Chapter 76
Although Marc was hurt by Rose's cold words, he just turned around and walked out a few steps. But finally, he stopped.
Stopping there, he knew that he might never turn back once he turned around. There were two voices struggling in his body.
The choice he faced was whether to love her purely or to make his life perfect.
After only a few seconds' struggle, Marc turned around again.
He was thinking that as long as Rose was still there...
As long as she didn't leave...
But under the colorful neon lights, her familiar figure had long disappeared.
The only thing left was the leaves blown by the wind, with a bit of desolation as if it was mocking him.
At that moment, he suddenly understood.
It turned out that even if he could give in, it was still impossible for them to be together.
She didn't belong to him.
She didn't belong to anyone.
He loved her ardour and freedom. Now why should he destroy them?
Sometimes, love also means letting go.
He chose to let her go.
He chose not to force her to be involved in a world she didn't like.
In the bar, Rose didn't say anything after coming back from outside.
She deliberately let Marc see the pregnancy test stick.
She knew he would come and ask. And she was sure that he would be nervous. But since she first vomited at home that day, when he mentioned the topic of marriage, she felt inexplicably uneasy and anxious.
She could feel his desire for family, but she also felt that she couldn't bear the responsibility.
She couldn't give him the future he wanted.
She had no confidence and dared not try such a relationship that had been excluded by herself in the past.
When she went to the hospital for examination, she was once thinking about what to do if she was really pregnant.
Abortion was just self-consolation, since she was not so cold-blooded. Indeed, she was not ready to have a baby in such a hurry.
Those days, she felt her world was in a mess and at a loss.
Fortunately, the final examination results showed that it was only endocrine disorders caused by overwork and gastritis caused by insobriety.
Although the result let her breathe a sigh of relief, it was the days of contradictory struggle that made her finally make that decision.
She took the initiative to be that ruthless person, forcing him not to look back and waste time on her.
Since she knew his good, she didn't want to hurt him.
Someone asked Rose, "Rose, who was that man?"
She came to her senses for a long time, replying softly, "A stranger."
They were not the same kind of people at all, but they had an intersection.
If it hadn't happened suddenly, she would always think that they were just casually in love.
She would not think that when he raised the topic of marriage, she would feel uneasy because of her refusal.
She didn't know when she began to care about his feelings.
She coulcn't get used to such kind of feeling, so she hurriedly pushed him away and pretended to be calm, hoping that everything would return to the past. In this way, she was still heartless and would not be restrained by anyone's emotions.
As she wished, he didn't contact her again after the bar that night.
Perhaps, adult's farewell was like this. They left with dignity and no longer disturbed each other.
One morning, about half a month later, Aaron told Rose, "He's going back to New York."
She paused, lowering her head. "When?"
"Tomorrow."
She didn't say anything.
She once felt that she would never be bound by anything or anyone. Although she wanted to get out of this relationship as soon as possible, this time, she still overestimated herself.
She drove Aaron to the flight that day.
But she didn't go in. Also, she asked Aaron not to tell him that she had come.
Rose saw Marc off at the door, hoping that the two of them would live a good life in their respective worlds.
When the plane took off, she said goodbye to him in her heart, but she was unwilling to admit that tears wet her eyes at that moment.
She could only comfort herself that she was just a little unaccustomed. Compared with her unrestrained life, this moment of reluctance was nearly nothing.
She was Rose, who only belonged to herself.
This relationship, which lasted less than half a year, ended abruptly and in the warmest way at the warmest time.
She thought she could go back to the past soon, but even the people around her could see that she had changed since he left.
At first, she still lived the way she used to, but unconsciously, she would suddenly be in a trance at the happy moment.
She seemed to have lost something in her heart.
Gradually, she began to be fed up.
She was tired of the dazzling lights, harsh music and noisy crowds.
In the end, she didn't know whether she was tired of herself.
Eight months later, Aaron was going to propose to Yolanda, planning to invite her family back from the United States to witness their happy moments together.
At that moment, she felt that her long silent heart finally had a ripple.
She finally found that she had been subconsciously expecting to hear the news about Marc.
But she didn't want to admit it because of her ridiculous pride.
It turned out that...
She still loved him.
In the end, however, she was disappointed.
On the night of the proposal, the two families were on the rooftop.
But Marc wasn't there.
He didn't come back.
He didn't leave her any chance.
He didn't even want to come back to attend his own sister's engagement banquet. Rose knew that in his heart, the story about them might have become a past he never wanted to face again.
After that night, she became more and more reticent and her daily life was full of work.
The two live in different worlds. Occasionally, they could each other's recent situation from Aaron and Yolanda, but that's all.
Maybe the rest love meant to stop disturbing each other.
