No Echoes After Midnight

Adrian's POV

My head buzzed. I looked up sharply at Marissa Cole, who had been waiting outside the studio for me to get off work.

No wonder the student's voice had sounded familiar. I had heard it on her phone before.

The producer shot to his feet in panic and urged me through my earpiece to keep talking.

Marissa's eyes darkened. Holding her phone, she turned and walked away.

I took a deep breath and forced out a smile.

I held myself together and finished the closing remarks, ending right at the five-minute mark.

That brought the late-night program I had hosted for ten years to its final stop.

When the song came in, my nerves gave way all at once. Cold sweat had soaked through my clothes.

I laughed weakly at myself. I really had sounded like I was hosting for the first time.

My coworkers looked at me with complicated expressions. Shock, gossip, pity.

"Mr. Miles..."

I took my phone. The show and my name were already trending.

[Holy crap! This is insane. I cannot believe the final episode dropped a bomb like this.]

[For anyone late: a college guy said he fell for his professor. The host counseled him, and then the guy suddenly called him Professor Cole's husband. Then the call got cut.]

[The host's wife is Marissa Cole, a professor at Ashford Law School.]

[The irony. This guy had just said how happy he was with his wife. Next second: the joke was on him.]

...

It was probably the most popular the show had ever been.

When I left the office, my stomach hurt even more. I forced myself to walk to the parking garage.

Marissa was in the car. In the back seat were flowers and a gift she had bought for me.

"Caleb was being reckless and immature. I apologize on his behalf."

Her tone was light, as if she were talking about something that did not matter.

"Your show did not have many listeners anyway. It will not affect much."

That was all she said. Then she reached over to buckle my seat belt and prepared to drive.

I laughed through clenched teeth.

"Do you not owe me an explanation about you and him?"

She frowned slightly. Her voice was almost cold.

"What explanation do you want? I cheated. I fell for my student. When I said I was working late at school, half the time I was with him. I have been rejecting you for the past six months because he minded.

"If you want a divorce, I have no objection."

My heart felt as if it had been crushed in someone's fist. My voice shook.

"Why..."

"Why does anyone cheat? Things faded. I got tired. I wanted something fresh, something intense."

She was silent for a moment. She turned her wedding ring and slowly took it off.

"I know what I did was wrong, but I fell for him. I could not help it. He makes me feel alive in a way I have not felt in years.

"I am sorry, Adrian. I truly did not want to hurt you."

Tears blurred my eyes. Her face twisted in front of me.

"Adrian, as long as I am here, no one will hurt you."

She had proposed to me in a hospital.

That New Year's Eve, I went home to spend the holiday with my mother.

I never expected her to have gotten involved with my gambling, abusive father again. She had even agreed to sell me to a rich older woman to settle his debts, saying the woman liked clean-cut male college students like me.

Cornered with nowhere to go, I jumped from a second-floor window.

When Marissa found out, she flew over immediately. She pressured and negotiated with my parents until they signed papers cutting ties with me.

I stared at the papers, crying and laughing at the same time. She took out a ring.

"When I got your call, I was organizing my parents' belongings. I was in such a hurry that I put this in my pocket without thinking. I only realized after I got off the plane.

"Adrian, will you marry me? Let me be your family."

I was drowned by a kind of shock and gratitude I could not describe. Tears blocked my throat, and all I could do was nod over and over.

I would. Of course I would.

Once my broken bones healed, we went to get our marriage license right away.

On our third anniversary, I made up for it with a proper proposal of my own.

She cried from how moved she was.

From love to no love, it had only taken ten years.

The lifetime she once promised so firmly had become brittle plastic. It looked intact from the outside, but the moment you squeezed, it shattered.

My phone rang, pulling me out of the memory.

Marissa looked at me. Maybe she thought there was no point hiding it from me anymore, so she answered right there in the car.