Devoted Love, Mr. Hayes’ Darling Wife

Early spring of the following year.

This is the first white Valentine’s Day since Micaela left.

Nico sits alone in a crowded Pizza Hut, surrounded by the bustle of lovers.

The waiter approaches with the menu and politely asks, “Sir, is that one person or two people?”

“One person.”

The waiter was a little embarrassed, this gentleman was so handsome and exceptional looking, but he did not expect to be alone for Valentine’s Day, “So, would you like to order an individual set menu? But today we have an event to order the couple’s prix fixe menu, and it includes a lot of appetizers, so it’s a good deal, so it’s not bad for one person.”

Nico smiled slightly and said, “Then order the couple’s menu.”

Nico ordered a bunch of prawns with herbed anchovies, plus a couple’s menu that crowded the table and a lot of loneliness.

There were little couples around looking at the man sideways, maybe because Nico was handsome, or maybe because Nico was single and still asked for a table.

This prawn with anchovies, Micaela loves it.

Nico picked up a prawn and popped it in his mouth, chewing it bite by bite, but it tasted like chewing wax.

It was clear he couldn’t taste her, but one bite at a time, he missed her again.

Nico stuffed the prawns into his mouth desperately, the thoughts were like vines, growing tentacles, crawling all over his heart, wrapping around him and almost suffocating him.

He picked up a glass of Coke and took a strong gulp, with a spicy, icy taste.

When he looked up, he saw Micaela sitting across from him, smiling slightly as usual, glancing at the table and saying softly, “You’ve ordered a lot, can you finish it?”

Then she pinched a pineapple tail prawn and ate it.

Nico looked across the room, his eyes scarlet.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

“Dude, what’s wrong with you?”

Beside him, a girl carrying a basket of roses to sell approached him and asked with concern.

Nico turned his head to hide his eyes, then looked back and said in a light voice, “Not much, the sand got in my eyes.”

The little girl looked at him with big eyes full of doubt, not quite believing, where did the sand come from in this mall?

The girl asked, “Uncle, do you want to buy a rose for your girlfriend?”.

Girlfriend.

Nico looked at his basket full of roses and his eyes fell, “Uncle…. Uncle lost his girlfriend.”

“Then buy my roses and get your girlfriend back. Girls love roses.”

Nico, for no reason, spoke to a girl, even tried to take some comfort and hope from the girl, “Really?”

“Really. Uncle, don’t be sad, uncle you are so handsome, your girlfriend must not want to leave you.”

Nico bought her a whole basket of roses, but there was, well, no one to give them to.

As Nico left Pizza Hut, he settled his bill and the checkout clerk said, “Sir, today you will receive a set of couple’s mugs for spending over 500.”

Nico took the set of love mugs and hooked his lips.

The couple’s mug, but he probably won’t have the chance to use it again in his life.

After Micaela left, he never had a partner again.

…

At the mall, she stopped by KFC.

Two cones, second half out.

He accompanied Micaela on her birthday, and the second order was half off, which was really cheap.

In mid-March, in the early spring of La Ciudad Santa, with its late winter chill, Nico bought two cones, but when they all melted, Micaela didn’t help him eat them.

Nico thought: So it wasn’t a matter of habit that she stayed by his side.

You see, he’s really gone and won’t come back to pick it up even when the cone melts.

Nico was standing in the crowded mall, completely red-eyed.

The cream from that cone melted in his hand as Nico stood in the crowd, in a directionless trance.

During those seven years, they were apart from each other, but he and Micaela supported each other even when they fought and argued.

If she is still alive, there is room for everything to be reversed.

Between them, even the word “love” seemed too light. They should have grown old together, but instead, she used the most ruthless way to completely remove herself from his world.

It was as if she was an earthly illusion, who loved him for a short time, but he, nevertheless, had to spend his life trying to abstain from her.

…

Nico went again to Micaela’s grave.

It is called the Garden of Joy.

Nico placed the basket of roses and the set of love cups on her grave and snorted faintly, “The girl who sold the flowers said that if you bought the roses from her, you could have them back, but I couldn’t.”

After Micaela left, Nico would come to the Garden of Joy from time to time to be with Micaela, sitting on Micaela’s grave and talking a lot.

Like to Micaela, and like to herself.

She had almost nothing to say to the next person.

Nico again said soberly, “Next time, there is no telling when I will come to see you, Ms. Micaela, I have lived with the loss of you for so long and so much that I decided to find something meaningful to me that would also provide a brief respite from missing you.”

As she parted, Nico’s body bent back, his long, slender hand caressing the headstone, his gaze loving and tender, “Mrs. Micaela, don’t miss me too much.”

The tenderness in his eyes was so impressive that it was like a whale falling into the sea, a star sinking into a puddle, cicadas chirping on the summer solstice, the tenderness of the world, as if everything lived in the moment of his gaze when he looked at her.

But she, after all, could not see it.

…

When Micaela was gone, Nico always relied on tranquilizers and sleeping pills to fall asleep.

Gradually, after Micaela was gone for a long time, Nico lost his mood and could hardly sleep, although his sleep was bad.

He was back to his old self again, only sorry, sorry that the good night that had tightened his chest, was gone.

But the last thing Nico does every night before going to sleep is to send a message to Micaela’s old WhatsApp number.

“Micaela, good night.”

Just one such phrase, sent every night.

Like once, when Micaela went to Hollywood to develop her career, the same Nico, good night, sent to her every night.

That illusory peace was the last dose of comfort Nico gave himself.

Micaela seems to be alive and well, the villa, her things are still there, Nico can talk to her from time to time, and other than not being able to hug or kiss her, life doesn’t seem to have changed drastically.

…

During this year, Nico has been in hiding, a man who has traveled between international organizations and done amazing things, but in every case, he has licked blood at gunpoint and, on a few occasions, crossed paths with death.

But death did not want to take him in, always wanting him to live and shrink.

He has traveled to many, many countries and places.

Glaciers seen in the north, northern lights chased in the south, wandering sutras in the west, Brahma sutras turned in the east.

It was as if the wind had traveled 8. 000 miles and seen the whole world, but still, I could not leave her.

She is the one who sees the glaciers in the north, the one who chases the northern lights in the south, the one who travels the scriptures in the west, and the one who converts the Brahma Sutras in the east.

Later, he found that the more he quit, the more addicted he became, so he quit, and was fine with being attached to one person for the rest of his life.

He led a life of freedom and boldness, and to find it he became a bird of prey wandering from place to place.