When Roy Pope stayed out all night with Liana Bender again...
I remained calm.
He's coming back at noon with donuts from a local bakery, and surprisingly, he took the initiative to explain:
"We hadn't hung out together in a while, drank too much, so we just crashed at an e-sports hotel. But this time, we didn't share a bed—I slept on the floor," he emphasized.
After all, we had a huge fight about this last time.
I accused him of being married yet having no sense of boundaries, relentlessly demanding to confront Liana.
Liana grew up playing with them in the same compound.
They call her a girl, but she's brash and bold.
She treats everyone like a brother.
I've seen her many times, unabashedly sitting on these guys' laps, joking around, even sharing a drink without a second thought.
At first, he patiently explained.
But then he got annoyed and snapped, "If anything was going to happen, it would have happened long ago—you wouldn't be the one married to me," and stormed out.
The ridiculous thing is...
His friends tried to persuade me:
"Liana grew up with us, that's just her nature. Roy sees her as a kid."
A kid?
Is twenty-five still considered a kid?
I was disgusted and told him that if he didn't understand boundaries, we should get a divorce.
Since then, Roy did keep some distance from Liana for a while, but the result was that Liana would intentionally or unintentionally make snide remarks about me in public:
"Ms. Pope, look, I'm not sitting next to Roo, right?"
"Roo, don't come to the second round with us, or else Ms. Pope will get mad."
"Roo isn't the same anymore, got a leash on his neck. I wouldn't dare get close."
She always said these things when I was around.
Naturally, this created a subtle tension.
Over time, it became well-known that I was petty, jealous, and unreasonable.
That's when Roy and I started to grow distant and indifferent to each other.
Snapping back to reality.
I looked at the takeout box in Roy's hand—the food I used to love, but now, it seemed tasteless.
Roy noticed my indifference too. He set the takeout box on the table, walked over, and hugged me, his voice soft and appeasing:
"Honey, didn't you always want to watch that movie? I'm not going to the office today, so we can go see it together. It's supposed to be pretty good."
It was a movie I had been looking forward to for a long time.
As soon as it was released, I asked Roy to go see it with me.
He said he was busy.
Just a few days later, I saw Liana showing off movie tickets on her social media.
Two tickets.
Though there were no faces, the hand in the photo, with its distinct knuckles and the wedding ring on the ring finger, unmistakably belonged to Roy.
"I could smell a subtle scent of sandalwood on Roy as I pulled away without showing any emotion and refused, 'No thanks.'"
I continued packing my suitcase.
"Mina."
Roy's voice turned angry as he saw what I was doing, grabbing my hand:
"You're pulling this running away from home thing again? I already told you, there's nothing between me and Liana."
"I know."
I calmly withdrew my hand. "You're just friends."
He seemed taken aback by my words.
Roy's expression turned uneasy as he awkwardly let go, frowning, "Then why are you making a fuss..."
"I'm going on a business trip."
I explained.
Roy's expression darkened even more as he stared at me for a long time, as if trying to detect any trace of pretense on my face.
But there was nothing.
My reaction remained calm.
Because I no longer cared.
Who he watched movies with, who he stayed out all night with, who he dated...
It all didn't matter anymore.
