Eight Years Later I No Longer Love You Chapter 07
When Marcus pushed the door open, Adrian was still staring at that document. The cursor sat on the words *buy flowers, watch the moon*.
“Adrian, Sophie updated the scene. Please take a look.”
His voice was gentle.
Adrian finally snapped out of it and opened the window.
The next second, his face changed.
“Who authorized her to add SW to that scene?”
- Sophie Whitman’s initials.
“She…”
Marcus didn’t get to finish. Adrian grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair and strode out the door.
In the testing area, Sophie was leaning against her desk.
Her voice was pitched just soft enough for the people around her to hear.
“I don’t know what Willow was thinking. Walking away at the most crucial moment of the project. Everyone’s paying for it.”
Someone coughed awkwardly.
Sophie didn’t notice. Her fingertips brushed the silver fox pendant at her throat, and she added one more thing.
“Adrian’s exhausted lately. If she really loved him, she wouldn’t be this selfish.”
Adrian stopped behind her.
The keyboards around them slowly went quiet.
Sophie turned and saw him. The hurt look on her face hadn’t had time to disappear, and she switched instantly to sweet and docile.
“Adrian, I didn’t mean anything by it. I just feel bad for you.”
Adrian looked at the milk tea in her hand, then at the shooting star meadow up on her monitor.
His fingertips landed on the edge of her desk, pinning down the design sheet she was flipping through.
“Willow was helping. She never took a cent from this studio. What gives you the right to have opinions about her?”
“Effective today, your special-access privileges are revoked.”
Sophie’s smile stalled out.
“Adrian?”
Someone nearby glanced up, and quickly looked back down.
Adrian kept going.
“Rebuild the meadow scene. Carve WLH in the most visible spot. Redesign the fox character as a firefly sprite.”
WLH. Willow Lynn Hayes’s initials.
Sophie’s face changed completely. She wasn’t even calling him Adrian anymore.
“Mr. Cole…”
Before she could finish, Adrian cut her off.
“That’s the call.”
Sophie stood there, frozen. The hot drink in her cup sloshed over onto the back of her hand.
Adrian turned and walked into his office, like a man who had just made up his mind about something.
He said to Marcus, “Push all business meetings. Anything that can’t be pushed, delay.”
Marcus’s mouth fell open.
“Adrian. Are you sure?”
Adrian didn’t hesitate.
“There’s something more important I have to do.”
Marcus went quiet for a beat, then turned to make the arrangements.
Looking at those letters on the screen, Adrian pulled a few sheets of blank paper from a nearby folder and picked up a pen.
He wrote down every American city he could think of.
Portland. San Francisco. Denver. Austin. Nashville.
Behind each one, he drew a circle. Waiting to fill in the answer with his own hand.
Looking at all those city names on the page, for the first time, he felt just a little bit closer to her.
…
At the cottage by Lake Tahoe, my days were quiet and easy.
Wind rolled in through the garden gate, carrying the scent of lilac and the freshness of chamomile.
Mrs. Doyle called out from beyond the wall.
“Willow, the moon’s beautiful tonight. Come out and see.”
I put down the book in my hands and answered her, smiling.
“Coming.”
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