The Final Chapter
For James, life without Nadine was mundane.
He went to work as usual, met up with his friends, did his own shopping and fed their kitten (which was more like a fat cat now).
The highlight of everyday was to call her through Skype and talk to her about everything, from her initial apprehension of being alone until she was finally comfortably settled. Sometimes it felt like she never left for they never missed anything that happened to each other.
And even though he had repeatedly assured Nadine that their long distance relationship wouldn't hurt, he did have doubts initially. Very very minimal.
But he was proud to say that any doubts he had were all diminished.
He continued to meet the rest of their friends for dinners, updating her to the others.
"Coping well?" Ashley asked during dinner once, after Nadine left.
"Not too bad."
"How are things going?"
"Good. Except for the fact that I'm missing her like crazy."
Ashley cringed and Tom laughed.
~~~~~
"Tired?" the voice on the other side of the line asked, a standard question on a daily basis.
"Nope, just the usual." Nadine stretched her legs while lying on the bed, phone clasped between her chin and ears.
"Are you wearing wool socks already? I checked the forecast in Shanghai, it's getting colder isn't it?"
She stared at the pair of unworn cashmere socks that arrived by post just three days ago and replied gleefully, "Yeah, I'm wearing them right now."
James packed a boxful of items for her on a monthly basis, in it were necessities deemed useful by him. There were snacks, her favourite tea, moisturiser and in the most recent one, socks as well.
After a moment's of pause, his reply was "tsk, don't lie to me Nadine Lustre. And go wear those socks this moment!"
Nadine sat up and looked around, "how did you know?"
"Please, I'm James Reid."
"Ehhh." She gave a little sound of defeat as she reached for the pair of peached coloured socks. "It's really not that cold, Love. My floors are heated and the bedroom has carpeted flooring."
"Do you want me to worry myself to death here? You know your hands and legs get cold easily, even in summer!"
"Fine, calm down, Love. I'm wearing them now."
"Good."
Life in Shanghai was similar but different.
For her, it was just a different location for work, albeit with more responsibilities.
The one-bedroom apartment that she was given was small but cosy, over the four months that she was here Nadine was proud to say that she'd made it more homely now that most of her free time was spent in it.
Weekdays were for work; the new project was starting to take off and she could finally have a breather. James called promptly at 9pm everyday no matter where he was.
There was once he called even though he was rushing through a report, she could hear how tired he was the moment the line got through and bawled seconds into the call.
Poor James thought he'd done something wrong and was all apologetic until she said she felt sorry that she couldn't be by his side and that she missed him a lot.
