I didn't bother to look at her expression as it darkened. Instead, I walked straight into the bedroom and locked the door.
Later that night, still half-asleep, I faintly heard a door slam outside, loud enough to echo through the apartment. I drifted back to sleep without checking.
The next morning, Arianne was gone.
At the office, Wanda spotted me almost immediately and tugged me aside with a secretive look.
“Clyde, didn’t you say you’re going to France?”
“Yeah.”
“What a coincidence. My niece is flying out around the same time. You two should travel together.”
I opened my mouth to refuse, but Wanda brushed off my hesitation before I could even speak.
“She’s a travel blogger. Her itineraries are amazing. If she takes the lead, you’ll save yourself a ton of planning.”
She was already pulling out her phone as she added, “Great, it’s settled. I’ll send her your WhatsApp.”
I hesitated, but ultimately, the idea pulled me in. I had been overwhelmed trying to plan the trip on my own, and after years of not traveling, even the excitement felt unfamiliar.
That afternoon, I took leave to attend the anniversary celebration at my alma mater.
In front of the library, a lively group of students was laughing and taking photos. At the center stood a cheerful-looking boy, his arm loosely around a girl in a white dress.
The two of them looked striking in the sunlight.
“Kiss! Kiss! We need it for the campus couple wall.”
The boy shyly laughed and leaned in, gathering his courage. The sunlight cast itself over them, awakening a distant, old memory of youth.
“Huh? Isn’t that Arianne? Our year’s campus belle. Damn, she is really robbing the cradle now.”
The classmate beside me said it a little too loudly.
Arianne’s head snapped in our direction.
Our eyes met, and panic flickered across her face.
She instinctively pushed Hudson away and started to walk toward me, but he grabbed her arm firmly. He said something I could not hear, and she hesitated, lowering her gaze.
My phone buzzed. It's Arianne's text.
[Don’t get the wrong idea. They were just messing around, and I didn’t want to kill the mood.]
I didn’t even bother giving her the bare minimum “okay.”
Soon after, I followed the group to the café we used to visit, listening to the familiar chatter all around me.
“Clyde, what is your situation now?”
I lifted my coffee and answered calmly, “Single.”
Someone leaned in with interest, clearly ready to stir the pot.
“You should take a page out of Arianne’s book. If a relationship doesn’t work out, go find yourself a younger guy. Look at her and her new boyfriend. They actually look pretty good together.”
I smiled lightly. “Yeah. Talented man, beautiful woman. Very well matched.”
As the words left my mouth, the entire table fell silent. Their gazes shifted past my shoulder, toward something behind me.
Arianne had come in at some point.
I had no idea how long she had been standing there, but her expression was already dark.
“Clyde, come outside with me.”
The absurdity of it hit me all at once.
We had been dating for 6 years, but she never acknowledged me in her social circles. One year, her company’s annual celebration gave the family a chance to attend. I dressed in a suit, eager to surprise her, only to be introduced as 'a college classmate' to her coworkers.
And now, when I was giving her exactly what she always seemed to want, she was angry?
“Arianne, can I help you? We’re having a reunion. Probably not the best time.”
She opened her mouth, ready to argue, but a voice called from behind her.
“Arianne, everyone’s waiting for you.”
Hudson Myers.
Arianne took a deep breath, shot me a glare sharp enough to cut glass, and finally let him pull her away.
Later that evening, once the anniversary event wrapped up, I said goodbye to my classmates at the school gate. I had just reached for my phone to call a cab when a familiar car slowed to a stop beside me.
The window rolled down, revealing Arianne’s tense profile.
“Get in.”
After such a long day, I didn’t have the energy to argue on the sidewalk. I quietly opened the door and got in.
The car settled into a heavy silence.
Back then, I would have forced conversation, desperate to smooth things over, only for her to sigh and snap, “Clyde, can’t you be quiet for one minute?”
Tonight, I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the campus forum, casually looking over the couple of photos of her and Hudson that had been uploaded recently.
