Stop Begging— Her Wedding’s Coming

When the plane touched down, night had already fallen. I dragged my suitcase out of arrivals and spotted Nathan's closest friends at once. They were standing in the most conspicuous spot near the exit. Leon Harrison saw me first. He raised a hand and waved, excitement written all over his face. "Lyla! Over here! You're finally back! We've been losing our minds!" "Over what?" I asked, confused. Nolan Reed leaned in beside him, his eyes practically shining. "Crashing the wedding! If you hadn't come back, Nathan was really going to marry that woman!" I froze for a second. Leon pushed me toward the parking lot and kept talking. "The wedding starts at seven tonight. We can still make it if we leave now. Are you planning to storm straight in, or..." "Wait." I stopped walking. "Who said I came back to crash his wedding?" Nolan and Leon exchanged a look. Their expressions turned strange. "Isn't that why you came back?" Nolan asked. Leon pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and held the screen in front of me. "Nathan's serious this time. Look at her. She doesn't look anything like you." In the photo, Nathan was kissing a girl by the ocean. She looked like a college student, sweet and innocent, with a bright smile that softened her whole face. She was nothing like me. I touched the ring on my middle finger without thinking and didn't respond for a long moment. "Let's talk in the car," Leon said as he opened the door. The air conditioning was blasting, but I still felt like I couldn't breathe. Nolan sat in the passenger seat and turned back to look at me. "Lyla, stop pretending you don't care. We all know you two still have feelings for each other. Why else would he date girls who look like you?" I said nothing and looked out the window. The city had changed, and somehow, it had not changed at all. Studying abroad had been a dream I had fought for a long time, and I was not willing to give it up for anyone. When Nathan heard I had been accepted, he packed his things at once and said with a smile, "Lyla, I'll go with you." I turned him down immediately. "You can't walk away from a career you just started." His hands stilled over the suitcase, and the smile froze on his face. "So you're walking away from me?" His eyes were red when he asked me that. I did not know how to answer. What I wanted was for him not to give up everything he had built because of me. Deep down, I had always believed that real love should help both people become better, not hold one of them back. We fought for three full months, and neither of us was willing to give in. On the day I left, rain poured from the sky. Nathan stood outside security, watching me with tears streaming down his face. "Lyla, if you get on that plane today, we're done!" He ignored the startled looks from everyone around us and shouted at me like he was falling apart. "I hate you! I'll never forgive you as long as I live!" I did not look back. I gripped my suitcase and walked slowly into the security line. Tears slid down my face without a sound, but I did not dare turn around to look at him again. Nathan and I were never meant to make it to the end. That storm came down like ice water, drowning the last bit of warmth between us. That was what young love was like. It burned so fiercely that it seemed ready to turn both people to ash, yet it was too fragile to survive the weight of real life. Too much time had passed. Even the fiercest love could fade when enough years wore it down. I had let go a long time ago. "Lyla, are you okay?" Leon asked as he waved a hand in front of my face. "I'm fine." I shook my head, exhausted. When we reached the hotel entrance, I had just stepped out of the car when I saw Nathan standing by the doors. He wore a black suit with a boutonniere pinned to his chest, speaking to someone beside him, his head slightly turned. The light fell across his sharply defined face, softening it with a faint warmth. As if he sensed something, he suddenly turned his head. The moment our eyes met, my vision blurred. Nathan froze. He stared at me in disbelief, and his breathing grew uneven. Then he stepped off the stairs and strode toward me.