He Promised Me A Sunset, He Kissed Her Under It Chapter 04

He Promised Me A Sunset, He Kissed Her Under It Chapter 04

By the next morning, the wind had died down.

The lakeside area reopened, and Ryan booked a sailing trip.

Chloe came downstairs in a white dress and stood in the hotel lobby, nervously clutching Ethan’s sleeve.

“The water’s so deep. What if I fall in?”

Ethan crouched in front of her and fastened her life jacket securely.

“I’m right here. You’ve got nothing to worry about..”

Ryan shoved his camera into my arms.

“Your fever just broke, so don’t get on the boat.”

“Stay on shore and get some pictures of us.”

I set the camera down on a lobby bench. “I’m not taking pictures.”

Ryan’s expression hardened. “It’s just a few pictures. What’s your problem now?”

“I don’t feel well. I want to go back upstairs and rest.”

Ethan glanced at me but didn’t ask what was wrong. “Suit yourself,” he said impatiently.

Chloe was about to head outside when she suddenly reached for her wrist.

“Where’s my bracelet?”

She searched every pocket, and her eyes immediately filled with tears.

“Ethan gave it to me for graduation. I know I was wearing it a minute ago.”

Ethan immediately reassured her.

“Don’t panic. Maybe you left it in the room.”

Chloe shook her head.

“I felt it on my wrist when I came downstairs. It has to be somewhere nearby.”

Ethan went with her to retrace her steps outside the hotel.

Ryan turned on the flashlight on his phone and crouched beside the shrubs to search.

As Ethan hurried past me, he said, “Go back to the room and wait for me.”

“Once we find the bracelet, we’ll talk about last night.”

I watched the three of them disappear down the walkway.

I went back to my room and pulled out the suitcase I’d packed the night before.

I canceled the two return plane tickets.

I also transferred Ethan’s share of the apartment deposit back to him.

Our matching bracelets, the spare apartment key, and our fourth-anniversary scrapbook were arranged neatly on the table.

The scrapbook was filled with the future we’d once planned together.

Start a company after graduation.

Get married once our careers were stable.

Travel somewhere new every year.

See every lake in the American West before we turned thirty.

On the last page was a sentence Ethan had written when he was eighteen.

[Claire Bennett, whenever you look back, I’ll be right there.]

I closed the scrapbook and set it beside the bracelets.

Four years of love together didn’t vanish the moment I saw him kiss someone else.

It still hurt, and I still hated that things had ended this way.

At night, I found myself thinking over and over about the promise we’d made at eighteen.

But loving Ethan was a choice I’d made in the past.

Walking away was how I chose to keep my self-respect.

A car horn sounded outside.

The van Professor Reed had arranged was here. I wheeled my suitcase out of the hotel.

The front desk clerk hurried after me and handed me a cup of hot water.

“Take this for the road. Your fever only just came down.”

She glanced behind me.

“Your boyfriend isn’t leaving with you?”

“He’s not my boyfriend anymore.”

The words came more easily than I’d expected.

The driver loaded my suitcase into the back of the van.

Just as I was about to get in, Ethan called.

Wind roared through the phone, mixed with Chloe’s broken sobs.

“Where are you?”

“In front of the hotel.”

I heard him exhale in relief.

“Then stay there. Don’t go wandering off.”

“We still haven’t found Chloe’s bracelet. I can’t leave right now.”

“When I get back, we’ll talk this through.”

I looked toward Lake Tahoe in the distance.

Morning light shimmered across the lake like flecks of gold.

“Ethan, today’s the last day I’ll wait for you.”

There was a brief silence on the other end.

When he spoke again, his voice finally softened.

“Okay.”

“Just wait for me and stop threatening me with a breakup.”

He still thought I was only trying to make him cave.

He still believed that all he had to do was come back and say a few nice words, and I’d forgive him like I always had.

Then Chloe called his name in the background.

Ethan immediately said, “I have to go.”

He hung up abruptly.

I turned off my phone, removed the SIM card, and left it on the bench outside the hotel.

The driver opened the van door for me.

I climbed inside, and it slid shut behind me as we pulled onto the road circling the lake.

In the rearview mirror, the hotel grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely into the morning mist.

I’d finally seen the Lake Tahoe sunset I’d waited four years for.

As for the man who’d promised to watch it with me…

I didn’t want him anymore.