The Absurdity of It All

While doing my girlfriend Bianca White's laundry, I found an envelope with a certified marriage certificate and a wedding photo between her clothes.

In the wedding photo against the white background, the young man beside her smiled with bright, reckless confidence.

I shook all over and slammed the document down in front of her.

Bianca gave it one calm glance, then tapped the young man's face in the photo with her fingertip.

"Mason Rivers. You know him. He failed to get into grad school and tried to kill himself last year and I saved him, so we exchanged numbers. He wouldn't have come to me unless he was desperate.

"His parents are very controlling. Back home, they were trying to force him into a marriage and give up on his education. As an educator, I couldn't just stand by and watch him die, so I helped him."

Bianca said it so casually, as if she had only done him a small favor.

However, the marriage certificate and wedding photo would not go away.

I stared at it, then suddenly laughed until I almost cried. I had waited eight whole years for that certificate, yet I had never once gotten Bianca to say "Let's get married" even now.

I never expected Mason to get it with one sentence.

"I'll move out tonight," I said.

I felt my chest tightened as I turned around, losing all hope.

Bianca, who had always been composed, lost her calm and suddenly hugged me tightly from behind. She had always had a cold personality and devoted much of herself to research, so moments like this were rare between us.

My back tingled. I could even feel her warm breath.

"It's my fault for not explaining clearly, making you misunderstand. I only registered the marriage with Mason to help him. There's nothing between us. He has never even touched my hand."

I was already going to tell Bianca that we should break up, but when I met her serious eyes, I forced them back down.

Eight years together, and I couldn't bear to let it end like this.

After one last struggle, I decided to give Bianca one more chance.

"Fine. I believe you. Now that this is over and the matter is settled, hurry up and divorce Mason."

Bianca frowned and quietly let go of me.

"We can't divorce yet. If we divorce now, Mason's parents will drag him back home. My plan is that once he gets into grad school, graduates, finds a job, and can break free from his family, we can divorce. That will guarantee his safety."

Mason had not even gotten into grad school yet. If we waited until he graduated, it would take at least four years.

Bianca wanted to stay married to Mason for four years?

Then what was I supposed to be?

My throat tightened, and I felt so sick I almost threw up.

"What about me, then? Do you want me to be your secret lover?"

Bianca looked at me with displeasure, her frown growing deeper.

"My marriage to Mason is fake. You're the one I love. How can you degrade yourself by calling yourself a lover? Alan, can't you be a little more understanding? I remember how compassionate you were back in college. How did you become as unreasonable as those narrow-minded men?"

Looking at Bianca's righteous expression, I suddenly found the whole thing so laughable.

There were a hundred ways to help Mason, but she had chosen the craziest one and married him. When she made that decision, had she ever thought about the boyfriend who had been with her for eight years?

Who was the unreasonable one here?

I slowly took off the watch on my wrist.

Bianca had given me very few things, and this watch was one of them.

Back then, we were still two broke students. I saw a watch I liked at the counter, and the luminova on the dial illuminated straight into my heart.

I wanted it desperately, but it cost eight hundred dollars.

Bianca said it was just brand markup and that anyone who bought it was an idiot.

However, she secretly signed up as a test subject for a medical research facility's drug trials behind my back. She earned one thousand dollars from that and bought me the watch.

That became Bianca's get out of jail free card.

Because of this watch, I forgave Bianca for being inconsiderate, forgave her for loving research more than me, and forgave her absurd demand that she would only marry me once I had one hundred thousand dollars ready.

But…

I couldn't forgive her for marrying another man.

There was only so much I could tolerate.

I held the watch in my palm tightly and a tear fell onto the back of my hand. "Bianca, we..."

The doorbell cut me off.