His Promise Failed When I Found Out Who He Was Sleeping With Chapter 10

His Promise Failed When I Found Out Who He Was Sleeping With Chapter 10

He stayed at the same hotel. The room next to mine.

He couldn’t sleep. Paced outside my door all night.

Finally, I got sick of it. Opened the door.

He dropped to his knees. Begged me between sobs.

“Please. Please give me one more chance.”

“I’ll give you anything you want. Do anything you ask.”

“I just want to make it right. Don’t let eight years end like this.”

I smiled. Used his own words against him.

“Grow up, Derek.”

“You won’t die without me, will you?”

Before he could answer, I said, “But I’ll live without you.”

He froze. Watched me close the door.

The next morning, he waited in the lobby.

The front desk told him I’d already checked out.

And left something for him.

A photo album. My favorite pattern on the cover.

He opened the first page and stopped breathing.

Our first date. Me in a white dress. Him in a plaid shirt. Standing on the rocks by the ocean. Smiling like idiots.

He didn’t even remember when we took it.

He kept flipping.

All the little moments of us.

Us in that leaky apartment. Him cooking. Me taking a picture.

The lopsided snowman we built together.

Under every photo, my handwriting.

[This is the first meal Derek ever cooked for me. He put too much salt in it. I ate it anyway.]

[This was the year it snowed like crazy. He said he was going to build me the ugliest snowman in the world. It really was ugly.]

He got to the last page.

A letter.

[I spent eight years loving you. Three years hating you. And three months letting you go.]

[Derek, I don’t blame you anymore. And I’m not waiting for you anymore.]

[After today, let’s pretend we never knew each other.]

At the end of the album, one last picture.

Me in Northpine Island. Standing under a sky full of stars.

Wearing my favorite dress. Smiling.

A real smile. The kind I hadn’t had in a long, long time.

Derek held the album to his chest. And finally cried.

He cried until his voice gave out. Until his eyes swelled shut. Until there were no tears left.

He knew. He deserved this.

The girl who stayed with him through everything finally learned how to be happy.

But there was no room for him in that happiness.