Sunshine, Souvenirs, and One Less Cheating Boyfriend

My boyfriend, Leon Kramer, goes on a ten-day trip.

When he comes back, he suddenly makes a casual remark as we lay in bed after an intimate session in bed.

He says, "I've never noticed how fair you are."

After he falls asleep, I take a look at the photo gallery on his phone.

There are hundreds of photos featuring him and the woman he's been with over the last ten days. She has tanned skin and isn't as fair as I am.

I put his phone back without a word.

Actually, my new target isn't as fair as Leon is. I keep quiet about it, afraid of exposing myself.

While we were being intimate, Leon Kramer slipped his hand under my pajamas.

Then, he suddenly raised an eyebrow and said, "Hey, Xandra. I've never noticed before, but you're actually pretty fair."

I froze for a moment. A thought surfaced in my mind, but it was quickly interrupted by what he was doing.

Biting my lip, I thought hazily, "As expected of a younger guy. His stamina is bottomless."

…

After he fell asleep, I slipped on my robe and got up.

What Leon said earlier was intriguing. After coming back from a ten-day trip, he came back and suddenly noticed that I was fair.

So, who wasn't fair, then?

Silently, I picked up his phone and unlocked it by entering his birthday. I opened the photo gallery.

I didn't know if he hadn't had time to delete them or just assumed I'd never check his phone, but hundreds of recent photos with another young woman appeared right before my eyes.

Standing on the golden sand before the pyramids, he had his arm around a young woman dressed in a steampunk-style shawl, who was grinning broadly and showing a full set of pearly teeth.

She didn't look very old, as she seemed to be in her early 20s. She wasn't stunning, but she was pleasant-looking enough. The woman had blonde hair, a round face, and big doe eyes. When she smiled, it carried that distinct brightness of youth.

As I kept scrolling, the photos became increasingly inappropriate.

They were in a hotel pool, in front of massive floor-to-ceiling windows, and on a large double bed. When their bodies were intertwined, the young woman didn't seem to mind Leon taking photos of them at all.

Young people nowadays were so incredibly bold.

Most importantly, she had a tanned complexion.

Now, I understood why Leon said I looked fair. He had spent ten full days with her before coming back to me, so of course I'd seem fair in comparison.

I quietly placed the phone back beside Leon's pillow and glanced at him. His brows and eyes were relaxed as he slept soundly. Under the moonlight, his prominent forehead cast deep shadows over his eye sockets, where long eyelashes adorned his closed eyelids.

How nice it was to be young. One could fall asleep the moment their head hit the pillow.

I reached out and gently touched his eyelid. His lashes trembled slightly, but he didn't wake up.

The first time I met Leon was when my younger cousin, Kelly Porter, started college. I went to visit her on campus.

A crowd of girls had gathered on the field. Curious, I squeezed in and heard the sound of a guitar.

The evening breeze brushed through the boy's hair. His slender fingers strummed the guitar, and the setting sun outlined the firm yet not overly bulky lines of his back. His thin eyelids carried a faint blush.

His long lashes were lowered slightly as he sang a foreign song, his voice husky and magnetic.

I listened carefully, and it sounded like he was singing in Farvoan.

The girls around us chattered and snapped photos.

Kelly tugged at my arm excitedly. "Xandra, that's the lead singer of a band formed by students here! Isn't he handsome? He could totally debut right away!"

He really was handsome. I nodded, intrigued.

So, when he finished singing that day and the girls rushed up to ask for his number, I—much to Kelly's shock—also handed him my phone.

What happened next followed naturally.

Leon posted on social media asking where he could find a good recording studio, and I recommended a friend's studio to him. To thank me, he treated me to a meal. Later, I helped him out a few more times, and before long, the two of us ended up together.

Leon didn't like living in the dorms, so I moved out with him. He didn't like takeout, so I learned to cook three meals a day for him. He didn't like having strangers in the house, so I terminated the cleaning service and took over all the housework myself.

It was fair to say that over these past few years, I'd taken care of him in every possible way.

Kelly, who initially gritted her teeth in frustration, later felt conflicted about our relationship.

She warned me, "Leon seems pretty flirty. I've heard he's gone through more than a dozen girlfriends in a year. Don't fall in too deep."