I Disappeared After Ninety-Ninth Engagement

When I left her room, I went to the university to collect some things I'd left in Julian's office.

I walked in on him playing a party game with his students.

Sheila had lost a round. The penalty was to kiss one of the male students.

She picked a guy at random. Just before her lips touched his, Julian pulled her away.

His possessiveness hadn't dulled at all.

When we were kids, he would get jealous if I talked to another boy for too long. Of course, watching the woman he actually loved about to kiss someone else, he couldn't take it.

What I didn't expect was to hear them, that same night, in our house.

Sheila's voice drifted through the wall in soft, hiccupping sobs.

"Julian, Professor, you're getting engaged. I love you, but I can't ruin another woman's marriage. I need to be with someone else, so I can forget you. Let me go."

I didn't hear Julian's reply.

What I did hear after that was the sound of kissing, and Sheila's breath catching.

I pressed my hands over my ears and ran to my own room. The sounds still found me through the door.

I didn't know how much time passed before the house phone rang. It was Julian, on the internal line.

"Ada. Bring up a women's robe. Don't let anyone notice."

"Julian. I don't have to clean up after the things you do behind my back."

He drew in a sharp breath. I could practically see his face going red.

"Ada. Remember your place. Until I marry you, you're still a housekeeper's daughter."

The last thread inside me snapped.

There was a time when I hadn't been able to see past the class difference between us. I hadn't been brave enough to stand next to him.

He was the one who had reached for my hand. “Who cares whose daughter you are? What we have is real. What do you care what they say?”

That man didn't exist anymore.

Lucky for me, neither did the part of me that had still been hoping.

I grabbed a robe out of the linen closet and threw it into his bedroom.

I turned to leave. He caught my wrist.

"Ada — wait. Listen to me. That was a moment of weakness. I lost control. I swear to you, after we're engaged, nothing like this will ever happen again."

His mouth was full of promises. His body had been full of betrayal.

I had run out of energy to grieve him.

I smiled at him instead. "Sounds good. As long as you're happy."

Julian, you have no idea.

There wasn't going to be an engagement. There wasn't going to be an after.

Back in my room, my phone buzzed with a message from Sheila.

“Ada, I didn't realize how loaded the professor's family was until I saw this house tonight. No wonder you won't let go of him, even though he loves me.”

I started a reply, then deleted it. I started another, and deleted that one too.

I had loved Julian because when we were small and someone took my banana, he had gotten it back for me.

Because others mocked my shabby old clothes, he wore the same outfit the next day to back me up.

Girls like Sheila would never understand. My love for him had nothing to do with his money or his name.

Another message came through.

[If you still don't believe how much the professor loves me, come to my concert tomorrow.]