He Had A Calendar For Her, I Had To Request To See Him Chapter 01

He Had A Calendar For Her, I Had To Request To See Him Chapter 01

By our third year of doing long distance, the shared calendar Elliot Mercer and I used had been reduced to a single color: blue.

Every blue block belonged to Elliot and Paige Sutton, a younger student in his program who worked as his project assistant. Morning runs, practice problems, review sessions—even follow-up dentist visits for a toothache were logged in meticulous detail.

Every time I wanted to see him, though, I had to send Paige a meeting request in advance.

The request I sent for our anniversary was denied. So was the one I sent when I got sick.

When I asked Elliot about it, his answer was flat.

“Paige handles my schedule. Don’t guilt-trip me over things that don’t matter.”

Later, he won the top prize at a national competition.

I sat in the audience with a cake I’d brought with me on a seven-hour train ride and listened as he thanked Paige with a smile.

“Good thing someone was there to filter out all the pointless emotional noise.”

Only after everything wrapped up did he remember I was there.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you not to distract me during the competition?”

Paige took the trophy from him.

“Mara, if you really love someone, you want him to succeed. You don’t demand his time.”

I nodded and swallowed the congratulations I’d rehearsed for so long.

If Elliot thought all I did was interfere and waste his time, then I was done being part of his future.

*****

I looked at Elliot.

“Just one bite. Then I’ll let it go.”

A trace of exhaustion crossed his face.

“I was cutting back on sugar before the ceremony, and I still have interviews afterward. You took a seven-hour train just to make me eat cake?”

I said nothing else and went back to the hotel.

I was removing myself from our shared calendar when Elliot opened the hotel-room door.

He glanced at the cake on the table and hooked a finger under his tie knot, his voice flat.

“Still here? You missed the last train, didn’t you?”

I tucked the plastic cake knife back into the box.

“I changed my ticket. I’m leaving in the morning.”

Paige came in behind him and set the trophy by the window.

“Mara, don’t get the wrong idea. The organizers added an interview at the last minute, and I had Elliot’s phone, so there was no way to give you a heads-up.”

“No problem.”

I closed the cake box.

“I booked somewhere else.”

Elliot frowned and touched the back of my hand.

“Your hand is freezing. Why make this harder on yourself? Stay in the suite tonight. Paige can take the living room, you can have the bedroom, and I’ll crash with one of my teammates.”

If he’d said that before, I might have convinced myself all over again that he still understood boundaries.

But Paige had already opened her suitcase and pulled out a pair of men’s pajamas, handing them to him with practiced ease.

“Your stomach meds are with me too. Take them now so you don’t wake up hurting again.”

Elliot took the water and swallowed the pills.

“You always remember.”

I looked down at the five little sun symbols on the cake box.

They were a private design I’d come up with while labeling weather data.

Back in our senior year of high school, Elliot had said that for every year our relationship made it through, he’d draw me another sun.

He hadn’t gotten the chance to draw the fifth one yet.

Paige bent down for a closer look.

“That little cloud is cute, though the colors have faded a bit. Mara, Elliot doesn’t do rich frosting anymore. It makes him sluggish. I’ll cut him a small piece.”

“Don’t.”

I picked up the box.

“If he won’t eat it, I’ll throw it out.”

Elliot caught my wrist. His grip wasn’t hard, but he didn’t let me leave.

“Mara, don’t be childish. Paige is looking out for me. Why do you have to make her feel bad for helping?”

“Then take one bite.”

Paige gave a soft sigh and pulled out the plastic knife.

“I’ll eat it for him. That way, all the thought you put into it won’t go to waste.”

She cut through the fifth sun, and a smear of frosting streaked the base of the trophy.

Elliot pulled out a napkin and wiped the frosting from her fingertips first.

The pressure around my wrist disappeared as he let go of me. His voice softened.

“Try to behave. Once this stretch is over, I’ll make up for missing our anniversary. Okay?”

“When?”

“We’ll figure it out later.”

I opened my work calendar and, right in front of him, deleted the reminder for my birthday next month. Then I deleted the reminder to book my New Year’s train ticket.

He watched me do it and merely rubbed at his brow.

“Don’t try to threaten me by deleting reminders. It’s childish.”

I didn’t explain. I carried the cake to the door.

Paige suddenly called after me.

“Mara, did you just request to leave the shared calendar? The request just popped up in the admin panel.”

Elliot’s hand stilled around his glass.

He didn’t ask me why. He simply looked at Paige.

“Don’t process it yet. Give her three days to cool off.”

As Paige looked down at the screen, I spotted another blue event scheduled for 9:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Its title was a single word:

Replacement.