I Don’t Want the Reunion Voucher You Never Meant to Give Me Chapter 09

I Don’t Want the Reunion Voucher You Never Meant to Give Me Chapter 09

After Adrian went back, he sent a string of mystery boxes.

The first: [Unconditional Apology.]

The second: [Public Clarification.]

The third: [Returning Every Favor.]

The fourth: [Starting Over.]

Every one had a 100% win rate.

I never opened one of them.

Thirty days later, the system wiped the seven years of history between us.

When Adrian opened the dashboard, it was blank.

For the first time, he drew a genuine “Better Luck Next Time.”

No punishment. No reunion. No second chance.

A year later, I transferred to headquarters.

Adrian showed up at my welcome reception.

He’d gotten thinner, and that loose, careless arrogance he used to carry had faded some.

Someone asked who he was there for.

“I’m looking for Elise.”

I came out of the conference room, saw him, and paused for exactly one second.

“Can I help you?”

Adrian held out a small box. Inside was the promise ring.

“You left this behind.”

“Not left behind. Left it on purpose.”

His throat moved. “I know.”

I didn’t take it.

“Then why bring it?”

“I just wanted to see you.”

Adrian gave a short laugh, though it never quite reached his eyes.

“I used to think, all I had to do was reach out and you’d come back.”

“Turns out, once you didn’t come back, even seeing you once got hard.”

I stayed quiet.

He asked, low, “This past year anyone new?”

“No.”

Something flickered back to life in his eyes.

“Then we-”

“No one new doesn’t mean I’d ever go back to you.”

That light went out again.

Adrian stood in front of me and didn’t speak for a long time.

The lobby moved around us, people coming and going.

He suddenly remembered-seven years ago, the first time I drew a Reunion Voucher.

I’d run to him in the rain, soaked through, my eyes impossibly bright.

I’d held him and asked, “Adrian, do you miss me too?”

What had he said back then?

“Don’t flatter yourself. You just got lucky.”

Turns out it was never luck.

It was me, walking toward him, every single time.

And he’d taken my love and called it a probability he’d never once been at risk of losing.

Adrian put the ring back in the box.

“Elise, I’ve thought about it a lot, since.”

“If I hadn’t gone up on that stage. If I’d given the ring back to you. If I’d never said those things- would we still have ended up here?”

I looked at him.

“Yes. We would have.”

“Why?”

“Because I’d already been disappointed too many times, long before that.”

My voice came out soft.

“The launch isn’t why I left.”

“It just made me finally admit you weren’t going to change.”

His eyes reddened, slowly.

“I’ve changed now.”

“I don’t need you to anymore.”

The sentence landed, and something in him seemed to give out completely, like all the strength had been pulled out of him at once.

I walked past him.

A few steps later, Adrian called out.

“Last question.”

| Iturned.

“When did you stop loving me?”

I thought about it.

“It wasn’t one day.”

“It was every time you said she needed you more than I did. Every time you called me mature. Every

time you assumed I’d come back no matter what.”

“Love gets given away one moment at a time.”

“So does the end of it.”

I turned and left. Adrian didn’t follow.

Because he finally understood-I wasn’t punishing him anymore.

I’d simply finished walking that long, slow road out of loving him.

Later, I went to the beach my mother used to love.

I’d had the old diamond reset into a pendant, worn close to my heart.

Adrian never showed up again.

I heard he shut down the mystery box project, and moved out of that apartment.

I never asked.

The wind picked up. A coworker called, telling me to get ready to leave tomorrow.

I laughed and said yes.

This time, wherever I wanted to go, I’d go.

THE END