A few months later, without telling anyone, Rose bought a ticket to the United States and set out on her own.
The destination was not New York, but Miami.
That was the place where she and Marc first met.
It was April again, and it had been a whole year since they first met each other.
Maybe she wanted to put an end to this relationship in her heart, so she came back to this city again.
Her good friend Zoey knew that she was coming, so she warmly picked up her, taking her to her home.
Zoey's child was more than one year old and was able to walk on her own. The child hobbled towards Rose, which looked very cute.
Rose played with the child with a smile, looking around and asking, "When did you change the house?"
Zoey replied, "My husband always knew I wanted a garden, so he bought me this house. Every morning I will play with my child in the garden, and he would work beside us."
Rose sighed, "When you saw me a year ago, you were still complaining about the tiredness of bringing up child."
Zoey smiled. "But I also told you that it's a very happy thing that someone can understand you and be willing to accompany and help you."
She looked back at her husband who was making milk powder for their child. "At least this year, we are all learning to be parents. He is also working hard to surprise me. We are making progress."
Rose didn't say anything, listened thoughtfully.
Zoey's eyes were full of satisfaction. "In life, you have to move forward. It's also a great experience to try different roles. At least so far, I'm glad to have him and my baby with me. "
Nodding, Rose gently replied, "I'm glad to see you are happy."
"What about you? Are you going to be alone all the time?"
She didn't know the thing about Rose and Marc. Like other friends, she thoguht that Rose was still free and unconstraint.
Facing this question, she didn't answer it with certainty for the first time.
In the past, she would undoubtedly say "of course".
But now, she hadn't spoken for a long time.
Seeing that she was silent, Zoey asked, "What? Is there someone you like?"
Shaking her head, Rose smiled again. After a while, she asked Zoey, "Did you really not hesitate to marry your husband?"
Zoey replied, "No."
"Why?"
"Because I am absolutely sure that he is the one I love. I love him, and all my thoughts tell me that I want to be with him, have a family with him, and have a child who looks like me and him."
Rose paused. "Then if later..."
What if they didn't love each other anymore?
What if marriage was full of trifles?
Rose had so many doubts in her heart.
Zoey seemed to know what she was going to ask, so she smiled gently.
"How can you think too much in the future? Why don't you think that what if tomorrow is the end of the world? Then you don't even have the qualification to talk about the future. Those happiness that should belong to you will disappear in your worries about gain and loss. Won't you feel it a pity?"
Rose didn't answer.
"Even if one day he doesn't love me anymore, or I don't love him, I've experienced the journey of marriage, so I don't regret it."
At the end of the conversation, Zoey said, "You just haven't met the right person."
It's five o'clock in the afternoon when she left Zoey's home.
Then she took a taxi to the beach where she spent her holiday with her family a year ago.
The beach was as lively as ever, but it didn't make her happy anymore.
After all, things had changed. She used to think that it was a romantic place. Now, when she looked at it again, the things were still there, but the people were no more the same ones.
Rose went to the hotel, telling the reception that she wanted to book the room where she and Marc had used to live.
However, the receptionist told her, "Sorry, that one has been booked."
She offered to exchange with the guest at a double price and she was even willing to pay ten times as much.
But the staff kept shaking his head. "Sorry."
Standing lost for a long time, she turned around and wanted to leave, but she didn't give up. She turned back, asking, "Can you ask the guest if I can go in and have a look?"
Just one glance was enough for her.
Today was the first anniversary of the acquaintance between Rose and Marc.
The staff felt a little embarrassed, but Rose added, "That's where my boyfriend and I fell in love with each other, but we broke up."
Rose kept begging. In the end, the staff was touched by her sincerity. Taking the walkie talkie, he asked the room service and told her.
"Maybe you can go up and stay for a while. The guest has left."
Rose thanked him, hurrying to the elevator.
When she arrived at the door of the room, the staff in the housekeeping department had received the instructions from the front desk, so he opened the door for her.
"Madam, you can have ten minutes at most."
Nodding, she walked into the room.
The room was clean without any trace of living. When she opened the glass door of the balcony, the beach not far away could be seen.
That night, they once blew the sea breeze here, thinking it was just a game, but they didn't know it had finally become the most unforgettable memory in their lives.
Thinking of it, she felt a heartache.
A year later, she was not as free and easy as she had thought.
She looked at the beach in the distance with many scenes coming to her mind. Although there was regret, it was satisfying.
At least she could have such a memory to prove that she once had it.
That's enough.
Taking a deep breath, she was ready to leave.
She walked out of the room, but when she got to the door, she caught a glimpse of a bunch of blue iris at the head of the bed.
She stopped, as if she had been stabbed by something.
The flower language of iris was freedom, which was her favorite flower.
