Our Anniversary Trip Was Their Repeat Trip Chapter 01

Our Anniversary Trip Was Their Repeat Trip Chapter 01

To celebrate our second anniversary, Ethan Caldwell and I went whale-watching in Monterey.

We had used his account to book the hotel, so the manager greeted him like an old friend.

“Mr. Caldwell, your room has been arranged exactly the way you and Ms. Rhodes usually like it.”

Ms. Rhodes.

Olivia Rhodes was the woman Ethan had dated for eight years before they broke up.

My hand clenched.

Only then did they realize they had the wrong guest. The staff hurried to replace Olivia’s name with mine.

Ethan stopped them.

“Don’t bother. Take away the flowers, the stuffed animals, and the cake, too.”

He glanced at me. “Olivia likes all the little romantic touches. They got used to arranging things for her, so I guess they assumed this time would be the same.”

“Don’t read too much into it. His assistant just forgot to cancel it.”

“Honestly, none of this means much anyway.”

I said nothing.

Whale-watching meant getting up early the next morning, and I had to call Ethan three times before he woke up.

He said, “It’s always the same routine. Get on the boat, find a spot, take pictures.”

“Olivia and I have already done it. Doing it again would be pointless. You go without me.”

I boarded the boat alone, but luck wasn’t on my side.

I got seasick and never saw a whale breach the surface.

When Ethan came to pick me up, one of the crew members recognized him and dug out two photographs.

In one, the boat had been freezing, and Ethan had wrapped Olivia in his arms.

In the other, he and Olivia were kissing in front of a pod of breaching whales.

I looked away.

On the third day, I said I wanted to drive south along California’s Highway 1.

Ethan’s voice was flat. “Olivia and I have done that several times. There’s nothing new about it, and I don’t want to do it again.”

I fell silent.

It suddenly hit me that he had done everything with Olivia.

Anything he had once given her, he now dismissed as pointless, as if there were no reason to give it to me.

If this trip was only a rerun to him, then maybe it was time for it to end.

…

“If you’ve already seen it with Olivia, then you’ve already been there.”

“Ethan, do you remember that this was supposed to be our anniversary trip?”

His brows drew together.

“I told you when you said you wanted to come to California.”

“Olivia and I came here plenty of times. I lost interest a long time ago, and you were the one who insisted.”

“What exactly are you upset about now?”

I didn’t say anything else.

After ten waves rolled onto the shore, Ethan finally gave in.

“If you insist on going, then we’ll go.”

I drove.

Ethan sat in the passenger seat and barely got out of the car. He propped his elbow against the door and looked bored by everything.

After another long stretch of road, we stopped at the elephant seal beach.

The other visitors weren’t as quiet as Ethan and I were, and they certainly didn’t look as if they had been dragged there.

A couple beside us cried out over how adorable the seal pups were and asked me to take a picture of them.

Ethan kept his hands in his pockets and said casually,

“Walk a little farther. There’s a hill up ahead.”

“Olivia found it. She said the pictures looked best from there.”

He was right. The view of the endless ocean and beach was beautiful.

I had seen the picture they took there, too. A scarf looped around Olivia’s neck and then wound around Ethan’s.

The photo had been tucked into the innermost slot of the cardholder he used every day. When I found it, Ethan said it had been there so long that he had forgotten to take it out.

I hadn’t thought about it again until Ethan asked whether I wanted him to take a picture of me.

He lowered his head and fiddled with the camera.

“Olivia taught me how to adjust the settings. She said it made the pictures look really crisp.”

She wasn’t there, yet somehow that woman’s name was everywhere.

The “okay” on my tongue never made it out.

“Never mind. Let’s go back.”

Ethan paused, then looked up. A trace of impatience flickered in his eyes.

“What now?”

“You were the one who wanted to come, and now you’re the one who suddenly wants to leave?”

“Think carefully. I’m not bored enough to do this all over again with you.”

I hummed in acknowledgment.

“I know.”

“I won’t make you come with me again.”