Chapter 45: Chapter 45

One hour had passed since Madison prepared dinner for her and Dylan. The Italian dishes on the dining table had turned cold as she stared at them, waiting for him to arrive. Rays of candlelight put a spotlight on the empty chair opposite Madison.

"It's seven already. Where are you now?" Madison asked in a sulk as her frustrated head lay on the table. As if wishing Dylan could hear he was being her nuisance, she groaned, "You said you'll come over... You led me to expect you'd be here tonight..."

Dylan called yesterday, telling Madison he would go straight to the apartment tonight. He had been so busy recently that he had not been showing up to the apartment for two days. Madison completely understood that the man of her life carried a burden of too many responsibilities. She was not demanding for him to spend time with her. But he made a promise, and she missed him. But his absence in the apartment showed proof of his broken promise, making Madison bitterly annoyed with waiting for no one.

"What a jerk!" she hissed.

Remembering she could call him, she jerked from her seat and dashed to her room. She took her phone and dialed Dylan's number. The annoyance in Madison's chest dissipated when he quickly picked up the phone. 'Thank god you didn't make me wait longer this time,' Madison wanted to say. But her tongue suddenly felt tangled when she heard the voice from the other end of the line.

"Hello?" asked an unknown woman on the other line.

Madison blinked and looked at the screen of her phone to check the number she dialed. When she confirmed the digits belonged to Dylan, she stammered, "H-hi..." She cleared her throat to shove down the jealousy escaping from her chest. "C-Can I t-talk to D-Dylan?" she asked, failing to fight what she felt upon knowing the man she was waiting for was with another woman.

"He's in the restroom right now," explained the woman on the other end. Her voice sounded casual. "Do you have something to tell him? I can relay it to him once he's back. May I know who's calling?" she asked.

Upon hearing where Dylan was and who he was with, Madison could not help but visualize something unpleasant in her head. Suddenly, she felt her face flush red as though she had invaded their privacy. She fell silent, contemplating whether she should say her name. In the end, embarrassment took over her head.

With her voice still shaking, she faltered, "T-thanks. I-I'll just call him a-again later."

Before the other woman could speak again, Madison immediately pressed the end button on the screen. She gasped in disbelief as the wave of resentment toward Dylan's contradicting words and actions began to blow her up.

Glaring at the photo of Dylan on the bedside table, Madison clutched the phone and shouted articulately. "You promised you'd come over, yet you're with another woman!" She bit her lip but could not help but bellow, "You jerk! You're so annoying!"

The image of the man she was yearning to see earlier made her face contorted. She dashed to the dining room to clean the table and put all the dishes in the fridge.

As she emptied the table, her heart could no longer contain the overwhelming jealousy she was feeling. Warm tears spilled out of her eyes and nose. Her trust was with Dylan, and she tried to avoid jumping to conclusions. But it hurt her to wait one lonely hour and find out he was with someone else.

"We were supposed to eat together. Dylan was supposed to be here with me," Madison regretfully whispered to the heavy air inside the dining room. "He could've told me he wouldn't make it," she murmured as she sniffed. Her heavy hands almost threw the cutleries into the sink while her efforts shattered unrecognized.

When she finished removing the traces of her preparation for dinner, Dylan still had not arrived. Madison sat on the couch with her arms crossed over her chest, still waiting to see him despite the overwhelming feeling brought by false hope. But two hours later, she was still alone. It was nearly ten. It was getting late. He had not returned a call or a message, so she expected him to come over anytime now. She stayed in the living room for another hour until she fell asleep.

Madison found herself in bed when she was awakened by the sunshine peeking through the glass window. A frown formed on her face as she wondered, 'Am I dreaming?' She clutched the bed and whispered to herself. "Didn't I fall asleep in the living room?"

She was clearing her head when her eyes caught a piece of paper on the pillow. "He came but didn't even wake me up. Wasn't it obvious I waited to see him?!" she complained and rolled her eyes in a sulk before taking the note.

Dylan wrote: [I'm sorry, darling. I forgot what we talked about last night. I'll make it up to you later. I love you.]

He wrote the note last night. Madison rolled her eyes again as Dylan's words reawakened the wild jealousy and its offspring resentment.

Madison and Dylan had not been talking for a few days in person and over the phone until he called the other night. He promised to eat dinner with her, feeding her yearning to be with him again. She prepared for his arrival last night as though meeting him felt like a romantic date. To her disappointment, he forgot his promise. He took the time they were supposed to enjoy together to meet someone else instead.

Thinking it would hurt to hold onto his words again, Madison shouted, "The hell I care, Dylan!" She was so annoyed that she pierced the piece of paper in her hand until Dylan's handwritten words no longer made sense.

She got up from bed with drooping shoulders and went straight to the bathroom to wash her reddening face. Wondering whether Dylan was with the woman Madison talked to over the phone last night, Madison lost her appetite. She returned to bed and did not get up until noon.

