Chapter 7: Meet Again
When he heard that, the cold look in his eyes seemed to shake badly.
“Fine.” After what felt like forever, he forced the word out through his tight teeth, like it was being pulled from his
throat.
He stood up quickly, his lips curling into a sneer. “You said it yourself. You better hope you don’t regret it later.”
With that, he slammed his water glass down, and as he turned, he knocked over the potted plant he’d given me by the door. The sound of the flowerpot breaking echoed like pieces of our broken past.
I watched his back disappear into the elevator, then gently closed the door, sealing Eric in my memories forever.
After that day, the news of my breakup with Eric spread everywhere. Some people were shocked, while others were happy.
The Gibson family wasn’t as mad as I thought they’d be about my decision to break up near our wedding date. Instead, at a party, Eric’s mom brought up the topic, suddenly mentioning the long-unresolved baby betrothal between the Gibson family and the Harlan family.
Sarah told me about it. She was mad on my behalf. “You just broke up with him, and his mom already has a replace- ment lined up! People might think this was all planned!”
I wasn’t too surprised. In fact, I’d long noticed Eric’s mom didn’t like me-my looks weren’t good enough, and I came from the modeling profession she hated most. If it weren’t for Eric’s feelings, I might never have been in the Gibson family. As for their goddaughter Kelly, she loved her wholeheartedly.
And then, it seemed like things were falling into place for them. With me out of the picture, it looked like everything was going back to how it used to be.
It was hard to process ten years of feelings in just a short time. When emotions hit at night, I’d grab a mirror and look at my face.
Nothing was impossible to overcome.
Thankfully, my hard work paid off.
That day, I got a job offer from the company I’d always dreamed of. As I was getting my modeling portfolio ready for the interview that afternoon, a close friend called.
“Maddie, I’m back in the country!
“So, are you free tonight? Let me take you and Eric out to dinner.”
She hadn’t heard about what happened with him. After I explained calmly, there was an awkward silence before she said, “My bad… Maybe I’m still jet-lagged. I just noticed the birthday invitation I got has his name and… Kelly’s writ-
ten on the back. Sorry, Maddie.”
I only remembered Eric’s birthday was coming up after he reminded me.
“Are you really not going to his birthday?” the person from the other end asked.
“Yeah, not going,” I said, not really caring.
But life loved to throw surprises at us when we least expect them.
I never thought I’d run into this old acquaintance again on the day my shoot wrapped up.
