Chapter 2
When I came to, I was lying on the restroom floor.
A woman I didn't know was helping me. "You need a doctor."
"I'm fine." I struggled to stand up.
I couldn't break down here. I couldn't let them see me looking pathetic.
I straightened my clothes and touched up my makeup. In the mirror, my face was ashen, but my eyes held an unsettling calm, like all the life had drained out of them.
When I got back to the private room door, Nathan and Victoria were kissing.
Victoria held up her wrist, and the bracelet sparkled under the lights.
I called a taxi, but no cars were available for half an hour.
Nathan came out holding Victoria. It was a bit cold in the early autumn morning. He draped his coat over Victoria's shoulders. It was the one I had picked out for him last month.
When he saw me, he looked a little embarrassed. "Elena, she's still recovering. The doctor said at her last checkup..."
He stopped suddenly, realizing he had said too much.
Last checkup?
So they had been in touch all along.
They had never broken up these past few months.
Their car arrived.
"Goodbye, Elena," Nathan said. His gaze didn't even linger on me.
I waved, my voice very soft. "Farewell, Nathan."
The wind in Pinehurst City scattered my words.
He didn't hear me.
*****
Over the next few days, Nathan kept reaching out to me.
On the fifth day, he called and asked me which brand his suit was.
I was deleting photos from Google Photos. More than ten thousand photos, from Concord College to Wall Street. I cleared the cloud directly.
On the tenth day, he texted to say he couldn't find his tie clip.
I was cleaning up broken glass. It was the couple's coffee cups we made in pottery class, with "N&E forever" written on them.
On the fifteenth day, he sent a courier to pick up documents.
I was tearing up photo albums. The photos piled up in half the room. The sound of scissors clicking was like cutting through seven years of entanglement.
On the twentieth day, he sent flowers to the office. It wasn't my birthday, just an ordinary day.
I was selling our custom leather sofa from Brittania on Craigslist. It had witnessed too many nights of waiting.
On the thirtieth day, the moving company emptied the study.
That study, which I never let him enter, was originally full of "surprises" I had prepared for him. Proposals, handwritten letters, souvenirs, and gift sketches.
Every single one was the romance I wanted to give him.
Now they were all sent to the charity shop.
As soon as the moving company left, Nathan came back.
Nathan stood at the door, backlit. The autumn sun gilded his edges.
He opened his arms and smiled brightly. "Elena, a month is up. I'm back."
I didn't throw myself into his arms like I used to.
He frowned. "What's wrong? Are you still mad about the aurora bracelet? It was just—"
"Just what?" I asked calmly. "Just a souvenir? Just a consolation prize?"
Nathan walked into the apartment and looked around. "The house seems a lot emptier. Even your perfume is fading."
Then he saw the study. The door that had always been locked was wide open, and there was nothing inside.
"You finally letting me in?" he said, stepping inside with a teasing tone. "I thought there was some secret hidden inside."
He had no idea that it had once been a room full of love letters.
The kind of love letters anyone would call the most romantic in the world.
But he was too late.
"Why is it empty?" He turned to look at me, confused.
Because it was too late, Nathan. Seven years too late.
His phone buzzed, echoing in the empty room.
It was Victoria.
"Nathan, I took a whole bottle of sleeping pills." Victoria's voice was trembling, thick with tears. "I'll be dead in twenty minutes."
Nathan's face drained of color. "It's a matter of life and death, Elena. I have to go. This month has 31 days. Today doesn't count as breaking the rules.
"Wait for me. You have to wait for me."
He rushed out the door without even looking back.
I laughed, and tears streamed down my face.
For her, he would even argue over a single day.
I dragged my suitcase out and handed the keys to the real estate agent.
Goodbye.
Farewell to the place where all my youth lived.
*****
As I waited for my flight at the airport, I saw Nathan's Instagram had a new post. It was posted by Victoria.
It read: [Hey everyone, I'm Nathan, and I love wine tasting.]
The attached photo was a back view of him cooking in the kitchen.
A sharp pain suddenly shot through my lower abdomen, and a warm gush flowed out.
I collapsed to my knees in the airport lobby, and people gathered around me.
And then everything went black.
"Oh my god, you're awake," someone said.
When I opened my eyes, a strange man was standing in the hospital room. He was wearing a sharp suit and was tall, about six feet two inches.
He let out a breath of relief. "Finally, you're awake. The doctor has been yelling at me, saying I didn't know my girlfriend was pregnant and made her so angry she almost had a miscarriage."
I was stunned. "Pregnant? Miscarriage?"
The doctor walked in and sighed. "You're still young. You'll have other chances. But you might want to consider a new boyfriend."
I quickly clarified, "He's not my boyfriend. I don't know him."
The man looked relieved. "Thank God. Otherwise, I'd look like a total jerk."
I sent him money for the medical expenses and thanked him.
He brushed it off. "No big deal. I'm Alexander Kane. Feel free to contact me if you need any help."
Alexander Kane? That name sounded familiar.
After he left, I lay alone in the ward of Saint Mary's General Hospital.
Moonlight shone on the Hudson River, sparkling.
I trembled and touched my lower abdomen, which was flat again.
It was here once.
Maybe it thought there was no love in this world, so it left.
*****
Sophie Kane burst into the hospital room, crying even before she crossed the threshold. "Nathan is such a jerk. How could he do this to you?"
She picked up her phone to call Nathan.
"Wait." I tried to stop her.
"He needs to know you're in the hospital," she said.
The call connected, and the wind was loud on the other end.
"What's up, Sophie?" Nathan sounded in a good mood.
"Elena's in the hospital. Where are you?" Sophie demanded.
"What? Which hospital? I'll be there—" Nathan started.
"Nathan," Victoria's voice cut in, coquettish and wronged. "Today is our last day. You promised you'd stay with me and watch the sunset before we said goodbye. The sun's almost down."
There was silence.
Then Nathan's voice came through. "Sophie, thanks for taking care of Elena today. I'll come by and see her myself tomorrow."
"Who cares about your concern?" Sophie hung up the phone and cried even harder.
I was surprisingly calm.
*****
My phone screen lit up. It was a message from Nathan.
Nathan: [Elena, what's wrong? We can get back together after sunset tomorrow. I'm so excited.
[I miss you.
[Actually, Victoria isn't that fun. How about we stop playing this game from now on?]
It was already ten o'clock at night, four hours after sunset.
In the past, I would have been insomniac, anxious, and full of anticipation and fear.
But this time, I blocked him.
I deleted every way he could reach me.
Sophie's eyes widened. "Y-You're serious about this?"
"I'm not waiting anymore," I said, my voice soft but firm. "Not even for a second."
"By the way," I said, wiping my tears as I looked at Sophie. "Does your brother have a girlfriend?"
Sophie froze, then her eyes lit up. "Alexander? He's single. Just a bit reserved."
"Reserved is good," I said, smiling through my tears. "Guys like that don't play reset games."