I didn't reply. Instead, another memory surfaced.
A long time ago.
Because Isabel was my best friend, Tyler had kept his distance from her.
Isabel felt slighted by it, and once, eyes red, she chased after him and demanded an answer.
"What did I ever do to you? You hate me so much you avoid me at every turn."
Tyler caught her sleeve, carefully.
"I don't hate you."
He pinned her into the corner against the wall.
"I… I just wanted to see less of you. Otherwise, I can't control myself."
He reminded himself he had a girlfriend.
But he had fallen for her anyway.
"This time, I'll go abroad with you. I promise."
"Once we're seeing each other less often—"
"Elaine won't have so much time to make trouble."
"Wherever you want to travel, I'll take you. All right?"
I leaned back against the corner of the wall and listened, quietly, to all of it. The vows. The confessions poured out to each other.
Tears slid down my face.
I wanted nothing more than to charge over and demand to know—
why, when he'd clearly fallen for Isabel,
he still wanted to stay with me.
But this time, let me be the one to end all of it.
Tyler still messaged me every day. Good morning, good afternoon, good night.
I never replied. Not once.
Until the next day.
Isabel messaged first, inviting me to a meal.
"Elaine, you're my best friend. I don't want any misunderstanding between us."
"Tomorrow, Tyler and I are leaving for overseas together."
"We'll be back in two years, but until then it'll be hard to see each other."
"Let it go, okay? Let's go out and eat together."
I told myself some things really did need to be said out loud.
So I agreed to go.
Isabel's delight and excitement spilled out right through the screen.
"That's wonderful. I knew you'd say yes. I'm going to order all your favorite dishes right now!"
But when I got to the private room, I found they'd started long ago.
The table held nothing but a pile of cold, picked-over scraps.
"Didn't we agree you'd wait for me? Why did you start without me?"
Tyler lifted his eyes, glanced at his watch, and said flatly.
"Didn't you say you'd be here in half an hour? You were half an hour late."
"How is that anyone else's fault?"
Isabel played along beside him with a laugh, sliding another plate of pasta toward me.
"It's all Tyler's fault. He acted like a starving man reborn and insisted on eating first."
"I already gave him a good scolding on your behalf."
"I saved this plate specially for you. I know it's your favorite, so nobody touched it."
Looking at that plate of pasta, I lost my appetite in an instant.
It hadn't been touched because Isabel didn't like pasta, that was all.
Maybe she noticed my silence.
Isabel started up a new topic, testing the water with the question.
"Elaine, tomorrow Tyler and I leave from the airport. You'll come see us off, won't you?"
Every other time they went on a trip together, off to some other city to run experiments,
I'd trailed along eagerly behind them to see them off.
Every time, I wished them a safe journey.
And waited for them to come home safe.
But this time, I shook my head.
"I'm not sure I'll be free."
Because that day, as it happened, was my wedding to Raymond.
Tyler let out a cold laugh.
"You help out at your dad's company. You clock in and that's it. You don't even show up for work, and you still get paid."
"How busy could you possibly be? And you're 'not sure' you'll be free?"
"If you don't come, don't come crying to me with regrets later."
As he said it, he and Isabel exchanged a smile.
The look, the expression, as if they were humoring a child.
But Tyler.
I really won't be seeing you off.
Early the next morning.
Tyler and Isabel waited at the airport. It was the fifth time they'd looked up toward the doors.
"What's going on? Elaine's still not here."
"She isn't skipping our send-off today, is she?"
"How could she?"
Tyler shut it down without a shred of doubt.
"She's never once missed seeing us off. She won't miss this trip abroad either."
"Maybe she just hit traffic and got held up."
But right then—
Isabel idly opened her social media feed, and the next second her eyes went wide with shock.
"Tyler, quick, look—look!"
"How can today be Elaine's wedding?!"
"Who… who is she marrying?"
