He Promised Me A Sunset, He Kissed Her Under It Chapter 05

He Promised Me A Sunset, He Kissed Her Under It Chapter 05

Ethan, Chloe, and Ryan didn’t get back to the hotel until noon.

They finally found Chloe’s bracelet wedged between two stones in the parking lot.

Once it was back on her wrist, her mood improved immediately. She held onto Ethan’s arm the entire way inside.

“Thank God you stayed and helped me look. I would’ve lost my mind if I couldn’t find it.”

Ethan brushed the dirt off the bracelet for her, his voice gentle.

“Be more careful with it next time.”

Ryan teased from beside them.

“It’s just a bracelet. If you lose it, Ethan can buy you another one.”

The three of them walked into the lobby laughing.

Ethan instinctively glanced toward the spot where I’d been standing earlier.

The bench was empty except for my SIM card, which the wind had blown into one corner.

His steps faltered. “Where’s Claire?”

The front desk clerk looked up.

“She checked out.”

“When?”

“A little over an hour ago. Someone came to pick her up, and she took all her luggage.”

Ryan was the first to laugh.

“She really left?”

“Yesterday she backed out of the apartment and pulled all her resources. Now she leaves early too? She’s really determined to make you chase after her.”

Ethan didn’t answer. He went straight upstairs and found the room unlocked.

Everything on the table had been arranged neatly.

The matching bracelets. The spare apartment key. The scrapbook that held four years of memories.

Ethan picked up the key, his expression darkening.

“Her temper’s really getting out of hand.”

Chloe followed him inside and asked cautiously, “Did Claire leave because of me? Maybe I should call her and explain.”

“No.” Ethan pulled out his phone and called me.

All he got was the automated message telling him my phone was off.

He tried twice more with the same result.

Ryan leaned against the doorframe, unconcerned.

“Stop calling. She turned it off on purpose.”

“Haven’t you said it yourself? Whenever she gets mad, she never lasts more than three days before coming back to you.”

Ethan opened the scrapbook.

A photo of us at eighteen was pasted on the first page.

I was leaning against his shoulder, smiling so brightly crinkles at the corners.

Beside it, I’d written one line.

[Ethan Carter, when we graduate, let’s go watch the sunset at Lake Tahoe together.]

His finger lingered on the words for a moment before he closed the book again.

“She asked me last night who I’d choose, and now she’s dragging her suitcase away. She’s obviously trying to make me prove she matters more.”

Chloe went slightly pale.

“Would you choose her?”

Ethan looked at her.

She immediately lowered her head, and tears appeared right on cue.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“Claire’s been your girlfriend for four years. What does that make me?”

Ethan frowned and instinctively pulled her into his arms.

“Don’t think like that.”

Chloe rested against his chest, but I caught a flicker of satisfaction in her eyes.

Clearly, she believed exactly what Ethan did: that I could never really leave.

For four years, no matter how unreasonable their demands became, I’d always given in eventually.

Ethan enjoyed Chloe’s dependence, all while assuming I’d come back.

As if our relationship could never truly end unless he was the one who said it was over.

Then his phone rang.

One of the startup co-founders sounded frantic on the other end.

“Ethan, what the hell is going on?”

“The location we booked just pulled out, and the equipment supplier says they’re revising the quote.”

“And those two clients we were about to sign? Both of them just put the deal on hold.”

Ethan’s expression hardened.

“Why?”

“Why do you think? Claire was the one who brought those deals in!”

“Now that she’s out, why would any of them keep giving us special rates?”

The call ended, leaving the room silent. Ryan shrugged.

“Then find new vendors.”

“It’s not like the project dies just because Claire walked away.”

Ethan thought the same thing.

He’d always assumed that everything I brought to the startup was just me helping out because I was his girlfriend.

Even now, after I’d actually stepped away, he still refused to admit that those people had trusted me, not him.

He opened our message thread and typed one line.

[Come back when you’re done throwing a tantrum. Don’t act like a child when work is involved.]

The message went through, and Ethan visibly relaxed.

“She didn’t block me. She’ll contact me once she sees it.”

Chloe glanced at the matching bracelets on the table.

“But she left all of this behind. What if she really doesn’t want you anymore?”

Ethan looked as if she’d told a joke.

“We’ve been together for four years. You think she can just walk away from that?”

“And she’s spent too long building this company to abandon it overnight.”

Then he casually tossed the scrapbook into his suitcase.

As if what I’d left behind wasn’t a final goodbye, but just another bargaining chip meant to make him give in first.

He had no idea.

By that afternoon, I was already miles away from Lake Tahoe in the project van.

I sat by the window and never looked back.