TWO

man who had handed me my diploma urged me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I jumped at the contact and shook my head, gathering myself together. I had to get off this stage. I climbed back down quickly, the sound of my heart beat pounding in my ears.

All the while my eyes remained fixed on Arturo.

In the corner of my vision I saw that Lucas was rising from his seat, Rachie bundled up in his arms. Had he seen what I was seeing? Was this all just some figment of my imagination?

I didn't want to know.

As soon as I found Lucas I grabbed his arm and pulled him in the opposite direction, storming right in front of the stage. I didn't care.

"What–?"

"I want to leave," I hissed. Nothing was going to stop me, I wouldn't turn around, I wouldn't look back. I couldn't do it. I had made myself a promise and I would keep it.

"But the ceremony is only half way through." We dipped between parked cars, weaving in and out much to Rachie's delight. "Florence," Lucas caught my hand and pulled me to a halt. "What is it?"

"She's angry because I came to congratulate her."

We both span around at the same time and my heart froze in my chest. There he was, after all this time. Stood there in his crisp suit, smirking at me. Smirking.

"Arturo." My voice came out harder than I expected.

"Florence." He tipped his head, one eyebrow raised. I had forgotten how damn good looking he was.

I shook my head, trying to brush the thought away. "You were dead...you died, I saw you..."

His smirk grew into a smile. "Yet here I am."

Lucas stepped forward suddenly, his eyes hard. "And there you go." He inclined his head away from us. "She doesn't want you here."

Arturo's eyes didn't leave mine. "She can speak for herself."

Could I? At this point I wasn't certain. I glanced from Lucas to Arturo. It was hilarious, really, the way they both stood facing off at each other, angry scowls plastered on their faces.

I turned back to Arturo. "Y-you can't be here." I fiddled nervously with the diploma in my hands. "Why are you here?"

He ran his thumb along the dark stubble of his jaw; something I knew he did when he felt uncomfortable. "I had to see you graduate. I wanted to congratulate you."

"The roses, they were you, weren't they?"

"One hundred and fifty six. One for each week apart."

"I don't know what to say..."

Lucas set Rachie down and pushed her behind him. "Say the word and I'll make him leave."

Arturo's eyes rolled slowly towards Lucas. He looked bored. "I see you brought your guard dog with you." He smirked. "Woof."

"Florence," Lucas warned. He wanted me to say it, to order Arturo away. And I should. I knew, god knows I knew I should. But I couldn't do it.

All this time spent thinking he was dead, that I was never going to see him again. All this time spent thinking he died hating me when he never died at all.

"I want ice cream," Rachie whined nervously, peeking out from behind her Uncle's leg. She could sense that something was off about this situation.

Arturo was still watching me carefully, waiting. His navy eyes were so insistent, so intense, that they were beginning to make me sweat.

I turned to Lucas. "Luke, why don't you take Rachie for ice cream. I'll meet you back here in an hour."

"I'm not leaving you alone with him." I could see Lucas' hand straying beneath his suit jacket where I knew he kept his gun.

Arturo smirked. "Listen to your master and she might give you a bone later."

In one swift motion Lucas drew his gun and pointed it straight at Arturo, who was still beaming from ear to ear.

From behind us, Rachie's terrified scream pierced the air but the two men were too absorbed in their own rivalry to notice. I scooped her up into my arms and tried to placate her, stroking her blonde hair affectionately. "How about we make pancakes when we get back, hmm?" I mumbled quietly to her. She nodded back at me with watery eyes and then buried her head into my shoulder.

Meanwhile, Lucas was shaking with rage, his gun still pointed directly at Arturo whose face was the picture of serenity.

From inside his suit jacket he pulled a cigar and dangled it carefully between his lips.

"Not in front of Rachie," I scorned Arturo.

He shrugged and pulled the unlit cigar from his mouth, then his eyes turned back to Lucas. "Are you going to shoot me, or not?" he sighed. "I don't have all day."

"Lucas," I warned. "Luke, don't." He finally put his gun back in its holster and everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. I handed Rachie back into his arms. "Go and get ice cream. I'll be five minutes."

Lucas looked torn but he eventually nodded and left us alone.

As soon as he was gone, Arturo raised a brow. "Five minutes?"

"At a push."

"Ouch." He put the cigar back between his lips. "So you can bear to be around lover-boy but not me?"

