The Hundredth Departure

It seemed that he had indeed come.

He had simply booked different seats for himself and Camila.

When she noticed the camera, Camila became overly excited and tried to form a heart with Arthur.

Arthur, however, acted as though he did not see her and lowered his head and pretended to be busy on his phone.

Just then, my phone buzzed.

It was a text from Arthur.

[Hey, where are you? Did you end up going to the concert?

[It’s Millie’s birthday. She really wanted to come, so I kind of had to bring her along.]

This was new. It was the first time he had ever explained himself to me, so I willingly replied.

[Yes, I’m at the concert. Don’t worry about it.]

On camera, Camila’s expression slowly shifted from excitement to resentment.

Fortunately, the cameraman noticed it and turned the camera away.

After the concert ended, I took my own sweet time before I returned home. I went for a walk along the beach.

My phone kept buzzing incessantly.

Almost all the notifications were texts from Arthur, and the rest were social media posts where Camila had tagged me.

It turned out that a clip of her and Arthur at the concert had gone viral.

On every promotional page that shared the video, she had pinned a comment specifically tagging me.

The caption read:

[My busy lawyer made time to come to the concert with me despite his busy schedule.]

In another comment, she added, [Okay, everyone, show’s over. Mr. Hutton saw the posts and is already begging for my forgiveness.]

The attached picture showed Arthur on one knee as he tied her shoelaces.

Her intentions were obvious, but I did not care. I liked every single post.

It was already early morning by the time I returned home.

The lights in the living room were still on.

To my surprise, Arthur had fallen asleep on the couch with his laptop in his arms.

During our five years together, he had always stayed out for his enjoyment until midnight, and I was always the one who ended up sleeping on the couch.

Even in the first year of his startup, when I drank until I vomited to help him secure clients and was rushed to the hospital by a colleague, Arthur never waited up for me.

At most, he would send me a message to tell me to come home early.

Then, he would fall sound asleep.

My thoughts were interrupted when Arthur was startled awake when I opened the door.

He rubbed his eyes. When he saw me, he straightened up with a stiff face.

“Where were you? Why weren’t you answering your phone? I thought something happened to you…”

He did not finish his sentence, as if he was suddenly aware of his own outburst.

He pursed his lips and awkwardly pulled a velvet jewelry box from his pocket.

I took it and opened the box. There was a sparkling diamond ring inside.

I was stunned.

I had waited five years for this ring.

In those five years, I had hoped that one day Arthur would stop me, ask for my hand, and slip the ring onto my finger.

I thought that once the ring was on my finger, he would settle down with me.

I finally had the ring, but it felt unpleasant in my hand.

I immediately regretted opening the box.

I thought for a moment before I took out my phone to send him my resignation letter.

Arthur frowned. He did not understand what I meant by this.

He thought I would be crying tears of joy and swear to love him for the rest of my life.

He coughed and said eagerly, “What’s the matter? Are you so happy you’re speechless?”

I did not look up and continued searching through my phone.

My phone was out of battery, and it shut down abruptly.

Left with no other option, I went back to my room to look for a charger.

Arthur’s face stiffened. He reached out and was about to demand an explanation.

Just then, someone knocked on the front door.

Camila shivered in the night. She wore only a thin white dress.

“Artie, my electricity went out. You wouldn’t mind if I stayed over, would you?”

“Sure.”

I was the one who answered her.

After all, I would be leaving the day after tomorrow. It did not matter whether she stayed over or not.

Camila was stunned. She then immediately threw herself into Arthur’s arms like a frightened little kitten.

For the first time, I saw confusion and hurt in Arthur’s eyes as he looked at me.