Arrogant Bastard | Summerz

Chapter 11

I made check-out of both rooms and sat in the lobby for six hours. It was ridiculous. All her clothes were gone. Obviously, she had no intention of coming back when she ran off while I was asleep. For some reason, I refused to leave. Sitting on a leather sofa in the large, busy hall, I stared at the hotel's entrance doors. Maybe she would change her mind? Maybe she'd got on a bus and driven halfway to California and then regretted going. What if she came back and I wasn't there? Then I remembered that she had my phone number and hadn't called. Reality was looking worse and worse.

A couple walked through the front door arm in arm. The woman was wearing a tight white dress with a long veil and carried a round bouquet of red roses. The man was wearing a suit with the tie loose around his neck and a rose pinned to his lapel. I watched as he pulled her to him in a long, passionate kiss before heading off to the reception smiling. Tears rolled down my cheeks. It wasn't the first time today.

- Newlyweds? - An older woman, carrying a container overflowing with coins, sat down in front of me. Her white hair was styled with so much hairspray that it might have withstood a typhoon. The blank look on my face was an indication that my mind was elsewhere.

- What?

Her eyes flicked to my hands. I was absent-mindedly turning the ring on my finger. My wedding ring.

- Ah. No. It's not a real wedding ring. It was... a joke.

With my face.

She nodded.

- I'd be fifty years married next week.

I assumed her husband had died.

- I'm sorry.

- For what?

- You said "would". Your husband died?

- No. I'm not so lucky. The asshole was a liar, unfaithful and addicted to gambling.

- So what did you do?

- I took on my role as a woman, kicked his ass and got divorced almost forty years ago.

I smiled for the first time since the shower that morning.

- There you go. A pretty girl like you should always have a smile on her face.

- Thank you.

- What did the asshole do? - The name she used for the woman who hurt me didn't go unnoticed.

I shook my head.

- She left without saying goodbye.

- She? Sounds like she's a coward.

I had been humiliated and felt like a fool. But she was right, and I was only making things worse by sitting there waiting for Kazuha - I knew she wasn't coming back. I hated to admit it, but Kazuha was a coward. A selfish asshole who didn't even have the guts to say goodbye. I let out a frustrated sigh and stood up.

- Thank you.

- For what?

- For reminding me that I need to assume my role as a woman.

~~~▪︎~~~

The owner of the pet hotel greeted me with a smile.

- Overall, he was very good. It only scared the hell out of us when he fell hard to the ground. But we remembered what you said about fainting. We gave him a bath. He's clean and refreshed for the journey home.

Esmerelda Snowflake ran into my arms before walking around me several times. He seemed nervous. Carrying him on a leash, we walked to my crammed car in the parking lot. This was the last stop before leaving Las Vegas.

I was walking like a zombie. None of this seemed real. At any moment, I still half-expected to hear her voice ring out behind me.

"Chaewon... You didn't think I'd really leave you, did you, princess?"

My chest felt exhausted, as if it might explode at any moment, but the shock prevented me from letting go of the sadness and despair that were trapped inside me.

I left Esmerelda in the back and sat in the driver's seat, unable to muster the strength to start the car. Looking back, I said:

- That's it. It's just the two of us now. Are you ready?

The goat startled me by jumping into the front seat.

I watched as he sniffed the back seat several times and let out a loud, frantic "béé". It seemed like he was really trying to talk to me.

I wondered if he knew that Kazuha wasn't coming back. Animals are strange like that.

- She's gone. Kazuha is no longer here," I said, gently rubbing the back of his furry head and swallowing the pain of my words. I repeated in a whisper: - She's gone.

The animal started circling the bench until it finally stopped and rested its head there.

Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.

Something that sounded like a moan escaped his mouth. He couldn't have been crying.

As the sounds got louder and louder, I came to the conclusion that he was, indeed, crying. This cute little animal wanted Kazuha and either understood what I was saying or sensed it.

When he looked at me with sad eyes, I finally collapsed. Emotion overtook me as I leaned my forehead against the steering wheel and sobbed. In just over a week, I had found my greatest happiness and suffered my greatest heartbreak. It was as if I had been born again only to be destroyed by the very thing that had given me a new meaning to life.

Even though she had slept with me for less than twenty-four hours, Kazuha seemed very distant, as if it had all been a dream. The pain between my legs from our only night together - our first and last - was the only evidence that it had been real.

I wiped my eyes.

A woman's role. A woman's role. A woman's role.

When I finally plucked up the courage to leave, it seemed I had a new co-pilot. Esmerelda was curled up in the back seat.

When we passed the sign that said Leaving Las Vegas, I wished the saying were true, that everything that happened in Las Vegas stayed there. But I knew better. What happened to me in Vegas would be something that would follow me for a long time to come.

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