Chapter 2

2: 2

2

Emmet seemed surprised that I let it go so easily. He was quiet for a few seconds.

Then he pressed a kiss into my hair.

"Adela's got a project waiting on my call. Let me deal with it first."

"You've worked hard these past few days. Get some sleep early."

"Tomorrow morning we'll go look at wedding rings."

He paused, not letting go of me right away.

On a night like this, before, I would have told him not to stay up too late, then warmed him a glass of milk with my own hands.

Or maybe he was waiting to see whether I'd complain that Adela was eating up the little time in our day we finally got to spend together.

But I only nodded, gently pushed his hand away, and walked toward the bedroom.

A few minutes later, Adela's bright, chirping voice slipped in through the gap in the door.

"Emmet, you're just as sharp as you always were!"

His voice came back doting, though he'd deliberately lowered it.

"And you're still the same, always playing your little tricks. You can't do that at work, you know."

"Fine, fine, I get it, Professor James!"

I buried myself under the covers, but Adela's voice still got through.

"Emmet, once you're married, will you still take care of me like this?"

He answered without hesitation.

"Of course."

"Won't Mona feel bad about it then?"

"No. She's not petty like that. If she were, we never would've made it this far."

I lay there on the soft bed, and yet everything felt like it was digging into me.

When we first got together, he was working part-time at a coffee shop off campus.

One day I went to meet him for a meal after class and walked in on a girl asking him for his number.

He scrambled to take off his apron, rushed over and grabbed my hand, and told her he had a girlfriend.

Later, over the meal, he saw how unbothered I looked, took my hand, and asked why I wasn't jealous.

I looked at him, confused. His eyes went red as he said,

"Mona, I'm your boyfriend."

"I don't want you to be that generous, or that understanding. Be a little petty. Petty enough that there's only room in your heart for me."

I rubbed at the space between my brows and turned over, sitting up.

My eyes landed on the "Mona & Emmet" home-planning notebook on the nightstand.

I reached for it and opened it.

Every line was from right after Emmet and I first moved in together.

The last thing in his handwriting stopped six months ago.

All that time, the whole stretches and the scraps of it, he'd given to Adela.

He hadn't even left me the time to write one line.

A bitterness rose up my throat and lodged there, aching.

With a trembling hand, I took a black marker out of the drawer.

I pulled off the cap and pressed hard, blacking out every word.

Every stroke felt like tearing my own heart open.

Tears dropped onto the paper and bloomed across it, one blot after another.

It was almost dawn before I put in my earbuds and fell asleep.

When I woke the next day, it was already ten.

There were a few unread messages from Emmet on my phone.

【Away on a business trip to see a client. I'll handle the ring.】

I didn't reply. By evening, I went and picked up the finished invitations.

I'd just opened them, ready to write, when the door opened. Emmet was back.

He set a paper bag on the table.

"See if you like it."

I opened it and found a pure white ring box inside.

The ring was a classic design, the kind of style I liked.

Except it was two sizes too small.

"Where's this from?"

I asked.

"Bought it on a business trip to the next city over. Thought of how you always like buying their little accessories."

"Adela picked it, didn't she?"

Emmet pressed his lips together.

"How did you know?"

I said nothing. I slid the ring onto my ring finger. It went down an inch and a half, then stuck.

He took off his jacket and hung it on the rack.

"It's not that much smaller. Aren't you always going on about wanting to lose weight?"

"Once you slim down, it'll fit fine."

Wind blew in from the window, the paper bag dropped to the floor, and a receipt slipped out.

I bent down and picked it up. My eyes skimmed the store's address, and I gave a small laugh and asked softly,

"You had time to go see the ocean on a business trip?"

His hands paused on his tie.

"I figured I'd go buy the ring, so I stopped by on the way."

I looked at the ring that wouldn't fit on my finger, and at the receipt, and slumped back against the couch, all the strength drained out of me.

Over the New Year, I went with him to see his grandparents.

On the drive back, I came across this same stretch of coast. The map showed it was less than fifteen kilometers if we turned around and went.

This time of year, when the weather's good, the sunset over the water is even more beautiful.

So I coaxed him, pouting, to turn the car around, and he gripped the wheel and said, face full of irritation,

"I've been driving all day and I'm exhausted. Can you knock it off with the romance thing? You're not some girl in her early twenties anymore."

But today, to take her to see the ocean, he drove five hundred kilometers round trip without a word of complaint, and a hundred-some kilometers became on the way.

My fifteen kilometers had been me being unreasonable.

I was the one who wasn't on the way.

I took the ring off and put it back in the box.

"If a wedding ring only fits after I lose weight, then I'd rather not have it."

Emmet's face darkened.

"Mona, can you not—"

A phone call cut him off.

He picked up, and I could faintly hear Adela crying on the other end.

The gist of it was a seafood allergy.

Emmet grabbed a coat off the rack.

"Okay, don't cry, take a deep breath, I'm coming right now."

And with that, he headed for the door without looking back, tossing only one line at me.

"If you don't want it, then throw it—"

Before he could finish, I grabbed the ring box and threw it into the trash.

His steps hitched for a moment. He didn't look back.