Discovery

The day after the funeral was a blur for Colleen. The first thing she did was reach for her phone on the nearest bedside table to see if Aidan had given her an update on his meeting yesterday. But the device was turned off and wouldn't turn on. She plugged it in and decided to go visit Marco Polo to say hello. He always gets up early. But when she arrived at the aquarium, it was empty. Next to it, there was a matchbox painted black. Everything comes back to him all at once, which causes him a sudden headache.

Not everything could be true, right? Aidan couldn't have broken up with her that way. By message? And with such harsh words? His brain must have made it all up. It's possible. But it's true that Marco is dead. Poor guy. The idea made her heart ache.

While waiting for her phone, Colleen goes to the shower and washes up. About ten minutes later, she comes out of her room wearing another pair of pajamas.

Her phone has enough battery for her to use. She goes through her Twitter, then the news app. That's one thing her father taught her: to always know what's going on around you. "Prevention is better than cure." While nothing is ever important enough to be alarmed about, Colleen considers this small gesture one more memory of her father. Her computer was in the kitchen, the new episode of Magnum had just come out, she had to watch it before Aidan decided to spoil it because she takes her time.

While reading an article about a flu vaccine developed in England, she receives a message from Ida. Weird. She hasn't spoken to her in several months and now she's writing it out of the blue. She opens the conversation and as she reads the message, incomprehension is painted more and more in her features.

Ida: Hi beautiful. How are you feeling today? Mateo says hello and asks you to hold on. Before you see him anywhere, I'm sending you this. I know it hurts. Do you want to come eat at home later? You're welcome to. We'd love to see you again. Love you.

The link attached to the post leads to an Instagram page she had never seen before. The owner was Aidan. @Aidanchoi0822. The problem with this page is that it couldn't belong to Aidan, he had no account. Not on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. As he scrolls down to the photos, his heart tightens. Each photo brings him a new pain. One of them is a photo of her television open to a sports channel. When he came to her house, this is what he did most often. The caption on the photo makes swallowing his saliva a painful task: "Football with friends!!! ". With friends? So he was masking his days with him with a lie. What about all the people she met during their relationship? Her so-called "friends"? Did they know Aidan had been leading her on all this time? Two years, almost, down the drain. Like a useless old memory.

She goes on with her conversation and discovers yesterday's message which ends up confirming what was obvious: Aidan broke up with her by message.

Aidan: Hi Colleen. Sorry about Marco. He was a nice fish. Look, I think we should call it a day. It's been great with you, really. But I have other plans. I'm getting married in a few months and I want to do everything right. Take care of yourself.

He thinks they should stop everything. It's been good with her BUT he has other plans. And if that wasn't sadistic enough, he plans to get married in a few months and he wants to do everything right. Oh the bastard.

Anger invaded her as she reread again and again the few words that appeared in front of her. At the same time, a message from... it had to be admitted, her ex, brought up the rest of the conversation.

Aidan: Hi Colleen, Sarah wants you to come to the wedding. I'll send you an invitation. You can bring someone if you want. See you there! ;)

Her name was Sarah. So Colleen remembers her most recent photo on Instagram. She goes back to the app and clicks on the photo. To any person, it would just be a man taking a picture of a thermos made of reflective material, with the Seattle skyline in the background. But to Colleen, who knew Aidan pretty well, she noticed the object of her fear.

Aidan has never liked jewelry. No necklace, no bracelet, not even a watch. He said it made him feel chained. Even though it was a little crazy, Colleen accepted him as he is, she loved him after all. As he goes along, he makes sure that even she abandons her own. What could be more normal than doing what the man you love does?

Seeing in this photo, Aidan, since it is indeed him who appears in the reflection of the container, was wearing on his right hand not only a bracelet but also a silver ring, finally reducing to ashes any anger Colleen had in her.

Crying, standing in the middle of her kitchen, was not in any of her romantic books. Even less so when she felt drops of water falling on her skull. When she looked up, her ceiling was stained a brown color. Her upstairs neighbor had a leak. Beautiful.

Her situation is worse than she expected now. She is single, by message, it should be said, her apartment is sinking, and she is unemployed. Or rather, without a job; since she wasn't really looking for one these last days, not to say these last years.

