He Told Me to Wait While He Was With His Cheating Ex — I Sold Our Home That Night Chapter 10

He Told Me to Wait While He Was With His Cheating Ex — I Sold Our Home That Night Chapter 10

After the show, I went back south.

On the day my design studio opened, several potted plants stood by the entrance.

Their leaves were a vivid green, and the soil was moist.

They looked nothing like the two plants on my old balcony. Most of those plants’ leaf tips had turned yellow, and no one ever watered them.

Evan stood on a ladder, hanging the studio sign.

I directed him from below.

“A little farther to the left.”

Grinning, he deliberately moved it to the right.

I glared up at him.

“Evan Brooks!”

He laughed and immediately moved it back.

“Okay, okay. My mistake.”

“Whatever the boss says.”

My parents came too.

Mom stood inside the studio, looking at the long row of sample displays as tears slowly filled her eyes.

“Our girl is finally doing what she loves.”

My own eyes stung as I hugged her.

Dad cleared his throat beside us.

“It’s her grand opening. No crying.”

Evan handed me the flowers he had prepared in advance.

“Happy spring, Boss.”

I accepted them.

He bent close, his voice soft beside my ear.

“Whatever you want to do from now on, I’ll be right there with you.”

As I looked at Evan, I suddenly remembered the person I used to be.

That was how I had once treated Julian.

I anticipated every detail for him and made room for every one of his moods.

Eventually, I understood that love could not survive when only one person was carrying it.

At the entrance to the studio, I saw the final customer off.

Evan came up behind me and took my hand.

The willows along the street were beginning to bud, and the breeze carried the damp freshness of spring.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

I looked at the tender green branches.

“Spring is beautiful this year.”

Evan tightened his hand around mine.

“Every year will be.”

I did not look back.

The willows had turned green with early spring. I had drained the last of that bitter wine and found my way home.

…

It was early spring, and the willows had only just turned green.

Julian sat in a bar near the restaurant where we had celebrated our seventh anniversary.

A glass of liquor rested on the table in front of him.

The friend sitting across from him hesitated for a long time before bringing up Sabrina.

“Did you hear?”

“She and that new guy had a major falling-out.”

“Apparently, she cheated on him too. During their argument, she fell down a flight of stairs.”

“She can’t walk now, and she probably never will again.”

Julian’s hand froze around his glass.

He said nothing.

Fate had a cruel sense of irony. Sabrina had valued her freedom above everything else, only to end up confined to a wheelchair.

Julian had once believed he loved her.

Later, he realized that all he had loved was an old dream he had never been willing to let go of.

His friend watched him drink one glass after another and finally tried to talk some sense into him.

“Julian, let the past stay in the past.”

Julian lowered his eyes to his phone.

Only one old photograph of Chloe remained in his camera roll.

She was wearing an apron and standing in the kitchen of the condo, looking over her shoulder at him with a smile.

Sunlight had poured through the window that day.

But Julian had complained that she was blocking it and told her to move aside.

Now he stared at that beam of light in the photograph for a long time.

Outside, the willow branches shifted in the wind, their fresh green almost painful to look at.

Only then did Julian remember something Chloe had once said.

“I’m done drinking from a bitter cup for someone who will never love me back.”

He looked at the glass in his hand and gave a bitter smile.

Then he raised it and drained it in one swallow.