It took me five seconds too long to tear my gaze away from his lips around that damn cigar. I shook my head to clear it. "Lucas just flew over for my graduation."

"As did I."

"You're supposed to be dead!" I shout-whispered as if it was some secret. "I watched you die!"

"The shot wasn't that bad. It missed my internal organs so I survived. I'll show you the scar, if you want."

"I don't care where it is," I snapped.

"Apparently you don't seem to care that I'm alive, either."

"It's not that, of course I do, it's just–" I sighed. "This is a lot, you know. A lot of stuff to process. You are supposed to hate me."

Arturo exhaled a plume of smoke. His eyes fluttered half closed as he did so and I bit down on my lip.

"How about you process it over dinner?"

"Dinner?" I repeated, dumbly. "As in, with you?"

"To celebrate."

I glanced around. Lucas and Rachie had just reached the front of the queue at the ice cream truck. "I...I can't." I shook my head. "Sorry."

"He's already taking you out." It wasn't a question.

"It's not like that." I folded my arms and looked up at the pale blue sky as if it could bale me out of this situation. When my eyes fell back to Arturo he was frowning slightly. "Lucas is just a friend," I insisted. "Seriously."

"Then cancel on him." Arturo was deadly serious, I could see it in his determined expression.

"Cancel on a friend for someone who isn't even that?"

Was that a flash of hurt, or was I imagining things?

"I'm more than that and you know it."

I bit my lip and looked away. This was hard. "Right now, Arturo, you're a stranger."

"Florence, I know you."

"You only know me because you had someone compile a report on me. You know my health records, my education, my family. And you hated me once you found out all of that. But you don't know me."

Arturo let out a heavy breath and threw the end of his cigar with excessive force onto the ground, crushing it into nothing with his shoe. "So this is it, then." His voice had gone back to the emotionless one he used when things got tough.

I couldn't quite meet his gaze. "I'm sorry." I shook my head and squeezed my eyes closed. "I just - I can't go back to that...life. I can't live like that, not again."

"I understand." He turned to go.

"Arturo-" He halted but didn't look back. "I'm glad you're alive."

"Everything okay?" Lucas came to a stand still beside me, an ice cream in one hand and his other cradling Rachie against his hip who was licking her sweet frozen treat with all the enthusiasm of a puppy.

I watched Arturo climb into his car then turned to my friend, offering a tight lipped smile. "Fine."

"Want to share my ice cream? It's mint choc-chip."

I took the cone from his outstretched hand and a real smile curved my lips this time. "You know me so well."

"I got stawby!" Rachie exclaimed, thrusting her pink ice cream into the air. "With sprinkles."

"And a flake," I pointed to the half-melted chocolate stick.

Rachie rolled her eyes. "It's not a flake," she corrected, "it's a unicorn horn!"

"Don't you know anything?" Lucas teased playfully.

"Flo is smarter than you, Uncle Lukie!"

I stuck my tongue out at Lucas and gave his niece a high five. "Yeah, Lukie."

"Alright, alright, no need to gang up on me."

We all climbed into the car, me stowing away my diploma, Lucas fastening Rachie's belt, and Rachie putting her sticky fingers absolutely everywhere on her Uncle's obscenely expensive car that he had insisted on transporting over.

"If you don't put those dirty hands away I'll cut your fingers off," he warned, looking in the rear-view mirror. He was probably only half joking, but Rachie continued her sticky assault with giggles of delight. She knew that Lucas would never do anything to hurt her...half the time he couldn't even bring himself to tell her off.

As we drove away, I stared out of the window and wondered if I had done the right thing. Arturo and I hadn't exactly ended things on good terms. He saw me as nothing more than a rat, someone who had slowly gained his trust only to shatter it. But that wasn't how things were...how they had been. Slowly but surely I had fallen in love with him. I had chosen him. In the end that hadn't been enough. He had been shot, and I had left him there to die.

Three years of thinking he was dead. Three years of hell.

But no matter my feelings towards Arturo, no matter his towards me..I had sworn I would never go back to that life. I couldn't do it; couldn't spend every day wondering when I would next get hurt, or when Arturo would come home with bloodied knuckles.

One of us would end up irreparably damaged, and the hurt that that would cause...

It wasn't worth it.

I had made a promise and I would keep it.

There were already so many that I had broken.