Page 66 of Vitamin Sea
“Of course,” Liam soothed. “Of course you need time. Take some time and get back to me. I love you, Chlo. You know that.”
Chloe couldn’t respond. She didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t expect you to accept my apology or trust me right away,” he said with understanding. “But I’m hoping with time we can build that back up and you can work towards forgiving me. I know I hardly deserve it, but I’m hoping you’ll give me a second chance.”
It was almost too much for her to take in.
“I need to think about this,” Chloe repeated. “I don’t know what to say.”
There was a moment of silence between them and thoughts raced through Chloe’s mind.
If she was honest with herself, she still loved Liam. There was some small part of her that felt she always would.
Could she go back to him? Go back to the way things were before? With Liam working late nights on deals while he made bank and excelled in furthering his career?
Twenty years from now, dumping Chloe for Sophia would be seen as a blip in their relationship; a minor bump in the road. It’s something that happens to the best of couples. After all, people aren’t perfect. People are human; they slip up. They make mistakes. Even in relationships. Even when they love their partner more than anything else on Earth.
She and Liam hadn’t taken a walk down the aisle and made vows and commitments to one another in the presence of friends and family, but Chloe had been excited to marry him one day. And she knew the vows—everyone knew the vows. It was ‘forbetter or worse’. It wasn’t ‘for better or better’. And situations such as your long-term boyfriend dumping you for a woman he worked with during a mid-life, late-thirties crisis before realizing that the grass wasn’t greener on the other side? That, Chloe suspected, was exactly what the ‘for better or worse’ vow was made for.Exactlywhat that part of the vow was made for. Richer or poorer was covered. So was sickness and health. What else could better or worse be referencing?
She supposed it was kept as vague as possible because no one wanted to be smacked in the face with ‘for commitment or affairs’ when they were standing up at the altar.
For monogamy or innumerable side pieces, went through her head.
Nothing romantic aboutthat. It would put even the staunchest of romantics off marriage.
But—she and Liam had never made it that far. Not that it really made much of a difference. Only legally, she mused. The two of them were as good as married in every other aspect of their lives. They were each other’s contact in case of emergency, they were each other’s financial beneficiary should anything happen to either of them. They had plants together. And they shared a home together.
Well. They had once shared a home together. Now it was just a condo in which Chloe was temporarily staying.
But Liam was asking for her back.
She could take him back. Take him back and rebuild everything. Rebuild the life they had created and that had been burned down by a bitch named Sophia.
Okay, that wasn’t fair.
Sophia definitely knew about Chloe, but she also knew that it took two to tango. If Liam hadn’t wanted to try and pursue someone else, Sophia, the physical embodiment of temptation, wouldn’t have pulled him away from Chloe.
Still—they could rebuild. Like that Japanese art form, the one where they take broken pieces of pottery and piece them back together by filling the cracks with gold—kintsugi. Their relationship wouldn’t be the same as it was before; it would be something different. But it could transform into something beautiful; something better than it had been.
Although, given Liam had strayed from her in the first place, didn’t it stand to reason that the strong, resilient relationship she thought they shared didn’t technically exist? It was a bit depressing to consider. But that was the crazy thing about relationships. The crazy thing, really, about people. You never could be too sure about them or about what was going on in their head. Never be quite too sure about how they were experiencing something or felt about it.
Unless of course the person was totally honest.
Honesty was a trait she valued, and Liam hadn’t been honest with her about his feelings. As devastating as the breakup had been for Chloe, it could provide her and Liam with the opportunity to rebuild things, starting with a stronger, more open and honest and structurally sound base.
And if she was honest with herself, she could kind of understand why Liam had strayed.
Understand, yes. But not quite forgive.
The concept of marriage, even if one has been in a committed relationship for several years, is scary. Aside from being legally bound by one person for the foreseeable future, there was also the possibility of a nasty, financially ruinous divorce.
A case of cold feet on the part of one partner before they realized that the grass isn’t greener on the other side could do a lot to a person. It could make them realize the error of their ways. And now that Liam knew the error of his ways, he knew for certain that he should not have dumped Chloe for Sophia. Therewas a good chance that he had learned his lesson. That he would be content and happy with what he had with Chloe.
Or would he?
Another cliché that always rang true was that people often don’t know what they have until it’s gone. She had always felt that the cliché needed to have a second part added onto it. Something about trying to appreciate what you have while you have it.
To Chloe, it seemed that oftentimes when people stop appreciating what they have, when they take what they have for granted, that’s when they lose something they didn’t fully appreciate in the first place. And the regret sets in later.
