“I just want to ask you one thing. Do you still want to marry me?”
My voice was thick and nasal when I asked him.
“Elaine, are you crying?”
Raymond went straight into a panic.
“I'm still overseas right now, setting up a project.”
“Wait for me. Two days at the most, and I'll fly home to you.”
I gave a small laugh.
“Okay.”
After I hung up, I looked up again, just in time to see Isabel tucking a half-folded umbrella into a suitcase.
“Leave it, I'll do it.”
Tyler walked over on his own, folded it away for her without a second thought, and zipped the suitcase shut.
“Don't worry about me, go comfort Elaine.”
Isabel noticed me standing there in silence, and did her best to signal him with her eyes.
“She couldn't come abroad with you in the first place, she's already upset. She's your girlfriend.”
Tyler gave me a cool glance.
“It's fine. Elaine handles pressure well, she'll get over it on her own.”
Hearing that, I laughed.
I wiped my tears, turned around, hailed a ride, and went home to pack.
I was just hauling my bags, big and small, out the door for shipping when the door was pushed open.
Tyler froze.
Then he came over, frowning, and said to me,
“Didn't I already tell you? I'm not letting you come abroad with me.”
“You've got a good job here at home.”
“You can't give up everything you have just because I'm your boyfriend. That isn't fair to you.”
“And it's a lot of pressure on me too.”
I stopped packing, straightened up, and looked at Tyler.
“I'm not going abroad with you.”
He stared at me, thrown.
“Then what are you packing for?”
I scoffed.
“Clearing things out. When something's no longer needed, you throw it out.”
“I don't buy it.”
Tyler frowned, walked over, and picked out the shirt from my suitcase that I wore most often.
“This is your favorite. How could you bear to throw it out?”
He sighed, at a loss.
“Elaine, can you not be like this?”
“I told you, not letting you come abroad with me is for your own good.”
“This job of yours pays well, your parents are here at home. Running that far away for me, is it worth it?”
Tyler had always been gentle with me before. Even the time I accidentally spilled coffee on his laptop,
he had only smiled, indulgent, and said, “Leave it to me, I'll take care of it.”
It was only about coming abroad with him.
On that, he pushed back hard.
I looked at Tyler.
“Then tell me. Why is Isabel going to the exact same country as you?”
Tyler froze for a second, then lifted his eyes to me.
“It's just a coincidence.”
“She……she has her own plans, and it just happens to be the same country I chose.”
“With her major, the schools over there are good, going will really help her.”
I laughed.
“Her plans just happened to land on the country you're going to?”
“Just happened to be the same city?”
“Just happened to book the same flight?”
“Tyler, do you believe that yourself?”
Tyler didn't argue back, he only stared at me quietly, a flicker of impatience passing through his eyes.
“Elaine, Isabel and I are just friends.”
“Besides, weren't you the one who introduced her to me in the first place?”
“She's your best friend, so I looked out for her a little more, that's all.”
“We get along, we think alike.”
“But that doesn't mean anything.”
“If you insist on fixating on this, there's nothing I can do about it.”