He knew it.
The blue iris was quietly placed at the night table. She didn't know why but her heart suddenly beat quickly.
Walking slowly forward, she picked up the bunch of flowers, but she didn't find any card.
Did the guest leave it?
Subconsciously turning back, she found that only she was in the room.
It's hard for her to say what she was expecting at that moment, but after expectation, there was a deeper loss.
Quicksand flew through the fingers without any trace left after all.
Knowing that this was her delusion, Rose laughed at herself and put the flowers back in place.
But the moment she put it back, she saw another thing on the table.
It was a something small, shining.
Staring at it for a few seconds, she immediately rushed to the door and asked room service, "Where is the guest living there?"
He replied, "He didn't live there. He just came and sat down for a while. Then he left."
She asked, "Left? When?"
"An hour ago."
She didn't answer.
Rose quickly went downstairs, searching the whole hotel lobby. She looked around. Her eyes were full of people, coming and going, shuttling in front of her eyes.
At this moment, it seemed that the whole world was about him, but he was not here at all.
All her depression collapsed at this moment. She looked at the crowded hotel blankly, facing her heart for the first time.
She missed him very much.
She missed him every day.
She booked the latest flight to New York.
She read the address thousands of times in her heart. Finally, she had the courage to take the first step towards him.
Rose didn't know what was waiting for her, but at that moment, as Zoey had said, all her thoughts were telling her that she should go to find him.
Go find him.
No matter how far away it was.
She inadvertently saw Marc's business card at Aaron's room. At that time, she secretly took the photo of it.
At countless sleepless nights, she would look at the address on the business card in a daze.
After a year in a trance, now she was finally standing here.
Looking up at the building in front of her, she imagined how Marc went in and out of work every day, as if she had returned to his world, and her heart was accompanied by a ray of sunshine, which brightened her up.
She stood calmly at the door of the office building, thinking about the scene that might happen.
She would say "long time no see". Maybe she would come forward and hug him warmly.
But as she said, things had been changing in a year.
The scene she thought didn't happen.
She waited for Marc.
But he was not alone.
There was another woman beside him.
The woman was wearing a plain white skirt, with long soft hair and a gentle smile. Her eyes were full of love when she looked at Marc.
Marc walked beside her. Although there was no expression on his face, he was also quietly listening to her.
He hadn't changed, still wore the white shirt, clean and tidy. And he looked more mature and stable than in the past.
In the crowd, Rose felt her heart stop beating for a second. Moreover, she began to be ashamed of her impulsive appearance. When she wanted to run away, they came in front of her.
She had no way out.
She could only look up at him.
At the moment when they looked at each other, time seemed to freeze.
People came and went, they were the only focus to each other.
Marc was stunned. There was no emotion in his eyes behind the lens. It seemed that there were fluctuations for a few seconds in his eyes, but they were soon submerged in the surrounding noise. Then he calmed down.
"Did you come on business?" He asked.
Rose tried to smile. "Yes, what a coincidence!"
"Is the hotel nearby?"
"Yes."
"Then, I won't bother you."
"Well."
She watched him looking away and finally passing her by.
Was this what she wanted?
She turned around eagerly and helplessly, looking at his back, farther and farther away from herself.
It seemed that on the night of returning to the bar, she was unwilling to admit it, but she had to admit the fact.
Maybe it's the last chance.
Once he left, he would never come back.
She stood on the street motionlessly. This time, even if he chose to leave, she also wanted to see his figure more clearly.
But he stopped.
He finally stopped.
The wind blowing along the road messed up her long hair, but she didn't dare to move, as if she was afraid that if she moved a little, the scene in front of her would disappear like a foam.
In the crowded street, Marc turned around.
He looked at her, passing through all the noise and the distance that could not be crossed.
Finally, he couldn't help but walk across the crowd to her.
He hugged her tightly.
"Why do you still appear in front of me?"
Speechless, she only knew that if this was their last hug...
She would try her best to hold him tight with all her strength.
And she would never let go of him.
On that day, her wandering heart for a whole year finally fell back to its original place.
She didn't dare to promise anything easily. The more she cared about, the more afraid that she would let him down.
But at least this time, she was willing to take the initiative to try.
The year after that, she found a new job in New York and stayed with her parents.
Also, she stayed with Marc.
As in the past, they would go to the movies hand in hand on weekends, travel when they were free, and love each other more warmly every night than ever before.
The difference was...
Marc stopped talking about marriage.
He also took strict contraceptive measures every time.
They stopped mentioning the past, spending a year in plain and happy life.
During this period, Yolanda and Aaron's child Teresa was born.
Later, Elbert also successfully remarried his ex-wife and the two were living together again, which finally made up for Marc's childhood regret.
