The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 35

"Sloane, these past few years... how have you been?"

Through the curling steam of the beef stew, Josh looked at the woman sitting across from him—the person he hadn't seen in five years, yet hadn't forgotten for a single second—and asked the question delicately.

The air went quiet for a moment.

Sloane looked down, stirring the soup in her bowl without speaking. In the dim lighting, her expression was unreadable.

When she finally looked up again, her face had returned to its usual bright, easygoing smile.

"I've been doing great. My son is already five. Oh, do you want to see a picture of him?"

Josh gave a slow nod. "Sure."

Sloane pulled out her phone and opened her photo gallery, but she quickly realized that Archie had started hating having his picture taken recently. She hardly had any clear, recent photos of him; most were just shots of his back.

She kept scrolling up until she finally found a picture of Archie from when he was about three years old.

"Look, this is my son, Archie."

"He's really cute. He looks like you."

Josh glanced at the photo and then handed the phone back to Sloane.

"You think so? Everyone says he takes after me!"

Sloane laughed as she took the phone back. But in the brief second she looked up, Josh didn't miss the faint, red rim around her watery eyes.

Josh's heart took a sudden, painful hit.

His mind snapped back to a summer many years ago, when he saw her at her father's wedding.

He was only seven then, and she was barely ten. Her mother had just passed away in a car accident less than two months prior. The little girl, dressed in a white dress, sat completely alone in the corner, watching the happy 'new couple' on stage.

"Are you okay?"

Young Josh had walked over, asking out of concern.

"I'm fine. I have a new mom now."

The little girl smiled as she said it, but her beautiful eyes were veiled in moisture, the corners tinted a faint, raw red—just like they were now.

It wasn't that he didn't want to call; it was that he didn't dare to...

He couldn't bear to see the look of absolute devotion in her eyes when she looked at that man.

When you love someone, you can't hide it.

—He knew that better than anyone.

"You're a geology major at Northgate Institute of Technology now? Look at you, all grown up and successful!"

Sloane praised him genuinely between spoonfuls of soup.

"It's not as impressive as Riverdale University..."

"Hey, I only got in on a swimming scholarship! Are you kissing my ass or making fun of me? Besides, I didn't even get to graduate..."

"Sloane, I didn't mean it like that!" Josh shook his head frantically, his face turning red with panic.

Sloane just laughed.