Ben woke up the next morning with a raging hangover. The one and only time he had a hangover in college, he swore to never drink to excess again. But last night he returned to the party and went up to the open bar, first thing. He stayed there for the rest of the party in hopes that the alcohol would help him forget. But no amount of alcohol was able to drown out the pain in his chest or his feelings of betrayal. His behavior worried his parents who asked him several times where Anne was. He avoided their questions until they stopped asking.
Now with the cold light of day smacking him in the face, he looked over at Anne's empty place in the bed. His anger was gone, and all he felt was emptiness and regret. He had accused her of some awful things the night before, and now he knew that he had acted like a fool believing the crazy story his mind had strung together to explain all of the coincidences. That hurt more than anything. She was none of those things he accused her of being. It was all just a big misunderstanding that he played a major role in perpetuating. If he had only told her his last name, then all of this would have been avoided.
But he had wanted her and had wanted her even when they were teenagers. She was such a big part of his life even though they only saw each other for a few weeks every year. For years after he graduated college, he would come to the island hoping that he would run into her, but she never came when he was here. Then, when she was suddenly at the inn on Monday, he knew he had to have her. But, looking back, if she had known who he was, then she would have kept her friendly distance. In honesty, that was not what he wanted.
The fact that he jumped on his crazy story as if it was the truth shamed him now. What a fool he was to let Chelsea’s poison get to him. But he had been so afraid to lose Anne, so afraid that she would reject his love that he tried to protect himself in the worst way possible. He projected his own fear of her rejection of his love into a stupid theory until he drove her away. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. When he realized that he did it because he loved her, had loved her for years, and had just been afraid of being hurt, he switched to drinking because of his own stupidity. She would never forgive him for what he said, and he could not just showed up drunk at her parents' door and apologize.
If nothing else, he owed her an apology. He would have to find her this morning, apologize, and hope that she would forgive him. Then somehow he would have to find a way to work with her for the next year while he loved her and knew that she could never love him for what he did, for what he said. His mind played over their time together the last few days. Did she love him? Was that what she was trying to tell him yesterday morning before they were interrupted by his mother? He needed to find her and set things right, today.
He looked at the clock and saw that it was much later than he thought and that he only had one hour to check out before he had to leave for the airport. That wouldn’t give him much time to find Anne. He would try calling her first. After rolling out of bed, he sat up and dialed the front desk. He did not know the number of Anne's parents' house and asked the front desk clerk. The man connected him directly, but the phone rang until the answering service picked up. He would try Anne's cell phone, he decided, and went into the sitting room to check his computer for her resume. Then he saw the necklace on the table sitting next to his laptop and groaned in pain. It was worse than he thought. She was going to cut him out of her life entirely if he did not act soon. He needed to apologize this morning while he still had a chance. She would shut him out forever, otherwise. But she didn’t answer her cell phone when he called, and he left a message asking her to call him. That would not be enough. He needed to see her in person.
After quickly showering and haphazardly throwing his clothing and bathroom kit into his suitcase, he went to the lobby to check out. Upon seeing his family in the dining room, he went inside to see if he could spot Anne. She wasn't there. He didn’t want to waste time talking to anyone else and didn’t go over to his family's table even though they waved him over. Anne had to be around somewhere. He decided the best place to start looking was at her parents' house. He knocked several times on their door, but no one answered, and he eventually left. Then he went down to the dock, but did not see her there, either. He even checked the log bench further down the shore. He knew that he was running out of time, and he went back to the inn’s main building.
He ran into Jim, who was coming out of the office door, when he walked into the main building through the back way. After stopping him, Ben asked Jim if he knew where Anne was.
"I wish I could help you, Ben, but I thought she was with you."
"No. Is she at your house?"
"No, she's not there. At least she wasn’t when we got up." Ben looked at the time and swore under his breath.
"Look, Jim, I have to leave. My flight back to Seattle will be leaving soon, but I need to talk to Anne. Can you tell her to call me?" He pulled a business card from his wallet and wrote his personal cell phone number on the back with a pen he saw sitting by the fax machine.
"I'll give her the card, Ben."
"Thanks, Jim." Ben walked back to the lobby, disappointed that he would not see Anne before he left. He would feel much better if he could talk to her. His family came out of the dining room and walked outside onto the veranda. The car that would take them back to the airport had arrived, and the driver was packing their luggage in the trunk. After looking around one last time inside of the inn, Ben finally went to the veranda and climbed into the vehicle. She would call him, and when she did, he would tell her that he loved her and beg for forgiveness, if necessary.
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