbert." He grinned at my parents.

My dad blinked and sent a glance to me before replying.

"The pleasure is ours, Parker."

"He's a charmer," mom beamed. To my dismay, she reached up and pinched his cheeks. "You're so cute."

Behind her, Simone whispered something to Marcus, and they laughed. I pouted.

"You're hurting him, Mom," I said, referring to the grimace on Parker's face. Before she could apologize, Parker shook his head.

"It's okay. My mother does the same thing lots of times."

"Women," dad chimed in with a snort. "Am I right?"

"Hold on a second, aren't you, Garth?" Mum questioned, a slight frown on her face. "From Wellington and Co."

Parker nodded. "Though, Camsy here prefers to call me Parker."

"That's because you introduced yourself by that name!"

Simone cut in. "You should have-wait," her eyes went round. She hurried towards me and grabbed my shoulders, successfully detaching my hand from Parker's. Before I could ask her what her problem was, she grabbed my chin and forced my head to the side.

Then she gasped. "Is that a hickey?"

My own eyes went round. "What?"

Mida hurried to us and took a peek. "Yup," she affirmed, a grin on her face. "That is a huge purple hickey right there."

As if the embarrassment on my features wasn't enough, she went on to Parker, slapping his arm. "Why Garth, I didn't know you were such a bold man."

I faced Parker with a panicked look. He stared back at me apologetically, face turning a shade redder.

What exactly had we done last night?

Dad passed his gaze over all of us. "What's a hickey?"

Simone and Mida weren't going to let me live this one down. Apparently, Parker-in the midst of my drunkenness last night-had left a mark behind. And I'd been foolish enough not to notice it this morning.

After succeeding at silencing my dad's question-thank goodness-she'd requested a word with Parker and my dad. Away from me. I had a feeling they were going to talk to him about the hickey. Now, I could only pray they'd go easy on him.

Currently, I was seated at the bar across from Shawn and Marcus. The other two ladies had left me alone to go get their emergency makeup kits in order to hide the hickey. Really, with the way they were acting, I was beginning to wonder about the size of the thing.

"What's wrong, Cammie?" I faced Marcus, who was wearing a suggestive grin. "Can't get that hickey off your mind."

If looks could kill, he'd be dead by now. And I'd be his murderer.

"I hate you." I pointed to him.

"No, you don't," he teased.

Shawn chuckled. "I wonder if that happened before or after he told you he was leaving." He pointed to the hickey, oblivious to the fact that my face had morphed from fake anger to pure shock. He elbowed a laughing Marcus in the ribs. "Maybe they wanted to cherish the final mo-"

"What?!"

They both paused and blinked. "Huh?"

"What did you just say?" Maybe I hadn't heard him right. Parker, leaving?

All humor left his demeanor, replaced with questioning. "Garth didn't tell you he was leaving?"

it felt like someone had knocked all the air out of my lungs. Like a sucker punch to the gut. Like I wasn't breathing. My heart pounded in my chest, pupils dilated.

"I thought..." Marcus's words faded into silence as he shared a look with Shawn.

"He wrote a letter. He was supposed to explain it to you last night."

I got up, staring into nothing. Only one thought kept ringing in my head: Parker's leaving.

I'm not stupid enough to make the same mistake twice, especially not now that I've got you...

I took a step back, gasping.

Marcus and Shawn shot out of their seats. "Take it easy, Camsy. There's a reason why he's leaving."

"Yes," I said in a mock tone. My throat was thick with emotion, but I still managed a sad chuckle. "That reason must be super important because it justifies why he would play with my emotions like that."

They fell silent.

And I'm not going anywhere without you.

Play with my emotions: that was exactly what he'd done. He'd hidden this from me and promised me things that he wasn't going to fulfill.

Parker had lied.

He was just like James, Liam, and the rest of my thirteen ex-boyfriends. And he'd really gotten me. I was beginning to give in to him. To his lies.

And now he was going to leave, just like they all did.

I needed to get away from here. Marcus and Shawn were staring at me like I was some wounded sheep that needed taking care of. Like I was going to break down right in front of them and cry. But I wasn't, at least, not in front of their pitiful gazes.

So I spun around and stormed off, shutting out their voices behind me.

I even bumped into Simone and Mida on the way, but seeing that their gazes were just as pitiful as Shawn and Marcus's, I shook my head at their questions and continued on.

What I needed right now was to be alone, and I knew just where I would get that peace.