Chapter 9
The Umbrella He Never Held for Me Chapter 09
I thought about how Yvette had taken care of me when I was in the hospital.
In the end, I took her to get treated.
The doctor said the baby didn’t make it.
Inside the hospital room, I peeled an apple for her.
The three of us sat in silence. No one spoke.
I sighed. “You’re still young. You can try again.”
Simon lowered his head across from me. His eyes were dark and unreadable.
Yvette stared at me for a long time. Her eyes slowly turned red.
Then she suddenly broke down, huge tears rolling down her face. Tears fell hard and fast.
“Tessa… why are you doing this?”
Her voice was shaky, gasping between sobs.
“I’m sorry. I did something wrong. I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have gotten together with Simon… I really regret it…”
“The worst thing I did was betray you. But we can’t go back. I did this to myself.”
I held the apple and didn’t say anything.
She turned to look at Simon.
“Simon loves you very much. You two were supposed to get married. He’s been waiting for you… Tessa, he really has been waiting.”
Simon looked up at me.
A trace of hope lit up his eyes.
His lips parted like he wanted to say something.
I shoved the apple into Yvette’s hand and said flatly, “That’s enough. Don’t bite the hand that’s helping you.”
“I’m leaving. Let him take care of you.”
I left.
This relationship should have ended long ago.
Two weeks later, Yvette left Cresthill and returned home.
Before she went, she came to see me.
The weather was beautiful that day. She stood outside my building, thinner than before.
“For you.”
I took it. When I opened it, I saw the fairy lights. We’d spent an entire afternoon studying tutorial videos together to figure out how to make it.
Yvette used to say that as long as the fairy lights were still there, our friendship would always remain.
Watching her walk away, I thought of the old days.
I thought of college, when my fever hit 104 degrees. She carried me through the rain for two full blocks to the campus clinic.
I thought of graduation year, when I failed a job interview. She drank beer with me on the rooftop and said, “So what? I’ll take care of you.”
I thought of those two months she came to Riverside to look after me. Every day she made me different kinds of porridge. When I asked how she learned, she said she watched videos. She said she had failed several times before finally getting it right. She burned three pots in the process and never told me about any of them.
When did things change?
I didn’t know.
Yvette left. But Simon didn’t.
That night, Simon kept sending me messages.
“The guy who picked you up for team building. Is that your boyfriend?”
After I said no, he told me to come downstairs.
I looked down. He’d arranged lights in the shape of a heart.
Simon stood in the middle, holding a huge bouquet of roses.
Another message popped up.
“Tessa, this is the proposal I should have given you long ago.”
“If you don’t come down, I’ll stay here.”
I didn’t go down.
I ate dinner, showered, and went to bed like always.
Like nothing had happened.
