“So, they got married.”“Yes. Ring and all. The music you hear right now is the reception, my love. Everyone here is all smiles and giggles, and I am not sure how many are thinking about how strange the whole thing is.”"I don't think anyone there knows how long he has been with that woman. We don't know how long he has been with her.""Does that make it any less strange?""No. No, I guess it doesn't.""No. Christen dragged her finger across the rough surface of the walls. She called Flora’s home many times the night before and even in the morning, but her friend didn’t answer the phone once. Samuel's marriage had travelled around and even got mentioned in a few blogs and magazines. It was pretty much out there that the youngest son of the Madden family was getting married. The man Flora loved was getting married to another woman. Even after all the days, Flora had to prepare herself, she never came to terms with it. “Did you see her?”“No. I don’t think she came.”She did. Christen

After their meal, Samuel bid her goodnight and went to sleep. He wrestled beneath the sheets and tossed and turned while she sat by the window, taking in the evening. With the glass of wine in her hand, she counted the stars within the frame of the hotel window to occupy herself.Her sister was in one of the rooms, sleeping peacefully, high on the excitement of her older sister's wedding. Samuel's family was also spending the night in various rooms. Aside from Ysabel, Kali was sure that the others were equally excited about the wedding.She tilted her head back and finished her wine in one gulp. In the silence in the room, she felt herself crumbling to the nerves that eluded her for most of the wedding. The reception had gone on forever when all she wanted was for it to end. The dance had been torture. The smiling had been torture.When she turned around, Samuel was fast asleep, cuddled against one of the pillows. She turned the lamp off, plunging his side of the room into darkness.

“Passport?” Ember handed over her passport, watching as the man revised it and finally slapped his stamp on it. Once she passed every checkpoint, she rolled her suitcase out of the airport and got into the nearest taxi. It had been so long since she was home; everything was foreign to her. Honestly, she wasn’t sure why she returned after she missed the wedding. Samuel didn’t mind that she did, so she could have stayed back, but something wouldn’t let her leave things as they were. Back in Germany, she had a life. One built as a safe space to grow when she was a young adult. After so many years, she suddenly felt alienated from her family. A stranger living on the outside, looking in. No one cared that she didn't attend the wedding. They were used to her living apart from them. It unsettled her greatly. Ember didn’t want to get back into her mother’s hysterics, but she didn’t want to become a ghost to her family. She had already missed a wedding; the next thing would be to miss the

Samuel propped his head on his hand, staring at the television in front of him. It was about time for the dinner, but his family had not arrived, and his wife, the word still made him shiver, was not down from their room. She wasn't getting ready. He knew that. She'd been dressed when he left and chose to sit in the room while he waited in the parlour. Since he returned from the honeymoon, it was a task to not check in on Flora to see how she was doing. Samuel tried to forget, bury himself in work and his project, and, dare he add, his new life, but there were moments when the thoughts resurfaced. The house was close to the town where Flora lived, where she worked. It wouldn't take long to get in a car and drive over to her place, but he didn't. Every time the thought resurfaced, he shot them down. For every desire he had to see her, there was a good reason to stay away. Flora hated him for the way things ended. He hated that he couldn’t be honest with her and tell her the truth, b

Samuel was awake at five, the grim of night had not broken up, and the open window only allowed a minuscule amount of light into the large room. Unable to go back to sleep, he resorted to staring into the thick nothingness. Kali slept beside him, her breathing shallow and even.Flora stayed over with him a couple of nights when they were dating. Sometimes, when he couldn’t sleep, and she woke to find him restlessly moving around the room, she would keep him company. They would hurdle on the bed and talk about meaningless things, finding a good laugh here and there between chats. When she slept in his arms, he would hold her close, her scent embracing him as they slept. It was never awkward. Always free-spirited and lively.When Kali had suggested they share a room because the bed was large enough, he was not a fan of the idea. Even though the bed was indeed large enough. If he stretched out his hand, he wouldn’t be able to touch her because she slept close to the edge of her side of t