Chapter 2

That night, Logan's best friend, Mason, texted me.

[Chloe, did you and Logan get into a fight? He said you moved back in with your parents.]

[He told me you broke up with him over some unplaced shoes. You two have been together for three or four years. Throwing that away over something so small isn't worth it. Just talk it out.]

I stared at the screen for a moment, not answering directly.

[We just live differently, Mason.]

[Remember when you and Mia were fighting the worst? Back then, I didn't get it either. I told Mia that you just forgot to close the fridge door, wasting a few cents of electricity, and that it wasn't worth a divorce. Now I get it.]

Mason didn't reply. He clearly understood what I meant.

He glanced sideways at Logan, who was distractedly clicking around in his game at the cybercafé, and spoke up.

"Come on, man. You were supposed to marry Chloe soon."

"Step up a little. Anyone coming home from an exhausting business trip to find their place looking like a pigsty would lose their mind. You have hours to game; spending thirty minutes cleaning up shouldn't be that hard."

Logan shot Mason a weird look and waved him off impatiently.

"What's wrong with you? You get married and suddenly you start nagging like a middle-aged woman? Is playing a video game a crime now?"

"I bust my ass at work all day, too! I don't cheat, I don't gamble, and I share my paycheck with her. All I wanted was to kick back after work. What did I do wrong? Chloe keeps bitching at me. In the time it takes her to nag, she could’ve cleaned it up herself!"

Mason frowned deeply.

He couldn't help but shoot back:

"Does Chloe owe you something? Is she supposed to be your maid and do the chores for two people?"

"You work, but so does she! If you're free, pull your own weight. You guys were building a life together, why keep score like that?"

Logan knew he was in the wrong, silenced by Mason’s words.

He sulkily logged out of the game and muttered under his breath:

"I'm just tired of spoiling her. Every single time, I'm the one who bows his head and apologizes. Can't she comfort me just once? Whatever, talking to a married guy is pointless."

"Let's go. Chloe can't boss me around anymore anyway. Let’s grab some wings and beer! We’re getting wasted tonight!"

Logan dragged Mason out of the place.

Meanwhile, staring at my phone, I couldn't help second-guessing myself.

Then I looked up and saw my mom in the kitchen, washing the dishes.

I suddenly asked:

"Mom, why did you choose Dad back then?"

"Auntie told me you were dating that handsome guy, Paul, before him."

My mom turned around and smiled at me.

"At first, I didn't think much of your dad. Paul was handsome and treated me nicely, but he had this one habit: he kept tapping his cigarette ashes into my flower pots. My plants died one after another."

"No matter how many times I told him, he never changed. It drove me crazy."

"Your dad wasn't like that. He brought me pretty planters, bought different plant fertilizers, and whenever I went out of town, he took such good care of my flowers."

I fell into deep thought.

Just then, my dad walked through the door after taking out the trash.

He was carrying a huge watermelon, smiling warmly at me before calling into the kitchen:

"Sarah, didn't you say yesterday you were craving watermelon?"

"Look how lucky I got! I took out the trash and ran into a vendor selling sweet melons down the block."

Mom beamed and took the watermelon from him.

I knew Dad was lying. Street vendors weren't allowed around our gated community.

He must have gone out of his way to the specialty grocery store a mile away.

My mind instantly snapped back to that box of fever medicine. That night, burning up and barely conscious, I nudged Logan, begging him to walk to the 24-hour pharmacy down the block.

It was a five-minute walk. I could have had medicine in ten minutes.

"Just order it on DoorDash. It'll be here in half an hour. I'm exhausted, and I have work tomorrow."

I couldn't move him, so I had to order it through an app.

Late at night, drivers were scarce. Even with priority delivery, the medicine arrived an hour later.

After choking down the pills, I collapsed onto the bed, dizzy and shaking, staring at Logan sound asleep beside me.

That was the first time I felt real resentment toward him.

Right then, Mom pressed a fresh slice of watermelon into my hand.

"Have some. It's so sweet."

"Honey, Logan isn't a bad guy, but he doesn't know how to care for someone. A lifetime is long—fifty, sixty years. Spending it with a man like that is just too exhausting."

I nodded numbly and took a bite of the melon.

It was incredibly sweet.

Looking up, I saw my dad out on the balcony, hanging up the laundry.

In that exact moment, everything clicked.

"Mom, tell Mrs. Davis I'll meet that guy she wanted to set me up with."