I did not head over to the new place Hayden arranged for me, and instead returned to the old neighborhood I lived in before I married him. As I breathed in the familiar scent of my past, I found myself reminiscing on the days when I first met Hayden.
I'd been an orphan since I was young, and a lady I'd never met remotely sponsored my upkeep. When she found out I'd moved into the abode she'd bought in an old neighborhood and successfully got into college, she cut off all contact with me.
One winter, Hayden and his family happened to move into the unit below mine. He'd loved coming up to my place and seeking out my company.
When he found out I loved roasted chestnuts, he'd show up outside my door with a paper bag of piping hot, roasted chestnuts and knock on the metal grille until it rattled. I'd open the door and see his bright smile behind the subtle steam from the chestnuts.
Hayden would squeeze past me through the door and peel a chestnut. After that, he'd blow on it to cool it. "Here, have one. Careful, though, it's hot."
An intense roaring had filled my head as I ate the chestnut right out of his hand. It wasn't until he realized how intimate the gesture was that his face turned crimson.
After that, I attended college in the northern region, while Hayden attended college in the southern region. We lived on two polar ends, but he'd wait for me with a paper bag of roasted chestnuts on the first day of winter without fail.
He hadn't complained as he peeled the chestnuts for me and blew on them to cool them off.
It was only natural that we started dating. Later, we got married. He successfully set up a business and moved us into a villa, but he stopped buying me roasted chestnuts in wintertime. Instead, he'd wondered aloud, "Aren't you sick of chestnuts after having them for years?"
I believed he truly loved me at first, but the human heart was a fickle thing.
The sharp ping from my phone pulled me out of my thoughts. I stared at the picture Lola sent me. Her slender shoulder was exposed, and Hayden's head was buried in the crook between her neck and shoulder. Her fair hand gripped his back, and her eyes were half-lidded in pleasure.
I didn't have to be a genius to know what they were up to.
I hurtled into the bathroom and dry-heaved for what felt like ages. I blocked Lola's contact right after I recovered from my retching.
Just then, an animated GIF of a tail-wagging pup popped up on my phone, followed by a text from Julian Langley. "What are you up to? I miss you."
Julian was my seatmate in high school. I'd gotten into the prestigious high school with barely passing grades, and the teacher implemented a study buddy system at the beginning of the school year.
Julian was my buddy. He had a pair of alluring eyes and a defined jawline. He'd given me such a hard, unwelcoming look that a chill ran up my spine, causing me to shrink away from him instinctively.
For a long while, we didn't speak. On our break between classes, the idea of sneaking past him while he was napping freaked me out so much that I decided to climb out the window just to get to the water cooler.
It was my first time climbing out a window, and I'd unceremoniously fallen flat on my butt.
"Pft!" I heard someone sputtering overhead, only to look up and see Julian leaning against the window ledge, grinning at me.
Embarrassed and emboldened by anger, I'd demanded, "When did you wake up?"
"When you struggled to get on the window ledge. I wondered if you'd fall, and it looks like my gut feeling was right," Julian drawled, though his smile deepened as he tipped his head to the side and shrugged.
I froze. Suddenly, my seatmate didn't seem so intimidating.
I started asking him questions about schoolwork after that, and he'd patiently guide me. On the day he realized I was a lost cause, he got me a set of practice tests.
I'd shot him a baffled look.
He explained, "Go through these. Come to me if you can't work out the answer."
Whenever I thought Julian had it hard tutoring me, I'd buy him a latte. This went on until the year we were streamlined into different classes. It was par for the course that he got into the advanced placement class. Before we parted ways, he asked for my number.
But Julian didn't text me after that. It wasn't until a week earlier that he reached out to me again, asking, "How have you been recently?"
I'd cried myself stupid after my divorce from Hayden was finalized. In my sadness and daze, I'd hit the call button.
Julian listened to me sob my heart out for half an hour, and not once did he interrupt me. He'd somehow put together my broken words and understood that I was freshly divorced. Then came Lola's harassment.
Julian texted me, "Will you marry me?"
Listening to the lively chatter and laughter outside, I cut a look at the man with the unfamiliar smile who sat nearby with his legs crossed.
I replied, "Okay."
