He Said I Was Slow to Commit While He Was Slow to Tell Me About Her Chapter 03

He Said I Was Slow to Commit While He Was Slow to Tell Me About Her Chapter 03

The next morning, I woke to a cold space beside me.

Garrett was already gone.

A pot of oatmeal sat warm on the stove. A sticky note was tucked beneath the lid.

[Oatmeal’s on the stove. Fried egg on the plate. It’s colder today, so wear your scarf.]

On my way out, I glanced at the shoe rack.

The sneakers Stella had given him for his birthday four years ago were gone.

A clean outline marked the empty space beside the other shoes.

He had worn those sneakers for four years.

That was Garrett. Wherever he chose to stand, he planted himself firmly.

Except in the one place I thought he had chosen for good.

There, he had moved without making a sound.

The subway was packed.

I leaned against the door, and my phone buzzed once.

Stella had sent me a location pin.

A cafe on the south side, one we used to go to in college.

[2:00 p.m. Work for you?]

[Sure.]

I put my phone away and looked at my reflection in the dark window.

Eight years ago, when Garrett went down on one knee in the middle of the quad, I had worn the same expression.

Blank. Frozen. Completely unprepared.

He stayed on one knee for almost thirty seconds before I finally bent down to pull him up.

He caught my hand, slid the ring on, and said, “If you don’t answer soon, my leg’s going numb.”

Everyone laughed.

So did I.

Back then, I thought that was the rest of my life.

No matter who rushed and who hesitated, it would always end with the two of us.

…

At lunch, a coworker asked if I wanted to grab food.

I said I was meeting someone and left with my bag.

I did not go straight to the cafe.

I took a detour to Garrett’s office.

The receptionist recognized me and smiled.

“Here to see Mr. Hollis?”

“I’ll head up myself.”

I reached his office and lifted my hand to knock.

Then I heard his assistant speaking inside.

“Mr. Hollis, everything is set for this afternoon. The hotel is booked, and a car will pick up your parents at three. As for Ms. Marsh…”

“I’ll get her myself.”

The assistant moved on to another topic.

I stood outside the door for two seconds, then turned around.

He had not planned to include me.

Fine.

It was not as if I needed to be there.

I had met his parents more times than I could count. We had discussed wedding dates for years.

And still, nothing had happened.

The cafe was a twenty-minute walk away.

I took my time.

When I passed a flower shop, I stopped.

A bouquet of white roses sat in the window, water still clinging to the petals.

Garrett had always been impatient and stubborn.

He started bringing me flowers in high school because he was convinced someone else would steal me away.

He kept it up for more than ten years.

Then Stella moved abroad four years ago, and the flowers stopped.

I did not know whether the two things were connected.

I only knew that something in him had changed.

I went inside.

“I’ll take those white roses.”

The clerk smiled.

“For someone special? Want to add a card?”

I thought about it, then shook my head.

There was no name to write.

The flowers were for me.

After twenty-seven years of letting Garrett rush ahead and claim every place in my life, I was finally choosing a direction for myself.