Chapter 2

She checked again and again before she asked me.

"Miss, this table was already taken by a couple who paid extra to be seated early."

"The reservation's under the name Fox. Was that booked by you?"

"They also ordered a bouquet and a cake. I was just about to bring them over to the table."

I didn't know what to make of it.

Denys? Had he come here early and taken a seat without telling me?

The name on the flower and cake order really was his.

The server stood there and pointed out that it might be a surprise, and suggested I go over and check for myself.

Something in me said otherwise.

Denys wasn't the type to plan romance or surprises.

By his own account, he should have been at the office right now, working late.

I hesitated over whether to call him first.

But the server glanced at the line of people waiting behind me and suggested I just go to the table and confirm.

When I reached the second floor and saw the seat, all I had left was a bitter smile.

Denys really was there.

And just as the server had said, there were two of them.

Across from him sat his colleague, Zelda Delgado.

She was also the daughter of the founder of the firm where Denys now worked.

When Denys came home from work and talked to me about the office, half of it was about this female colleague.

He'd complain that Zelda was sloppy in her work, that she wasn't good at her job, that she sometimes even mixed up the statutes.

And there was a trace of envy in his voice too.

He said everyone at the firm except him.

Everyone else fawned over this young lady, all so they could get the good cases out of her.

The server beside them brought over the flowers and the cake.

The two of them at the table were already deep in cheerful conversation.

When Zelda saw the flowers and cake, her face lit up with delight.

"Lawyer Fox, my birthday isn't until next week. Why are you giving me all this early?"

"We'll be away on business next week. I didn't want your birthday to feel rushed."

Denys's voice carried clearly to my ears.

Even though I'd braced myself, my heart still smarted like it had been pricked with a needle.

I took out my phone and called Denys.

I watched him glance at the screen, then hang up on me.

So it turned out that all the things he'd pushed aside were because there was someone else keeping him company.

I chose not to call it out.

I just turned and walked away, without a single backward glance left in me.

3

By midnight, Denys still hadn't come home.

I blew out the candle, made my wish, and ate my birthday cake alone.

It was a fruit cake I'd grabbed on short notice from the bakery downstairs, sweet to the point of being cloying.

But I still took a big bite.

My phone chimed. It was a message in the little family group chat with my parents.

Besides the birthday wishes, it was about the wedding, mine and Denys's.

【Happy birthday, Lucia!】

【We don't wish for anything else. We just hope you and Denys can finally settle things this year, and then we can stop worrying】

Denys was in this group chat too.

But like every other time, whenever the subject came up, he stayed silent.

I was the only one down there explaining to my parents, saying we had our own plans, that there was no rush.

But this time, I didn't feel like explaining either.

Three years ago, when Denys became a partner at his current firm, our two families met each other.

Back then Denys said we'd get married once he bought the wedding home.

I agreed.

Then Denys paid for this place in full.

My parents put in half a lifetime of savings, and with my earlier salary on top of it, we finished the renovations.

Denys and I had been living in the new place for six months.

I thought we could finally start planning.

But then Denys said he wanted to wait a little longer, because his position as partner at the firm still wasn't secure.

Now, all this time later, Denys has already made senior partner.

And when the subject of our marriage comes up, he still gives nothing away.

I didn't know how to explain what Denys and I even were now.

After so many years together, we both seemed to have settled into simply living side by side.

Not clinging to each other the way we had when we first started dating.

But not living like a normal married couple either.

It was just like my friend said.

Somehow Denys and I had drifted into the burnout stage before we'd even married.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Denys pushed the door open.

When he saw me sitting in the living room eating cake by myself, he frowned.

"Not worried about your weight, sitting here eating cake this late at night——"

Halfway through, Denys stopped.

Like it had only just clicked.

"Is your birthday today? I thought it was tomorrow."

"I even had my assistant clear my whole schedule tomorrow so I could take you to the aquarium."

As he spoke, Denys pulled out his phone and showed me the aquarium tickets he'd already bought.

I nodded and didn't say much.

I cut a slice of cake and set it in front of him.

"Why were you working so late?"

I wanted to hear him explain on his own.

I wanted to see whether he'd tell me the truth.

Why he'd gone to the restaurant with a colleague, the one he was supposed to go to with me.

Why he'd chosen work as an excuse to cancel the birthday plans he'd promised me.

Denys, who was usually strict about what he ate, took the cake I'd given him and started putting it in his mouth, out of guilt.

Deliberately steering around the subject I'd just raised.

"Happy birthday."

In the light spilling in through the window.

Denys looked at me and offered his belated birthday wishes.