I Spent Six Christmas Eves Waiting For Nothing Chapter 10

I Spent Six Christmas Eves Waiting For Nothing Chapter 10

“I’m not divorcing you,” he whispered, keeping his head down, completely avoiding my eyes. “No matter what you say, I won’t do it.”

I fell silent for a long time.

“Fine. Suit yourself. We’re already living separate lives anyway.”

I stood up, preparing to leave, but he suddenly sprang up and grabbed my arm.

Before I could react, he pulled me hard into his chest.

“Elena, please don’t be impulsive, okay?”

“Just give me a little more time. I promise I’ll look hard at myself and fix my mistakes.”

“Please, let’s not end things like this.”

Only now did Garrett finally show his vulnerability. He had finally come to realize that the one who couldn’t survive without this relationship was never Elena.

It was him.

God only knew how completely terrified he had been when he walked into the house and saw all my things cleared out.

He had spent the entire day running around the city like a headless chicken trying to find me.

It wasn’t until the dead of night that Elena finally answered his call.

Garrett had been entirely frantic and furious, yet he couldn’t bring himself to say a single harsh word to her, let alone dare to bring up the divorce papers.

“Let go,” I said flatly.

Garrett’s grip was incredibly tight, as if he wanted to crush me right into his bones.

“There is genuinely nothing going on between Chloe and me,” he rasped.

“I’m sorry. It was my fault. I lacked boundaries, and I never properly sorted out my relationship with her.”

“I swear it will never happen again. Truly, Elena, just give me one more chance.”

A few people in the café were starting to look our way.

In a foreign city, a man and a woman locked in a tight embrace should have looked like a scene straight out of a romance movie.

But it only made me feel entirely annoyed.

“Garrett, this is incredibly pathetic,” I sighed.

I used to crave his embrace, crave his comfort, and desperately pray that he would show even a fraction of the attachment to me that he always showed to Chloe.

I waited six years and got absolutely nothing.

Now that I had entirely stopped caring, here he was, begging at my feet.

The universe really had a twisted sense of humor.

“You say the exact same thing every single time,” I said, my voice deadpan.

“Last time, when I running a 104-degree fever, you abandoned me at the hospital by yourself just so you could go celebrate Chloe’s birthday. When you came back, you said you were sorry.”

“The time before that, when my parents came to visit us, you abruptly took off for the airport to pick up Chloe, leaving me to host them completely alone. You said you were sorry then, too.”

“And the time before that—”

“Stop it,” he cut me off, his voice cracking. “Please don’t, Elena.”

“Oh, so even you find it too painful to listen to?”

I wrenched myself slightly against his grip.

“But these are the exact things I had to live through, day after day.”

“When it comes to Chloe, you can drop anything, delay any meeting, and postpone any commitment.”

“But when it comes to me, all I ever get is ‘later,’ ‘next time,’ or ‘just wait a bit longer.'”

“I waited for six years, Garrett. Six years.”

“How many six years do you think a person gets in a lifetime?”

“Let go,” I ordered.

Garrett’s entire body was trembling.

“I’m counting to three.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

Slowly, the strength drained from his fingers.

His hands fell limply to his sides, his eyes downcast as he tried to mask the profound agony and loneliness stretching across his face.

“Just sign the divorce papers,” I said, adjusting my coat. “It’s the absolute last decent thing you can do for me.”

“Let’s just part on good terms.”

Garrett ended up taking an extended leave and staying at a hotel right near my office building.

Every single day, he would orchestrate different ways to “bump into” me, trying to hand me a coffee or offering a container of food he had cooked himself.

I took every single one of them and handed them straight to my coworkers.

If I asked around the floor and nobody wanted it, I walked over and dropped it right into the trash can.

One afternoon, I was heading down to the lobby to discard one of his meals when I ran right into Garrett.

The hopeful smile on his face vanished instantly.

His gaze drifted down to the trash bin where the food he had spent hours preparing now sat. The corners of his mouth flattened into a tight line, his fingers twisting anxiously at the hem of his shirt, looking completely lost and devastated.

“Stop bringing these,” I said, giving him a cold, dismissive side-glance. “It saves me the trouble of figuring out how to get rid of them.”

“You’re nothing but a nuisance to me.”

Garrett’s lips parted slightly, but he couldn’t find a single word to say.

Slowly, the rims of his eyes turned completely bloodshot.

Ignoring his expression entirely, I tossed the empty container toward him, signaling for him to get lost.

“Right now, you’re acting exactly like a fly, buzzing around and stalking me everywhere I go.”

“It’s genuinely disgusting and pathetic.”

After that day, Garrett never showed his face in front of me again.

Perhaps my cruelty had finally made him realize that no matter how long he dragged things out, I was never going to look back.

Aside from making me despise him even more, his persistence accomplished absolutely nothing.

So, he chose to disappear entirely.

At the very least, it preserved a shred of his dignity and left whatever decent memories we had intact.

Eventually, a courier package arrived containing the signed divorce papers.

It wasn’t the original copy I had drafted; he had gone to a lawyer and printed a brand-new agreement. The terms had been entirely restructured so that he walked away with absolutely nothing, leaving the entire estate and assets to me.

I signed my name at the bottom without a single shred of guilt.

This was nothing compared to what he owed me; no amount of material compensation could ever make up for the last six years.

I blocked Garrett’s number permanently, deleted every single piece of his contact info, and wiped our photo galleries until not a single picture remained.

I was making the most absolute, clinical break from my past.

Years flew by, and my career continued to reach new heights.

Eventually, my assignment ended and I moved back to the States, choosing a gorgeous coastal city to settle down in. I bought a house of my own and built a completely stable life.

The memories of the past were fading more and more with each passing day.

Even the specific details of my life with Garrett had become incredibly blurry.

Not long ago, I happened to attend a college reunion, and someone casually brought up Garrett’s name during dinner.

They mentioned that things between him and Chloe hadn’t lasted very long after all. Taking his indulgence for granted, she had acted so completely reckless and entitled that she eventually exhausted the absolute last drop of his patience, ending their relationship in a toxic, bitter blowout.

With the marriage dissolved and no grandchildren to speak of, his mother had apparently taken to constantly sighing, openly lamenting to the relatives about how graceful, thoughtful, and accommodating I used to be.

I held my wine glass, listening to the gossip with a completely detached smile, my heart remaining entirely unbothered.

The past had long since turned to dust.

While others chose to pity his downfall and loneliness, I only felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

Relief that I had possessed the clarity to walk away when I did, guaranteeing the absolute freedom and peace I enjoyed today.