Chapter 3
At two in the morning. The sound of someone entering the passcode finally came from outside the door. Gabriel was clearly startled to see me sitting by the window. The things in his hand fell to the ground with a thud. “Why aren’t you asleep yet?” He knew that in the past, even if he came home late, I would only wait until midnight. Not like today. I put down my wine glass and walked past him to turn on the living room lights. In an instant, the quiet space was as bright as day. Gabriel loosened his tie and casually tossed his suit jacket on the sofa, taking large strides towards me, wanting to hug me. I had a moment of dizziness. Even this suit he was supposed to wear to our anniversary was chosen by me. Yet he wore it to rush to someone else. “Are you tired?” he asked me coaxingly, bringing up the serious topic lightly. I quietly sniffed the alcohol on him and raised my hand to push him away. Gabriel didn’t let go, explaining with complete nonchalance: “I had something urgent come up today. I didn’t mean to miss it. Besides, our families have already met, so these formalities don’t really matter, right?” “It’s so late, can we not fight about this?” Seeing that I didn’t say anything, he suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to pick up the paper bag he had dropped on the ground earlier. “I brought you a small cake. Last time you said this place was really popular and you wanted to try it. I specially went to queue up for it.” He took my hand affectionately. When the box was opened, the cake had been smashed beyond recognition, with most of the fruit filling spilled out. It was only at this moment that I let out a small laugh. Gabriel saw my expression soften and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s okay, I’ll buy you another one another day.” But I suddenly asked him: “Does she like this place too?” Gabriel froze for a few seconds. “Who?” I looked up and stared into his eyes: “Zoe Quinn.” “You… know?” Gabriel’s voice instantly lowered, then became irritated: “Her mom passed away recently. She was really emotional today, and I was afraid something might happen to her, so I went to keep her company. You know she doesn’t have many relatives. We grew up—” I calmly finished his sentence: “Together, almost like siblings.” Gabriel choked, then continued after a while: “I’ve already had someone take down the trending topic. We’ll release a statement tomorrow.” I said “Oh,” and slowly started cleaning up the cake on the table. “Why don’t you just release a statement saying you’re single?” He frowned in confusion: “What do you mean?” “Gabriel.” The long-delayed sense of bitterness finally began to occupy my eyes. I blinked, trying to prevent myself from losing composure, but my voice still trembled uncontrollably. “I’m allergic to mangoes.”