Redmption 172


    “It’s me!” A familiar voice echoed in the hallway.


    I swiftly held onto the railing and stopped. My tense body could finally rx.


    Soon, I turned around and headed upstairs, where I saw Brandon standing in the dark. Our


    previous interaction left things awkward, and I didn’t know what to say. Still, I was genuinely


    shocked by the incident earlier, so I pretended to be angry. “You scared the heck out of me!”


    He simply grunted again. I never knew how to respond to that because that response was so cold.


    I was about to say more when he added softly, “I won’t do it again.”


    This time, I was at a total loss for words.


    Thus, I fished out my key and went to unlock my door. Just as I inserted the key into the keyhole,


    his low and deep voice rang again. “I overstepped my boundaries tonight. I won’t do it again in the


    future.”


    Huh?


    Stunned, I turned around, only to see he had entered through the half–open door. He nced at me


    as he closed the door. “Goodnight.”


    I wanted to say something, but the words stuck in my throat only came out after he shut his door.


    “What do you mean by “in the future“?”


    I knew what he meant, though. He didn’t want to end our fake rtionship.


    But I truly didn’t want to continue our arrangement; in fact, I was afraid to do so.


    I even regretted choosing Brandon to be my pretend boyfriend, not out of fear that he would not


    leave me alone, but out of fear of hurting him.


    I felt like a jerk for taking advantage of a man who had never had a real girlfriend and stealing all his


    supposedly wonderful first experiences in a rtionship.


    I cursed myself as I entered rty home feeling utterly remorseful. I couldn’t sleep well the whole night.


    In my dreams, Brandon followed me around like a weakling andined, “Why did you kiss me?


    That was my first kiss!”


    Waking up from the nightmare of utter guilt, I rose to see that the sky was still dark. It was early in


    the morning. I checked the time, and it was 4:30 am.


    Brandon should be awake by this hour, and if I was right, he should be out on a jog now. In other


    words, it was the perfect time to avoid him.


    As such, I swiftly went to wash up, change clothes, and left. When my car drove into the morning


    light, I pitied myself for living like a thief in my own home.


    To avoid Brandon, I left home early and returnedte, skilfully killing any chances of running into


    him. However, the cold breakfast left at my doorstep only deepened my sense of guilt when I


    returned home every night.


    Content (C) N?v/elDra/ma.Org.


    I had tried to text him not to do so a couple of times, but when the worry of him striking–up more


    conversations about it arose, I decided to ignore itpletely. He should be able to understand my


    stance if he saw the untouched breakfast.


    To my expectation, no breakfast was hanging on my doorknob after my third day of returning from


    work, I breathed a sigh of relief, but deep down, I was rather disappointed


    2/2


    That feeling made me curse myself even more…


    It was true that one thrived at work when one failed in love. My work went well, and I even secured


    a major deal over a phone call. At this stage, a meeting in person was required to finalize the


    details.


    “Ms. Crown, I heard you’ve beening to work at 6:00 amtely,” said the smiling Xander, who I


    ran into


    at the pantry.