My Boyfriend's First Love is My Best Friend - Chapter 20

Epilogue

Unknowingly, New Year’s Day was just around the corner.

I still remember last year’s New Year’s Eve, Thomas and I watched fireworks from a hotel room. Because of the couple’s package, there was wine and dessert prepared in the room.

That day, neither of us was very serious.

Now, the relationship between Thomas and me is not what it used to be, unclear and tangled beyond resolution.

We call ourselves a couple, yet we can’t return to the sweetness of the past.

I’ve already moved out, and he comes over every few days, wanting to stay the night, often playing the pitiful card.

He acts more attentive than any partner I’ve seen, asking about my well-being, surpassing even his past efforts, and spending more time with me.

He no longer asks about reconciliation, just silently “compensates,” without demanding anything, as if he truly doesn’t care about the so-called “status.”

But I know he cares deep down.

A few days ago, I attended a class reunion alone. They assumed I was single, and I couldn’t explain, so someone started teasing me about the class president from back then.

Afterwards, the class president offered to take me home, and Thomas saw us.

He kept a straight face, wanting to react but holding back, and after we went upstairs, he made me a hangover soup.

I told him to leave, but he used the excuse of taking care of me to stay, and at night, he ended up in my bed, holding me tightly, his voice low, like he was talking in his sleep.

“Can you stop looking at others and look at me again?”

Since Amelia left, it’s been three months, and that night was the first time he couldn’t keep up the pretense and confessed his true needs to me.

I felt a sense of loss.

I knew his unease. As long as I didn’t express my stance, he wouldn’t be at ease, but he didn’t dare to ask, fearing my answer would be a rejection. This endless cycle had become a deadlock.

After a long time, I turned to look at him.

He was already asleep.

My apartment is quite far from his company, running back and forth every day, he’s not made of steel, how could he not be tired?

…

On the last day of the year, no one in the office could focus, all planning for the evening’s dinner.

A colleague asked me why I wasn’t joining them.

I instinctively looked at my phone, and before I could answer, someone replied for me, “Of course Bella is spending it with her boyfriend, unlike us.”

I neither confirmed nor denied it.

That night, Thomas’s vulnerability lasted only a brief moment, and the next day he was calm again.

I didn’t know how long he could endure, so I didn’t break the silence.

However, until the end of the workday, I hadn’t received any message from Thomas.

I returned to the apartment alone.

Although he hadn’t moved in, traces of him were everywhere in the room.

Picking up my phone again, as if by telepathy, the screen lit up with a call from Thomas.

I answered immediately, asking where he was.

His voice was hoarse, saying he was at the hospital.

Thomas’s mother had fallen ill and was hospitalized.

After hanging up, I quickly took a taxi to the hospital.

In the corridor, I saw Thomas and asked what was going on.

He seemed surprised I arrived so quickly, “Don’t worry, the surgery was successful, everything’s fine now.”

It was a thyroid surgery, confirmed benign just a couple of days ago.

I was a bit angry, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? She’s my mom too!”

We both froze for a moment after I said that.

Because I hadn’t accompanied him home to see his mother for a long time.

I didn’t know if he had told his mother about us, but she hadn’t called to speak for him, only occasionally making pickled cucumbers or small dishes for him to bring to me.

After a moment of silence, Thomas took my hand.

“Want to go in and see her? Mom must miss you.”

“…”

I took a deep breath and entered the ward.

Seeing Thomas’s mother looking so weary, my nose tingled instantly.

But her eyes lit up when she saw me, beckoning me over, asking why I had lost weight again.

I lowered my head, feeling too guilty to even look at her.

She just patted my head, giving me a way out.

“Have you been busy lately? But even if you’re busy, remember to eat. Don’t try dieting, it’s not good for your health.”

Throughout, she never mentioned Thomas.

I suddenly feared she knew about the ring.

If she knew, with her personality, she would surely blame herself.

Once she fell asleep, I left the ward, not seeing Thomas. Checking my phone, I found out he was downstairs.

Watching the moon downstairs.

The hospital on New Year’s Eve was very quiet.

He sat on a bench by the roadside, head slightly raised, unmoving, lost in thought.

I sat down next to him.

After being together for so long, we didn’t need to speak; he knew what I wanted to ask.

He said, “Mom doesn’t know about the ring.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, “What did you tell her?”

“I told her the truth. I said Amelia came back, and I didn’t handle my relationship with her well, which upset you.”

The ring was just the catalyst; without it, things would have come to light sooner or later.

From the beginning, he shouldn’t have hidden it.

I was silent.

He continued, “I also said I would work hard to win you back. Naturally, she sided with me, but she was also afraid you’d feel wronged because of her, so she didn’t contact you… Don’t overthink it, she still cares about you a lot.”

I sniffed and shook my head.

“Why would I overthink…”

I knew Thomas’s mother had a hard life in the past. I was just upset with myself for not visiting her during this time because of my quarrel with Thomas, not even knowing she was sick.

Then, Thomas wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

“Do you know when I started liking you?”

He diverted my attention, and I looked up, “When?”

“A few days after we returned from the desert, when I asked you out for a drive.”

That was our first date alone.

Unconfirmed lovers, at the lakeside, the suspension bridge effect made our hearts race, almost leading to a kiss.

I remember his phone rang that time.

So we didn’t kiss.

“When I was on the phone, you made a ring out of grass, and when you finished, you looked at me and smiled.”

When someone is on the phone, part of their consciousness is vacant. Thomas said the smile I showed at that moment filled that vacancy.

“If I hadn’t smiled then, would you not have liked me?”

“Then I would have fallen in love with you the next second.”

After he finished speaking, he suddenly reached into his coat pocket and took out a velvet box.

My pupils shrank.

The box opened, revealing a diamond ring.

“I had it custom-made. The production took a long time, and I only got it last month. I’ve been carrying it with me, afraid you’d refuse, so I didn’t dare give it to you…”

I looked at the ring, recalling the events of a few months ago.

Time flies so fast.

I asked him, “So you’re daring to give it now?”

“If you like it, keep it. If not…”

He suddenly couldn’t continue.

After a long silence, under his gaze, I picked up the ring.

I glanced back at him, getting used to his busyness.

The size was just right.

I couldn’t help but open my hand to examine it, having to admit that the ring was very much to my liking.

But I didn’t want to admit it just like that.

So I pouted, pretending to be dissatisfied, “Can’t say I like it or not, it’s just okay.”

Thomas looked at me for a long time and laughed.

He held my hand, seeing I didn’t resist, and squeezed it. The ring pressed into my palm, its presence strong.

“Alright, next time I’ll get one you’ll love at first sight.”

“Even a very expensive one?”

“Of course.”

“What do I need so many rings for?”

“Just to wear different ones.”

“…”

Because there can be many rings, but love is singular.

(The End)