In the end, I never got to see Tyler. I only received a phone call from him as I was saying goodbye to his friends.
"What are you doing here?"
Over the phone, his tone was nothing like the gentle one I was used to. Instead, he sounded almost frantic as he demanded an explanation.
His shout left me stunned. The joy and anticipation I'd built up along the way instantly turned into a painful knot in my throat.
My throat felt tight as I said, "I missed you."
Tyler was silent for a moment. He then spoke in a tone that was as gentle as it had once been. "Rose, I'm not there right now. Go home for now. After I finish up here, I'll come back to see you, okay? Just do what I say."
For some reason, I suddenly felt a wave of grievance. I didn't ask why he had yelled at me like that in the beginning. I merely cried, asking, "Tyler, which city are you in? Can I see you? I want to see you right now."
The other end of the line fell silent again. Finally, he asked, "Are you sure?"
After I gave him a definite answer, he booked a flight ticket for me. "Call me when you land. I'll come pick you up."
With that, he hung up. The screen was still showing our chat interface.
His last message was from a week ago, at 3:00 am. Tyler had said, "I just got out of class. I'm so tired. I miss you so much. I want to kiss you so badly, babe…"
The next thing I knew, I was on a plane again. It was an eight-hour flight from where I was to his city.
And during those eight hours when I was cut off from the world, he confessed everything. He told me that he'd had a girlfriend the whole time, and her family was well-off.
They had already met each other's parents and agreed to get engaged as soon as Tyler graduated.
In the chat interface, Tyler admitted he had been deceiving me all along. He said he was a bad person, a scumbag, and that he had failed me.
But since all the fault lay with him, he begged me not to go looking for his girlfriend.
"Rose, both you and she are wonderful women. This is all my fault. I hurt you. So please don't go looking for my girlfriend. Don't let her know about any of this. I don't want to upset her."
Standing in the bustling airport, I couldn't stop my hand from shaking as I held my phone. As I stared at the word "girlfriend", I cried so hard that I could barely breathe.
If she were his girlfriend, then what was I?
What did that make me? We were together for five whole years. How could everything change so suddenly?
I sat outside the airport until night fell, until my tears finally ran dry. Then I sent Tyler a message. "Do you have time now? Let's talk."
A long while later, he replied, "How about a little later? She's on her period. I need to stay with her."
My heart ached all over again.
I wanted to cry, but there were simply no tears left. My hands shook as I texted, "Okay."
The moment I hit send, it felt as though something inside me shattered completely.
We met at a restaurant. He repeated everything he had texted me earlier that day.
All I could do was cry. With tears in my eyes, I told him that he had wronged me and called him inhumane.
As Tyler spoke, he sounded a little irritated, as if my crying had gotten on his nerves. "I thought we were just fooling around. Who knew you would take things so seriously?
"After what you did for me back then, I had always thought that you were a strong woman. Do you really have to be this desperate for love, Rosemary?"
My broken, tearful accusations came to an abrupt halt. I stared at him in shock for a long time, then I slapped him.
