[ thirty four ]
He arrived at the airport in Madrid at six in the morning of the local time. In Colombia it was eleven o'clock of the previous night. And we talked through text messages until I became sleepy, and he did as well. Several hours on a plane made him tired and he stayed at a hotel to rest. He didn't have the energy to face Giselle. He would be seeing her the next night, where he hoped to show up before her parents so that he could end things with her.
And all that was left was to wait.
On the morning of December thirty first in Madrid, and night of the thirtieth in Colombia, he said he would go visit her in a couple of hours. I sent him some words of encouragement through text messages.
arista (+57 315 -xxx-xxxx): i'm so excited for you to come back so we can go to medellin together, and we can start planning our wedding! <3
james (+34 6xx-xxx-xxxx): i know bonita. soon we'll be together again.
arista (+57 315 -xxx-xxxx): i miss you, mi amor.
james (+34 6xx-xxx-xxxx): i miss you more, bonita.
james (+34 6xx-xxx-xxxx): just think that in two days i'll be with you again and i will be able to kiss you and hold you close.
We continued to send messages to each other throughout the day until he stopped responding for some reason. I worried because I knew James well and he would have told me if he had some things to do and wouldn't be able to respond. His absence through texts made me fear the worst. It was early afternoon in Madrid and I wondered if he was already talking to Giselle.
I consoled my fears, thinking that he was probably already talking to her and would respond to my messages later.
Hours passed and I stood by my phone, waiting for a message from him.
None came.
The time was nearing five in the afternoon in Colombia, and close to midnight in Madrid when I received an incoming message from James. My eyes lit up with excitement. This was it, the moment we had both been waiting for. The day we could make things official between us.
I unlocked my phone and looked down at my screen to see it was an incoming message from James. But it was a multimedia message and there were pictures attached.
My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "Why would he send me pictures?" I wondered to myself before opening them.
I finally clicked on the message to open it and one by one, five pictures loaded on my screen.
They were all pictures of James and Giselle, in their bedroom, under the covers, and both were undressed. Giselle smiled into the camera, while James seemed to be completely passed out, probably drunk. My heart, which had taken so long to recover, broke into a thousand pieces in an instant. He hadn't gone there to break up with Giselle, he went there to party and have a good time, hoping I would never find out.
Was he even intending to come back?
My dark brown eyes were tear glazed and blurry as they looked down at the ring around my finger.
Did it mean anything to him?
Or were they just lies he told to see how far he could take things with me. Angry, I pulled the ring off and dropped it in a drawer in the nightstand, slamming it shut.
That promise of getting married meant everything to me, and he knew it.
And in that moment I promised myself there would be no more chances for James because he was only seeking to hurt me. I wanted him out of my heart, mind, and life. And this time, I wanted him gone for good.
