I Erased Our Marriage Timeline novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: London

"Yes," I said. "Yes. From anywhere."

Jocelyn burst into tears and knocked the croissant box off my second chair.

We sat on the floor and ate them anyway, with the bean on her phone propped against my drafting table.

London started in the rain.

It rained when we landed at Heathrow at six in the morning.

It rained on the Tube, and on the walk from the station, and on the three flights of stairs up to the flat.

It rained for the whole first month.

"It's just the one long rain," Abel said, on day nineteen, looking out at the chimney. "I think it's the same rain. I think it's following us."

The flat was exactly the closet from the photos.

One room and a half.

A radiator that knocked.

A kitchen with two burners and an oven the size of a shoebox.

A window with one chimney in it, and pigeons on the chimney, and the same three pigeons every day.

Abel named them after architects within a week.

"That one's Gehry," he said. "In honor of his namesake."

"Gehry's a dog."

"Gehry's in Escondido eating my mother's ham. This is his London branch."

His mother called every Sunday and held the phone up to the dog.

Gehry barked twice, offended, at the screen.

Abel cooked.

That was a mistake for both of us.

He made shepherd's pie from a recipe in the window of a pub, and it came out as soup with a crust floating on it.

He made scones that bounced.

He made a curry that set off the smoke alarm, and he stood on the one chair waving a tea towel at it while I laughed so hard I had to sit on the floor.

"I'm a fellow," he said, from the chair, waving. "At a design institute. In London."

"You're a fellow on a chair."

"Both things are true."

I had studio four nights a week until two in the morning.

The school was a tall brick building with every light on all night, full of people my age who'd never once slept in a car.

My first professor was a tall gray woman who said "No" more than any human I'd ever met.

No to my site plan.

No to my section.

← Chapter 22 · All chapters · Chapter 24 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend