Love Fades With Bygone Days Novel by Anonymous

 

Love Fades With Bygone Days Novel by Anonymous

 

Every year, our college friends get together.

 

The men drink at the bar.

 

The women gather around a table, playing a mean little game.

 

Someone suggested we all text our husbands or boyfriends.

 

Tell them we intend to purchase a $3,000 bag and check who gets the payment approved first.

 

As always, I was the first to get the Zelle notification.

 

“Esme, Tomas really spoils you.”

 

Everyone laughed, but the topic died quickly. No one pushed it.

 

Nobody noted Tomas DeLuca and I had eight years together yet no wedding.

 

No one mentioned his London MBA, leaving me the last to know.

 

That on the day I was driving to see him off, I got into a car accident.

 

And lost our first child.

 

After that, I was diagnosed with depression.

 

During my hospital stay, not he but my best friend Alessia kept me company.

 

I just smiled and said nothing.

 

Then I glanced at Alessia. She was gripping her phone, her knuckles white.

 

“I think I’ll sit this one out,” she said, looking uneasy. “He’s swamped with work. He never checks his phone.”

 

The table went quiet.

 

Everyone knew she’d been secretly married for three years and had a three-year-old son.

 

We just had never laid eyes on her spouse.

 

I didn’t want to watch them pressure her.

 

So I reached over, took her phone, and dialed the number myself.

 

The call connected almost instantly.

 

Then I heard Tomas’s voice.

 

“Baby, I’m just picking up our son from school.”