Everyone embraced their happy ending except Marc and Rose.
Time was slowly moving forward. Another year had passed. Yolanda's new film was going to be released, and Teresa was also one year old.
That year, Rose went home with her parents for the new year.
Marc also accompanied her back home, but turned her down when she invited him to go to her family for the new year.
He gave himself an excuse, "I have an appointment with a friend."
But she knew that he just didn't want to put pressure on her in front of the elders.
In recent years, he had been calm and thorough without mentioning a word about marriage.
On the night of the Lantern Festival, the whole family went back to the Jensen's villa. Teresa was one year old, looking very cute. When she saw Rose, she would call her aunt with her sweet voice.
Rose found that unconsciously, she would also be moved by such a sweet voice and she even loved it from the bottom of her heart.
She didn't know whether she was going to have such a life.
A week ago, she began to vomit and she hadn't menstruated this month
Over the years, she didn't hang out very often. With less alcohol, her stomach had long been recovered. Therefore, this time, Rose thought it should be for other reasons.
Although Marc had taken strict contraceptives every time, she also knew that they were not 100% useful.
Maybe she was that lucky.
During the Spring Festival, everyone was jubilant. Rose didn't go to the hospital, thinking of going to have a check-up after the Lantern Festival.
After the reunion dinner at her parents' house, Marc came to pick her up.
They made an appointment to watch the lanterns in the theme park in the suburbs.
That night, they walked through the colorful lanterns. Like the most ordinary lovers, they held hands, took photos, and passed on their expectations for the new year.
When taking a selfie in front of a lantern, Rose began to vomit. Then, she subconsciously held his hand.
"Marc."
Seeing that her face was pale, he immediately held her. "What's the matter?"
Rose wanted to say something, but she probably ate too much in the evening. Before she could say anything, she bent down and vomited out.
He knew that she had stomach illness. Seeing her vomit so badly for the first time, he immediately sent her to the hospital without thinking other possiblities.
The emergency room was quiet at night, since everyone was immersed in the happy atmosphere of the Lantern Festival.
The Lantern Festival party was being rebroadcast on the TV in front of the hospital bed. The stars were singing lively on the stage, while Rose had the most secure company around her.
The examination results hadn't come out yet. Marc bought ginger tea to warm her stomach. He said to Rose while brewing the tea.
"Did you drink again at home tonight?"
"Without me, you didn't take care of yourself well."
"Drink this cup of tea first."
Blowing the tea softly, he tasted it and handed it over after confirming that the temperature was appropriate.
Seeing the tea delivered to her, Rose suddenly understood what Zoey had said.
"It's a very happy thing to have someone reliable who can understand you and accompany you when you are sick."
Rose used to think that she could face all this calmly. Even if now she was alone in the hospital, she wouldn't take it as a big deal.
However, if there was a person who was willing to accompany her, why should she refuse?
Obviously, they could accompany and rely on each other.
At this moment, when she began to imagine the picture of getting old with Marc, she might have understood the meaning of love.
At the first reunion, she didn't dare to promise anything easily.
Although she cared about him, she couldn't immediately overturn the belief that long existed in her heart.
Fortunately, he was willing to tolerate her.
He gave her a few years without pressure, and it was this constant company that made her finally see her heart in the years.
She was willing to live with him forever.
They could spend their lives together.
She was more sure than ever that he was the right person in her life.
Although they had been lost for a long time, fortunately, they came hand in hand.
"Marc." Rose never looked at him with such certainty. After a while, she said softly, "Let's get married."
Marc didn't know what to say.
"Just think I'm proposing."
She took out what he had left on the bedside table of the hotel.
It was the bead that fell off her dress.
The small bead tied to their fate from beginning to end.
On that day, he originally wanted to say goodbye to the hotel, completely forgetting Rose and trying to accept the girl introduced by his family.
He didn't expect to see her the next day.
At the moment of her reappearance, the world was gloomy, but everything seemed to have colors again.
Marc knew it with only a few steps.
He would never forget her in his life.
In the quiet ward, Rose put the bead in his palm with a smile.
"I want to marry you."
"How about marrying me?"
In December of the same year, Rose gave birth to a lovely boy.
The wedding was very lively. Their child sat in the car ignorantly and gave his parents a ring for a lifetime of love.
Many years later, Rose lay in Marc's arms, asking him,
"That year, downstairs in your office, if you didn't look back at me, would we live together like this?"
But Rose didn't know the truth.
Marc turned around and waited for her as soon as he had said goodbye at the bar.
No matter how long they would meet again, he would still love her as he did at the beginning.
As long as she was still where she was...
They would never be separated.
He had been to many places.
But she was the only scenery he saw.
He couldn't help it but fall in love with her.