"Simon Cluster, the youngest son of Gerald Cluster, financier and investor for the largest investment company Bluepencil on the east coast, arrived at the Met Gala last May with a young new lady by his side. The eligible bachelor declared to the press last Christmas that he had gotten engaged to Leila Matteo after their romantic trip to the Mallorca. Leila denied the rumors and showed her engagement ringless hand."
Joseph read the article Darius had mentioned to him and fell back on the sofa, the Guardian newspaper on the coffee table. His hands run through his hair, yanking at them.
Did they get engaged?
Joseph closed his eyes, clenched his hands into fists and tried to calm his breathing. His chest rose and fell, sucking in all the oxygen in the room. The paper laid on the table- opened on page six with an enormous photo of Leila beside a tall man. The article itself wasn't very long but the announcement that was delivered in it, broke every cell in Joseph's core.
She was engaged?
Joseph grabbed the paper and crumbled it into a ball.
Leila Matteo?
Was that her last name?
They had only been on first name bases but she knew his. He hadn't had a reason to ask hers and the guy at the hotel's front desk didn't give him her personal information. He hadn't had anything useful to use for tracking her down so far but now that he had her full name, he could.
He wasn't sure if he wanted to though. She was with somebody else and years had passed.
In all this time, he hadn't forgotten about her. But had she?
Philadelphia was three hours away. By train, he could be there in less than two hours. She had been so close to him the whole time but felt like eternity separated them.
He knew it was time to let her go. For the love of God, she belonged to somebody else now.
But that pinching feeling down in his gut wouldn't let him settle the idea of her beside another man. It felt ridiculous. She was meant to be with him, yet he couldn't figure out when the possessive side of him came rambling to the surface. He would have never thought that he could feel this way about a woman. About somebody, he barely knew. But he did and he had finally started to accept that idea.
Cliches and the romantic crap in all the romance novels proved somehow to be actually real in the world he was living in. The love at first sight and desperate love with feelings torn after a breakup were things he didn't think were possible to suffer from. But he did and that drove him mad day by day after Leila left.
He looked at the ball of paper and tossed it in the trash. He wasn't going to let all of it string him along while he wanted to move on.
There had been an offer to perform on a gala in Boston in two years, a benefit where all the rich people would bid on items to raise money for kids who wanted to get into music. The government couldn't fund such a branch in the education sector. He took the offer and started to prepare for it- he was going back to the studio and start working on a debut album.
It was a new beginning, new life for him and he was going to move on since she had.
It was time for a change.
