TRAVEL ROMANCE SERIES: #6 NEW YORK | DARLING

2. Dubai دبي

— Two Years Later, Since Dubai ✈ Paris —
The Grand GM Palace, In February

VERONICA

It wasn't long ago when she decided her fate. She was to be the bride of the most gorgeous man she'd ever set eyes on. Prepared to move to the Big Apple, she longed to wake up to the exquisite music coming from her man's studio. She would have been the perfect wife to TJ Smith, the most talented music producer, sprucing up his bachelor pad with bouquets of white peonies and fluffy white towels. Ultimately, she would carry his children in her womb and be the mother to a band of mixed children with blue-green eyes like hers; beautiful caramel skin and thick, dark curly hair like their father's. But just last night, her fiancé pleaded to make their relationship work again. And she said no.

No. I can't. I just can't. I'm sorry.

The pain, the tears. All poured on Valentine's day.

After almost three years of bliss, their bond was severed in the last year by a summer of sorrow and an autumn of mourning. And in its final closing was a winter of grief, making it the most painful decision. Retracing memories from the last few months to last night hurt like hell. Friends and family could not believe the split, the whys and the hows. It's complicated, she told them. Behind closed doors, she'd weep, concealing a heart-wrenching secret.

This evening, Veronica had to put on the fakest smile on the airline's promotion ball at The Grand GM Hotel in Marina Bay. Twenty-four managerial graduates had made it to the most grueling training in the last six months.

She made it. She was officially an inflight cabin crew manager, the highest winged position for a flight attendant. It was supposed to be her evening to shine, to taste a night of celebration after four years of hard work to get to where she was. But that lingering feeling in her gut refused to leave her. There wasn't a bone in her body that wanted to celebrate.

"Babe, you worked so hard for this. Let nothing stop you from celebrating your achievements," Drew Pierce, her best friend in Dubai, said over the phone.

She'd rather sulk in her apartment, but Drew was right. And even after she sent TJ back home to New York heartbroken, he still called her to congratulate her. He was supposed to be her date at the ball, but after the turn of events, it was too hard for both of them to pretend everything was ever going to be the same again.

"I have a gift for you. It's inside the drawer by your bedside," he'd said over the phone, a tinge of sadness in his voice.

He'd told her to open it after the call. After they said goodbye, she went to her bedroom and found a note and a black case inside the drawer. She pulled it out and slowly cracked open the box. Veronica gasped in tears. It revealed an exquisite pink-gold Jaeger-LeCoultre dual time watch, a piece she'd been saving up for years now. The timepiece was supposed to unite them, merging their worlds in one frame despite the opposing time zones.

Sadness befell her as he'd written the note before she broke up with him. It simply read, "We'll always be in sync, baby."

And then it hit her. TJ didn't tell her what his plans were before he ended the call. He didn't say, "I'm working late in the studio," or "Pops is in town, and we're having dinner," or "I'm landing in LA soon. I'll call you later."

He just said, "Hey, I have to go."

And for the first time, he didn't end it with, "I love you, baby."

Veronica burst into tears, realizing what she'd done. She felt like throwing up.

What have I done?