Eight Years Later I No Longer Love You Chapter 04
Adrian came home the next morning.
“That bag by the door. You seriously didn’t wash it?”
He pushed through the door with the kind of edge that only came from a bad night’s sleep. His cuffs were creased.
But he still wore that look. The one that said he was making time to come home and smooth things over.
I was putting the last stack of clothes into a box. The packing tape ripped across the paper with a sharp tearing sound.
That’s when he finally saw the boxes lined up on the floor.
“Willow, that’s enough! You’ve got boxes out now? What, you want me to beg?”
I didn’t answer. I just pressed down hard on the corners of the box, flattening the tape.
Adrian’s chest rose and fell. Something seemed to occur to him, and he unlocked his phone and held it out to me.
“Fine. I don’t have time for this. That bench you used to go on about. I had the 3D team put it in.”
The screen showed an abandoned mineshaft.
In a dim corner sat a rough wooden bench.
In the distance, you could just make out that carefully polished meadow, the light motes settling layer by layer on the wild daisies.
As if he were afraid my wish would dirty her meadow.
He looked at me with the certainty of someone who’d just done something generous.
“The team wanted to put it in the middle of the meadow. Sophie said it was too jarring, and I agreed, so I had them move it to the mineshaft.”
“Look, I met you halfway. Let’s just drop it. After the show I’ll take you somewhere nice.”
I didn’t stop what I was doing.
“Don’t bother. That’s not the bench I asked for. That’s a patch you threw at me.”
Adrian’s hand stayed suspended in midair.
“What did you say?”
I pushed the box against the wall, looked up at him, and repeated it.
“Don’t bother.”
He paused a moment, then snatched up the garment bag, his voice harder than before.
“PAX press event is tomorrow. Your +1 GUEST lanyard is set aside.”
I watched him change his shoes.
“Adrian, what day is it today?”
His hands slowed. Then he yanked his laces impatiently.
“The day before the show! Can you please stop trying to make yourself the center of attention right now?”
I nodded.
“Got it.”
I hadn’t been trying to remind him about the anniversary.
I just wanted to see if there had been even one day, in all these years, that he had kept me in his head.
Adrian grabbed the bag and started for the door. Before he stepped out, he glanced back at me.
“Figure yourself out tonight. Don’t let me come home to these boxes still sitting here.”
The door shut. The apartment went quiet again.
I looked at the boxes on the floor and zipped up my one and only suitcase.
Then I set the house keys, the promise ring’s box, and that +1 GUEST press lanyard, all in a neat row, on the most visible spot of the entryway console.
Once that was done, I walked over to the laptop.
I opened the backend account page.
User ID #001, Willow Hayes.
A confirmation box popped up.
【This account cannot be recovered once deleted. Confirm?】
I clicked confirm.
…
Across town, Adrian stood under the venue lights, head bent over the meadow concept art Sophie had just handed him.
His assistant, Marcus Reid, glanced at a notification that had just popped up on his laptop, and his face went tight.
He leaned in close to Adrian’s ear and lowered his voice.
“Adrian. Willow’s account. She deleted it.”
Adrian clicked the cap back onto his pen. Thought for a moment.
“The show comes first. Everything else waits.”
…
The Uber pulled up downstairs.
I loaded my suitcase into the trunk, and took one last look at the building I’d lived in for eight years.
Then I left the work group chat, and blocked every one of Adrian’s contact channels.
The driver asked me, “Miss, to the airport?”
I closed the door.
“To the airport.”
Outside the window, the lights of Seattle slid past me, one by one.
I didn’t look back.
—