Colleen reached for her computer and came across a picture of them in the background. Tears were silently streaming down her cheeks and to pull them back would mean she was accepting her defeat, her loneliness. Not yet. She still wanted to hold on to Aidan for a while. But she knew no one would leave her alone now that the fairy tale was over and exploded into a million pieces.

Elena is the closest. She would probably come knocking on her door every day until she got better. Jack would occasionally stop by and cry with her in front of a romantic movie. She sometimes wonders if he and Elena have unintentionally changed temperaments. But she remembers that he was always like that and that Gabriel, her father, was exactly the same. Thankfully her mother and Emmett were there to keep the ship afloat and out of the unnecessary tears of the head of the family and the last of the siblings. Emmett, Colleen, Jackson. The Smith trio.

Emmett. She remembers, while searching for a movie in the Netflix catalog, that he is coming home from residency in three weeks. He'd gone to England a few years ago, for medical school, and now he was coming home for good, in three weeks. "Oh no." she thought, realizing what that meant.

Ever since he was a child, Emmett was always the one who stood up for the weakest. Especially his brothers and sisters. Because of his size, one would think he was the bad guy, but underneath his uncompromising and rather cold demeanor, he would never hesitate to help others. Now, knowing that he is going back in three weeks after his tragic breakup with Aidan, she hopes that he will not show his face so soon. The pain is still fresh and her teeth would be missing by the time Emmett saw her figure across town.

Another point comes to mind: she hasn't told anyone that she hasn't worked in six months. Or rather, she resigned from her job because at that time Aidan was sick and needed extensive assistance from a caregiver or someone else who could help him. He had had an infection. That's all she knew. He asked her to stay with him for a few more hours, then a few more days, and finally the crucial request emerged, "Why don't you leave your job and take care of me?" He asked, with the most sincere look in his eyes.

At that moment, Colleen didn't know how to respond. Sure, he needed twenty-four on twenty-four assistance, but her, leaving her job? "You want me to leave the bakery?" He nodded. The young woman's face frowns for a few seconds. He adds, "If you were in the same situation, I would have left my job right then and there." He strokes her arm up and down as if trying to console her. "What about my apartment? I can't move in with you for life!" He shakes his head and smiles at her. "IF that's the only concern, don't worry about it. Since I'm the one who made the request, I'll take care of your rent. Are you late?" She shakes her head. "No. I'm three months early, I had some money saved up and I wanted to take that weight off my shoulders for a while." He nods and presses a kiss to her temple. "I'll take care of it," he said.

It's been six months since the decision was made. Today, her apartment is paid off for maybe three or four more months, but she still has to look for a job. Running her fingers through her curls, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Her crying has stopped, but her heart still hurts.

Colleen puts her computer down on the coffee table in the living room and goes back into the kitchen where water from the ceiling has formed a small pool on the floor. She blows and sets down a pot to catch the water. She should talk to her upstairs neighbor later. As she was about to open the refrigerator, her attention went to a picture of her and Aidan last winter, roller skating. It's been great with you, I assure you. He said. Did it go well? What he didn't know was that the last few years have been the best she's had. Well, from a certain point of view that not everyone liked. She shakes her head, pushing back the tears and the memories. The young woman opens the freezer door, changing her mind about what she was going to eat today. She has a choice of pepperoni pizza, frozen cheese, eggs, leftovers from a Korean restaurant she visited a few days ago... with Aidan, and the leftover pasta she made yesterday before the funeral.

She remembers him laughing a lot the night they went out to dinner. He talked a lot too, something that happened very rarely during their two-year relationship, although he never did it with her. So that night, she felt special. Like he was allowing himself a splinter in his image just for her. Now that she was across the river, Colleen wondered if it was the astronomical amount of Soju he consumed that was the source of the change in her temperament and not any intimacy between the two of them.

She takes out the frozen tteokbokki dish and places it on the kitchen table. That night too, he was particularly charming, kind and very gentlemanly. He carried her up the stairs to her floor, the elevator gave up the ghost. That night too, they made love as if it were the last time.

And that was really the last time. Wiping the indiscreet tears from her red cheeks, she opened the microwave door and inserted the dish that brought back so many good memories.