Page 8 of Vitamin Sea

I ’m in!!!!

Chloe was elated.

Costa Morpho had booked her in for a week-long stay at the end of the month. With the room, meals, and airfare comped, all she had needed was confirmation that her best friend could make it.

Which Lala’s text had just provided.

She had been back at the office for over one week and it had made her realize how much she missed being there. From the impromptu cubicle conversations and the team brainstorming sessions to the endless racks of clothing and accessories littering the space and her fashionably dressed colleagues.

Curiously, no one made any inquiries into her six-month-long absence and, happily, no one had inquired about Liam.

She was sure that the notoriously private and professional Dasha wouldn’t have said anything about Chloe’s absence.

But she also knew that downtown gossip spread like wildfire.

It was a safe bet that someone—a friend of her colleagues or one of her colleagues themselves—would have run into Liam or one of his friends.

All it would have taken was an innocent inquiry about Chloe’s well- being and .

. . bam—her relationship status would have been known all over the office.

When she thought about it, it was better this way. Six months later, Liam’s name still made her stomach turn and her heart rate increase. This way, everyone avoided the topic.

She had gotten up the courage to reinstall Instagram on her phone over the weekend and was overwhelmed by the number of messages she had received from followers inquiring about her well-being.

It was both touching and a tad alarming. There were so many that, instead of replying to each person individually, she posted a story thanking her followers for their concern and letting them know that she had taken some time off for her well-being.

She had also RSVP’d for a beauty launch, which she would be attending that Thursday night.

It was something she was apprehensive about.

While her coworkers had enough tact to avoid any questions about her relationship, she knew that there would be those at the event who were either not so kind or who hadn’t been apprised of the situation.

She wasn’t so self-absorbed as to think that her relationship was newsworthy enough to end up in the gossip pages, and industry acquaintances were unlikely to be informed. Chloe just hoped there wouldn’t be any questions.

◆◆◆

Bisha Hotel was situated a bit west of the financial district on a crowded street.

An imposing building, it was done up in blacks, grays, and blues with soft lighting that gave the interior of the hotel a dark, dramatic feel.

The launch party was for a new line of Korean skincare products and was taking place on the rooftop restaurant which, in contrast to the rest of the hotel, was light and airy in taupe and beige tones.

Chloe wasn’t the only staffer from Strut attending and she walked over with Jude and Luna, the senior beauty editor.

A sign in the hotel lobby indicated that Kost, the rooftop restaurant, was closed that evening for a private event. At a desk off to the side, a girl from the PR company sat with a clipboard and checked their names off the list before they made their way upstairs.

The usual assortment of industry people—influencers, editors, local celebrities, and those in the media—packed the restaurant.

Lights were turned down low and a DJ was spinning.

Specialty cocktails had been made for the event, which also featured an open bar, and patrons got live demonstrations of all the products.

Familiar faces greeted Chloe, many of whom remarked about how long it had been since they had seen her. She brushed it off by telling them she had taken a step back to deal with some things and, mercifully, no one had asked past that.

She laughed and chatted, posed for photos, took photos, and filmed some of the carryings-on.

After two cocktails, she bid adieu to her colleagues, three more of whom had shown up in the time she had been there.

A quick thank-you to the PR team and one over-stuffed gift bag later and Chloe was in an Uber on her way home.

Her stomach was full of Asian-fusion canapés, and she felt a warm glow from both the cocktails and the comfort of feeling like she was almost back to normal. After the months she had spent in isolation, it was a surprise to see how easily she was able to slide back into her old life.

Before bed that night she scrolled through her camera roll to see all the videos and pictures she had taken at the event. Her thumb accidentally hit the scroll bar, which leapt backwards in time, and suddenly she found herself staring at photos of her and Liam.

Chloe’s heart started racing and she got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She stared at the pictures. They had been taken the night they had celebrated their fourth anniversary. They both looked so happy, so carefree, so in love.

She was overcome with a wave of nausea.

She had worked on processing her emotions, she had committed to cleaning up her condo, and she was back in the swing of things at work. But one thing she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do during the past six months was to go through her phone and delete the photos of her and Liam.

Part of it was to avoid the pain she knew that pictures of them together would bring. And part of it was because, while she knew in her head that she and Liam were done and dusted, somewhere in her heart she was still holding out hope for a reconciliation.

What a fool she would feel like, she had reasoned with herself, if they got back together and she had deleted five years of their life. It was better, she told herself, to just avoid looking at them altogether.

With a few deep breaths she scrolled back to the top of her camera roll, exited out of the app, and put down her phone.

The lightness she had felt minutes before dissipated and she buried her head in her hands.

One day it wouldn’t feel like this, she hoped. And that day couldn’t come soon enough.