Chapter 15
Everyone except Aria had been hitting the wine, their faces flushed with that particular glow that comes after a few
glasses
Someone started venting about an ex, and suddenly the floodgates opened–raucous laughter mixing with the occasional teary eyed confession.
After a story involving a boyfriend who’d faked his own death to avoid a dinner with parents, Martha turned to
Aria with a tipsy grin.
“Your turn! What’s the worst relationship drama you’ve lived through?”
Aria froze momentarily as unwanted memories surfaced. Though the pain had dulled, looking at these grad students–all younger, all with such different life experiences–she couldn’t find the right way to package her story.
An awkward beat passed through the room.
Martha, despite the wine, caught the shift in mood and smoothly pivoted to another topic, saving Aria from the
moment.
Later, as they cleaned up empty glasses and takeout containers, Martha approached Aria with a grimace.
“God, I’m so sorry about earlier. Open mouth, insert foot, right? That was totally my bad.”
“Don’t even worry about it,” Aria assured her, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “Get some sleep–you look dead on
your feet.”
After Martha had disappeared into her room, Aria finished tidying up and crawled into bed, opening the WhatsApp account she’d created before leaving Europe. She’d shared this number with exactly one friend–no one else knew
her whereabouts or how to reach her.
Her eyebrows shot up at the barrage of messages waiting for her, notifications still dinging as she scrolled.
Virtually every message was about Alessandro.
“Your ex has officially lost his mind. Wasn’t he blissfully happy with his childhood sweetheart? Now he’s acting like someone stole his security blanket. Men are such clichés–they only want what they can’t have.”
“He keeps showing up at my place asking if I’ve heard from you. Don’t stress–I’d rather eat glass than tell him anything.”
“Drama alert: Alex had a nuclear meltdown at his parents‘ dinner last month. Apparently he blames his mom for ‘driving you away.‘ As if his mother forced him to marry another woman behind your back?!”
“The audacity of this man knows no bounds. His mother didn’t make him lie to your face for months.”
“Update: he’s been drinking so much the doctors had to pump his stomach last week. Almost got himself an ulcer.
08:35
I Love You So Much. But I Just Don’t Like You’Alymo
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“Heading out” Martha called, the apartment door already half open “Prof Evans is a nightmare if you’re even des
seconds late!”
Aria smiled. “Tezi me if you want to grab dinner later?”
Turning back to her phone, she typed a message with the lightness of someone finally free
“Thanks for the updates, but I’m done keeping tabs on him. No more Alessandro news, okay? I’ve moved on for real.” As she hit send, the lingering sense of unreality that had followed her across continents finally dissolved completely.
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Chapter 16
Chapter 16
