3: 3
At the end of the day, Godfrey stopped me on the way out.
"Ms. Dudley, dinner together?"
It caught me off guard.
He explained, "A new Japanese place opened up nearby, good reviews. Not much fun going alone."
I thought about it, then said yes.
The restaurant was quiet and calm.
We talked while we ate, from work to life, and the mood was easy.
After dinner, Godfrey drove me home.
When we reached my building, he spoke up out of nowhere. "Fiona. Can I call you that?"
I froze for a second, then nodded.
"I can tell something's weighing on you," he said, looking at me. "If you don't mind, you can treat me like a place to let it out."
His eyes were sincere, without a trace of prying.
I was quiet for a moment, then shook my head anyway.
"It's all in the past."
"Good, then." He didn't press. "Get some rest."
Watching him drive off, something felt off inside me.
Godfrey's arrival was like a breath of spring, stirring ripples across the dead water of my heart.
But I didn't dare get too close.
I was afraid.
That weekend, Sandra asked me to go shopping.
We wandered into a menswear store, and she pulled me inside.
"Picking out something for your Mr. Gilbert?" She waggled her eyebrows.
"Don't be ridiculous, we're just coworkers."
"Coworkers who bring you breakfast every day and drive you home?" Sandra wore a look that said she wasn't buying a word of it.
I gave up. "It's just on the way."
"Right, right, on the way."
We were still talking when a familiar figure came into view.
Sybilla.
She had her arm looped through a middle-aged man's, close and intimate.
I knew the man. A well-known businessman in our circle, last name Lambert, already bald.
Sybilla saw me too. Her face changed, and she let go of the man's arm on reflex.
I pretended not to see and pulled Sandra toward the exit.
"Fee!" But Sybilla called out to me.
She hurried over, an awkward smile on her face.
"What a coincidence, you're shopping too."
"No coincidence," I said flatly. "I just don't want to see you."
Her face went pale, and she bit her lip.
"Fee, I know you're still angry with me. Ferris and I... there was really nothing between us."
"Whether there was or wasn't has nothing to do with me," I said, looking at her. "You don't need to explain anything to me."
"I..."
"Bella." Old Lambert walked over and slid an impatient arm around her waist. "Why waste your breath on her, we still have jewelry to look at."
Sybilla's expression grew even more strained.
I couldn't be bothered to watch the farce any longer and left, pulling Sandra with me.
Only once we were out of the mall did Sandra let out a world-shaking gasp.
"Holy crap! How did Sybilla end up with that old bachelor Lambert? Wasn't she with Ferris?"
I was baffled too.
"So where's Ferris?" Sandra asked.
Right. Where was Ferris?
The man who kept insisting he could only breathe when he was with Sybilla, where was he now?
Had Sybilla already found herself a new "ventilator" this fast?
The answer came soon enough.
A few days later, I unexpectedly ran into Ferris outside my office building.
He looked even more wrecked than last time, unshaven, the light in his eyes gone out completely.
He blocked my path, his voice badly hoarse.
"Fee, Sybilla... she's with someone else now."
I kept my face blank. "And?"
"She lied to me!" His eyes were rimmed red, like a child whose candy had been stolen. "She said she'd wait for me, she said she loved me!"
"Then you should go find her, not come to me."
"I did! She won't take my calls, she blocked me!" He grabbed my arm, his grip frighteningly strong. "She said I have no money, that I can't give her the life she wants!"
I wrenched my arm free.
"Ferris, this is between you and her. Don't come bothering me."
"Fee, I know I was wrong." He suddenly seized my hand and dropped down on one knee.
People passing by turned to stare at us.
I felt nothing but unbearable humiliation.
"Get up!"
"I won't get up until you forgive me!" He tilted his face up, his eyes full of pleading. "Let's start over, all right? This time I'll treat you right, I'll never let you suffer any wr—"
"Ferris!" I cut him off, my voice shaking with anger I couldn't hold down. "Do you really think we could ever go back?"
"We can! We definitely can!"
"You used 'sleepwalking' to lie to me for four years. While I was worried sick over you, you were catching your breath in another woman's arms. Now that woman doesn't want you, so you want to come crawling back to me?"
My words were like a knife, driven hard into his chest.
His face went ashen. He couldn't get out a single word.
"It's not me you miss. It's the trash can you could throw away whenever you liked, and pick back up whenever you wanted."
