Just over a year into our relationship, we decided to get engaged and planned to marry at the end of the year.
"You love France, don’t you? Let’s go there for our honeymoon," Freddy had said, his eyes brimming with love and tenderness.
I genuinely believed we were fated to be together. I could not wait for the end of the year to come and at that time I would be Freddy's bride. That was until a month ago, when Rose returned to the country and at that time, my dream began to crack.
Rose was Freddy's classmate at the university, or at least that was what he told me. When we met for the first time and ate dinner together, Rose took the opportunity to wait until Jeremy stepped away to pay the bill before leaning closer to me.
"Back then, I wanted to study abroad after graduation but Freddy decided that he wanted to take a job offer and work right away. I was so angry with his decision. I thought he was wasting his talent so without much thinking I broke up with him," Rose said. Her voice filled with nostalgia.
"Actually, as soon as the word came out of my mouth, I regretted it ... I also knew that he also felt remorse about it. His friend told me he buried himself in work after our breakup and took on project after project. He nearly worked himself to exhaustion. I’m so glad he had you to take care of him later ...."
Suddenly as if she had just realized who she had been talking to she stammered, "Oh … dear, I shouldn’t have brought up the past! Don't take my word to your heart, Sarah. Freddy is a wonderful guy. You two will be happy together."
It was at the exact moment, Freddy had paid the bill and returned to the table. Taking the opportunity, Rose jumped to her feet, grabbed Freddy's arm and pressed him into the seat beside me. Then she said with affection, "Freddy, you took forever to get here! I was just reminiscing with Sarah about all the fun times we had at our university back then."
I could not help but be amazed by Freddy's expression. It seemed the man did not realize the closeness between him and Rose would be deemed ambiguous. Instead, his expression softened with memories and his eyes filled with tenderness and love toward her.
Though Rose stayed silent after that, she simply smiled and looked at me.
I did not know how I managed to keep my composure. Her proud and condescending glance made me feel the two years Freddy and I together were nothing more than fanciful delusion on my part.
What hurt me the most was his attitude. Freddy admitted that he and Rose had a romantic relationship at the university for a while but he dismissed my concerns.
"We parted ways a long time ago! Is there any reason for you to dwell on this? Rose is an exceptional LLM algorithm engineer with many talents and ideas. We are bound to cross paths a lot in our work in the future, so I can't possibly cut ties with a future star of the industry like her just because of some past feeling!" Freddy was obviously annoyed. "You don’t understand our industry. Unlike making cakes, we thrive on intellectual collaboration. We need to exchange ideas and collaborate to generate creative new ideas."
Then he added, “Besides, Rose isn’t the type of woman who gets distracted by emotions like you think she is."
I didn’t know how to respond. I had always admired his intellect and his ability to speak about complex topics that left me in awe. However, at that moment, those same qualities turned into a sharp sword that stabbed me with cold reality.
Maybe he and Rose truly belonged together while I was just a bystander watching the spark of ideas fly between the same-minded individuals.
The next morning, Freddy came to my house. This was the first time, he actually brought my favorite food, beef sandwiches.
In our relationship, I was the one who always paid attention to him and took care of his meals and drinks. Worried that he would starve himself and have a stomachache, since he tended to forget to eat or sleep when he was working, I often gave him some food on a regular basis.
Every time I did this, he would beam at me with gratefulness and tenderness and say, "Sarah, meeting you that night in your dessert shop was the luckiest moment of my life!"
