More to Life ✔

Chapter 3 Stay

After a long day at her cleaning job, raindrops on the bus window blurred the city's buildings into a haze of dreary grey. Yellow street lamps bled through the bleakness like stage lights. Maria fought tears as her stomach twisted into knots. The only texts were check-ins from her family and apologies from Kelsey. Maria's nails dug into her rubber phone case as she reread one.

Kelsey: Ria, please talk to me! I've never been so conflicted in my life! You two are my closest friends, and when I saw him hurting like that I needed to help... he told me you didn't love him anymore and that he was falling apart, and I believed it... I'm so lost and so sorry!! Please say something. I can't lose you.

As the bus raced down the street, tears tumbled from Maria's eyes. Had she convinced Adrian she'd fallen out of love with him? Life without him was unimaginable.

When her notification light flashed, her fingers rushed to illuminate the screen.

Gather your ingredients and show us what you've got! Gourmet Adventures Competition starts today. Ready, set, chop!

With a sigh, she swiped away the e-mail and tucked her phone in her pocket. The social media cooking competition Adrian suggested was best left to foodies whose lives weren't such a mess. They could keep up with daily posts about their creative culinary endeavours. She pulled the cord as the bus neared her brick apartment building.

While shivering, Maria scurried over the cracked sidewalk. The day they'd moved into this apartment, they'd invited their friends over for drinks where Adrian had seldom left her side. Later, they'd cooked vegetable curry with his mom, who'd guided Maria through so many frustrated rants about her future, education, and family. Without him in the picture, most of Maria's friends would vanish. With the demands of working and attending school almost full time for four years, most of her high school friendships had disintegrated as she'd dedicated her limited free time to Adrian.

She cursed, her words masked by rain splattering on the pavement. Her cousin, Sunshine, was the only one left in her life who understood Maria's predicament, but she was half-a-world away teaching in Thailand.

Maria's fists clenched as she ran, raindrops pelting onto her exposed arms. It was easy to villainize cheaters in the movies, but Adrian's love and adoration made her an island salvation in a dark, unforgiving ocean. He found the apartment to escape her judgmental parents and pulled her up on stage to serenade at her every opportunity. If he knew how important he was to her, he wouldn't hurt her like that again. He'd told her yesterday afternoon that he loved her after they got through their last fight. They could fix this.

By the time she ran past the old, beaten-up houses to the apartment stoop, water permeated every inch of her. She dumped a puddle out of her flats and wrung out her hair. Her shoes squeaked up the stairs.

She hesitated when she arrived at their dented front door. With a shaky hand, she unlocked the door and stepped inside.

His new guitar stood in its stand, and music sheets covered their coffee table. The three pictures of her and Adrian at a waterfall, at his cousin's wedding, and the day they moved into together hung behind the couch. Her heart warmed like the surrounding air; he hadn't abandoned her for Kelsey.

"Adrian," Maria called out.

He emerged from the kitchen with a bottle of expensive, gluten-free beer, his long hair, damp from a shower. The hemp smell of his soap triggered intimate memories: his arms wrapping around her as she towelled off, his wet hair dripping on her shoulders and brushing against her neck as he leaned in to ask what her plans were as if he hadn't inspired dozens with his light kisses between each word. After untangling themselves from the sheets, they'd spend the day together, walking hand in hand to the coffee shop, skating on the river, or lying on the grass in each other's embraces as the spring sun warmed them. His love radiated through every touch, laugh and smile. He'd tried to set up one of those days in July, but she'd worked an extra cleaning shift to clear their rent check. Despite her promise to make it up, a month passed, and she forgot.