Eight Years Later I No Longer Love You Chapter 02
Once it was all done, I let out a long breath.
I closed the laptop and started going through the cabinets.
First, the years of handwritten test notes.
Then the old books.
I stacked them one by one and packed them into a moving box lined with foam.
The couch in the living room. The one we’d tracked through three different West Elm stores to find.
Out on the balcony, a half-built LEGO Mech still stood there.
We’d worked on it for six months. He built the head. I built the body. Then a version deadline hit, and the remaining arm never got attached.
I didn’t touch any of it.
My phone buzzed. An iMessage from Adrian.
【Willow, did you not test last night’s bug?】
I glanced at it, didn’t reply, and kept packing.
I didn’t have much.
In eight years, holding down the two of us financially, I had barely bought a single piece of clothing for myself.
But the holes in his projects, I’d lost count of how many times I’d filled those in.
All of it was about to become past tense.
The phone started vibrating like it was possessed. Adrian was calling.
The second I picked up, he blew up on the other end.
“Are you done playing around? You pick now to bail on me?”
Keyboards were clattering wildly in the background. I could faintly hear someone shouting about an error.
I didn’t say a word. I dropped the last old book into the box and slowly zipped it shut.
“Are you even listening?”
“Yes.”
I said it flatly.
He must have taken that as me caving, because his voice came back harder, in that tone that left no room for argument.
“Drop whatever you’re doing and get over here. Clear these bugs. Sophie’s been running tests, but she doesn’t know the codebase like you do.”
Sophie’s soft voice drifted through from the other side.
“Adrian, don’t yell at her. I’m slower, that’s fine. Worst case, I just don’t sleep tonight.”
Sophie. The Little Fox.
Adrian went quiet for a second, and when he spoke again, his voice had noticeably loosened.
“She’s the one who actually knows this piece. Who else is going to run it?”
I looked at the keys hanging by the entryway, and it hit me how absurd the whole thing was. Like a bad joke.
Eight years.
Chasing clients and hitting quotas at my own company by day, then coming home to sit up with him through version after version.
And in his eyes, all of it had become something I simply owed him.
“Adrian.”
I finally spoke.
“I ran those tests because I wanted to.”
Before I could finish, Adrian was already shouting again.
“Willow, we are one step away from launch. And you’re picking this moment to hash it out with me?”
On the other end, Sophie chimed in again.
“Please don’t take it the wrong way. I really do just want to pull more weight for the studio.”
Adrian cut her off, irritated.
“This has nothing to do with you. She’s like this. Give her a couple of days and she’ll come around.”
“If she won’t come, I’ll fix it myself.”
Click. He hung up.
I let out a small laugh.
I slipped off the promise ring I’d worn on my ring finger for five years and placed it in the little box in my drawer.
The second it left my finger, it left behind a faint pale band on my skin.
Turns out, some things hurt to take off, once you’ve worn them long enough.
Adrian. I’m out of your world now.
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