He reached out to hold my hand, but I quickened my pace and walked ahead to a spot closer to the volcano.
At the moment when the magma erupted, it felt as though my heart resonated with the planet. As the scorching heat enveloped me, the sour pain in my heart seemed to evaporate.
Amid the roaring sounds, I thought I heard someone shouting my name. At some point, Nick had come to my side. He held me tightly, leaning in as if to kiss me.
I dodged and he asked, hurt, "Why did you avoid me? Didn't you want a photo in front of the volcano?" He remembered my joking remark about kissing in front of a volcano.
At the time, I had just finished watching a movie and was struck by how the protagonists' love was as pure and intense as magma. He had kissed me then, saying with a smile, "Just like us."
But he hadn't remembered what I said after, "If love isn't pure, then it has no reason to exist."
Before being abandoned by my parents, I had experienced pure love, too. But over time, that love became mixed with other complexities. Like sugar tainted with shards of glass, sweet, but bloody.
"I'm just tired. I zoned out for a moment," I replied perfunctorily.
His phone rang and he became busy replying to messages, not noticing anything unusual about me. I whispered softly, "Nick, I'm tired. Let's go back."
Nick looked up and I caught the faint reflection in his glasses, it was a picture of a woman.
He hesitated, as if weighing something in his mind. After a moment, he finally said, "Helen, one of my business partners happens to be here. Could you head back first?"
Seeing my silence, he uneasily hooked his finger around mine, "Sorry, Helen, don't be angry. This business partner is really important. Next time, how about I take you to climb a snowy mountain?"
I shook my head. "It's okay." From now on, nothing about you will concern me anymore.
He leaned closer, intending to kiss me. "I'll be back after handling things."
Without hesitation, I turned my head away and walked off. What he was 'handling,' only he and that woman knew.
As expected, my phone buzzed again with messages from that woman. They were kissing in front of the volcano, getting intimate by a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the forest.
[Mrs. Hemsworth, why can't you keep your man?]
[Are you too boring? Nick always leaves me exhausted.]