Her stomach growled, but she stayed in bed with her angry eyes staring at the ceiling. A couple of minutes past twelve, an idea popped into Madison's head.

"I should go out of this apartment and unwind. I'll be alone here all day anyway," she mumbled and covered the blanket over her face, uncertain about the idea. Thinking it would help pass the time and feel better, she agreed with her mind and went out of bed to shower shortly after.

After getting dressed, Madison finally left Dylan's apartment to unwind. A shopping center was only a twenty-minute walk from the apartment. On her way, she passed by a crowded park and decided to stop there for a while.

Watching the kids play with their parents reminded Madison of her family. 'I wonder how Mom and my sisters are doing,' she thought, missing seeing them in person again. 'Should I ask Dylan to let me go home while he's busy? Besides, he can't make time for me now,' she asked inwardly with a hint of bitterness and realized she was only feeling lonely in the city without him by her side. Her lonesome eyes stared at the kids having fun from a distance until she decided to leave the park and continue walking to the shopping center.

Panting from brisk walking, Madison went straight to the ice cream station as soon as she arrived. When she bought a cone of vanilla ice cream, she strolled around looking at the dresses on display through the glass doors. Knowing she could not afford any dress, she did not bother going inside the department stores.

Although she could not buy anything, Madison enjoyed window shopping. Some dresses she had seen suited her sisters' and mother's preferences. The thoughts of them, while Madison was in solitude, made her forget about Dylan for a while. When she passed a bookstore, she went inside to look for anything she could read. Reading the covers of magazines and some synopsis of novels made her enjoy the afternoon until she turned her head to look outside the bookstore.

Jealousy found its way back into her chest upon seeing a woman clinging to Dylan's arm as they entered a restaurant. The woman looked like a cover model in the magazines Madison had looked at earlier. When the latter glanced at the mirror, she could only shake her head at her appearance. 'She looks better than me,' Madison could not help but think.

Without knowing what she was thinking, Madison took out her phone from her sling bag and thought of calling Dylan.

"Darling," Dylan responded and asked, "Is everything alright?"

"Where are you? Are you going to come over here?" Madison asked back, pretending to be in the apartment while looking at Dylan from the bookstore.

"I'm just taking care of something important, darling. I'll be there later," Dylan replied. A smile formed on his lips as he looked at the woman before him, pointing to the menu.

"I see," Madison uttered without blinking. She paused to swallow. "Are you with someone right now?" she asked, holding her breath as she waited to hear an honesty or a lie.

"I'm actually with a friend right now, darling. I got to go. See you later. I love you," Dylan said in one breath and ended the call without waiting for Madison to speak.

Madison remained standing there, still holding the phone over her ear. Although Dylan did not lie, her jealous gaze did not leave him and his company as though waiting to see something else. They were busy talking about something. After a while, Madison watched them laughing and almost whispering to each other. Catching the woman bringing a slice of pizza to Dylan's mouth, Madison could not help but turn her eyes away from them and leave the shopping center in tears.

Her face sank into a pillow as tears continued to fall when she returned to the apartment. The scenario she saw earlier kept playing in her head, blurring the trust she put in Dylan as it made her cry until she fell asleep.

Hours later, Madison woke up to the sudden sinking of the bed. Knowing it was Dylan, she did not turn around to face him. Madison pretended to be asleep to conceal her puffy eyes. When she glanced at the clock on the bedside table, she realized it was already late at night. The thought that he came over this late rekindled the jealousy she felt earlier.

'He probably enjoyed the company of another woman,' Madison assumed.

But she felt Dylan lying carefully next to her. Shortly after, his arms tenderly wrapped her waist from behind. She kept her eyes closed and her back facing him.

"I love you so much, darling," he whispered sincerely and tightened his grip on her as though he was afraid of losing her.

Madison bit her lip, not letting a sob escape her mouth. Feeling him beside her at this hour made her feel relieved in a way.

Afraid he might notice she was already awake, she stayed in his arms, feeling his warm breath on her neck. A couple of minutes later, she was confident he was sound asleep already, so she slowly turned around to face him. Madison caressed Dylan's face and planted a peck on his lips, careful enough not to wake him.

"I love you too, darling," she whispered, "Hearing you say you love me makes loving you bearable."

Tears rolled down her face upon realizing how much she loved Dylan. 'It's silly to think of it. You drive me crazy, but you make me sane as well,' she thought as she buried her face in his chest. Before falling asleep again, she prayed to wake up with him still in bed with her.

But Madison woke up the next day with only another note on the pillow next to her. Hearing Dylan's words on paper made her sad, so she immediately got up from bed and ignored the letter. On that lonely morning, the image of her mother crossed her mind.

Madison loved Dylan and did not want to put an extra burden on him whenever he left her alone in the apartment. It would be safe and less lonely in the province.

'I should go home,' Madison decided, thinking it would be better to keep herself away from Dylan while he was busy sorting out some things.