Chapter 40: MANCINI

I had way too much time to think, on the almost twenty hour flight to South East Asia. In between strategizing my play once I land, my mind was filled with the night before, and the woman who seems to have wormed her way into my heart, in such a short time.

I called to mind all the stories my brothers told me about their relationships with the women they'd married. The fact that they pretty much knew the jig was up from day one, and how I'd deflected that as bullshit.

I was only now learning the truth of their words. Back then; I didn't think it possible for one human being to have that kind of hold on me. Now here I was missing her already and we hadn't even had that much time together. I knew she played this heavily on my mind, because the bond hadn't been forged, not completely.

That's the reason I now felt bereft, set adrift somehow, like I was missing a fucking limb. If she could make me feel this way after only one night, I couldn't imagine what a lifeti