desperate love

Ashley's wedding day was the day the love of my life jumped from the eighteenth floor.

His studio was filled with portraits of her. The brushstrokes were frantic, almost violent, yet charged with a desperate love.

"Ethan loved Ashley for ten years," a friend told me. "She was his whole world."

I woke up, saw Ethan, the shy new kid, cornered by the school bully, and quietly closed the door.

Later, he knocked on my window in the pouring rain, his voice hoarse with despair. "Sarah, don't you want me anymore…?"

1

Ethan Bell, the astrophysics professor, recently discovered a new asteroid and became an internet sensation, not for his discovery, but for his striking looks. People were less interested in celestial bodies and more interested in his almost unfairly attractive face.

The buzz intensified when they learned he'd named the asteroid after his beloved. Everyone wanted to know who "S.a.r." was. I clutched my phone, a smirk playing on my lips.

At the end of the interview, the reporter asked, "Professor Bell, is there anything you'd like to say to your beloved, S.a.r.?"

Ethan paused, his dark eyes flickering. "Happy anniversary," he said, his voice even, but with an almost imperceptible undercurrent of despair.

My blood ran cold. Happy anniversary?

"Awww!" My friend Chloe nudged me playfully. "Sarah, your Professor Bell seems so stoic, but he's such a romantic! Celebrating your anniversary like it's your wedding day!"

Is that what this was? Looking at Ethan's intense gaze in the video, I felt my cheeks flush.

I’d been with Ethan for ten years, pulling him from the depths of a dark, brooding adolescence into the composed, brilliant man he was now. Ten years ago, he transferred to our school and became my deskmate. He was beautiful, with pale skin and sharp features, but he’d regarded me with open annoyance. Now, he was naming asteroids after me, his usually impassive face softening with tenderness when he spoke of his love.

Today was our first wedding anniversary. I curled up on the couch, cradling my stomach, waiting to tell him I was pregnant.

Instead, I learned of his death. He’d jumped.

He clutched a note in his hand: Death is but a return to the cosmos. In a billion years, we will meet again among the stars.

2

Chloe helped me arrange the funeral. Ethan had left a will, donating his entire estate to charity. I was strangely calm. I almost laughed watching Chloe, her eyes swollen, gritting her teeth at Ethan’s portrait while trying to comfort me.

After the funeral, the lawyer called. "Mrs. Bell, there's a house in Ethan's name, excluded from the donation… you can come by to deal with it whenever you're free."

The house was in the suburbs. I pushed open the door and froze, speechless.

The hall was filled with portraits, rough sketches, almost amateurish. But the woman in them, rendered with such raw, passionate love, was vividly alive.

It was Ashley Rogers, our high school prom queen. In ten years, Ethan had never mentioned he...