To the Love of My Life

Though he was the only one in the spacious three-hundred-square-meter apartment, he still covered his face with his hands, daring to cry out loud only then.

He cried for a long time before Steve Burton finally calmed down. Slowly grabbing the railing, he stood up and walked towards the master bedroom with steady steps.

In the bedroom, there were two life-sized mannequins, a man and a woman, dressed in the outfits he and Ruby Gregory had chosen for their engagement banquet today. Three or four suits and dresses hung on a rolling rack nearby.

These were the outfits she had picked out personally, the outfits they were supposed to wear today.

Steve stared at the outfits for a long time before heading to the bathroom. He washed his face carefully, shaved off his beard, and combed his hair neatly. He even applied some hair wax, making his hairstyle look more perfect.

After coming out of the bathroom, he stood in front of the male mannequin, removed the deep purple suit it was wearing, and put it on himself one piece at a time. Then, he picked up the beautiful plush brocade box from the bedside table, opened it, revealing a pair of diamond rings. He took the woman’s ring, knelt in front of the female mannequin, and whispered, “Ruby, are you willing to be my fiancée in front of so many people?”

The room was silent in response, but Steve, in his imagination, seemed to hear Ruby smiling sweetly and telling him, “I do.”

Then he slid the ring onto the female mannequin’s ring finger.

Still in the silence of the room, Steve raised his head with a smile, as if he heard Ruby ask him, “Steve, are you willing to be my fiancé in front of so many people?”

His eyes and expression softened, and he nodded, saying, “I do.”

Then, he picked up the other ring and put it on his own ring finger.

Steve’s eyes grew moist again, and he slowly turned, walked to the bed, and lay back, staring at the ceiling as tears rolled down his cheeks and into his ears.

After a while, he raised his hand with the ring on it and stared at it for a long time before whispering, “Ruby, now we can finally be together forever.”

A faint smile appeared on his lips, but the expression was heart-wrenching and sad, as if it bore all the sorrow in the world.

As he continued to gaze at the ring, his eyes stung and ached. He blinked gently, then pressed the ring against his lips, lightly kissed it, and murmured in a low voice, “Ruby, now we can finally be together as strangers, forever.”

He thought of the elderly CEO he had met yesterday, who had given up his true love and still married another woman. What about himself?

He speculated that he would never marry in his lifetime.

As Steve thought about this, he gradually closed his eyes, and the entire world fell into complete silence.

The sound of the winter wind howling through the windows outside seemed, no matter how one listened, unbearably sad.