The Day My Slow Brain Finally Felt Heartbreak Chapter 09
Nathan stood outside the flower shop for three days and three nights.
He neither ate nor drank, only standing there with bloodshot eyes fixed on me.
Even when passersby gave him strange, judgmental looks, he ignored them completely.
But I never stepped outside to offer him a single word.
I treated him like thin air, pretending he didn’t exist.
By the fourth morning.
When I unlocked the shop door, his silhouette was finally gone.
I let out a massive sigh of relief.
Turning back to my workstation, I continued sorting through a fresh batch of baby’s breath.
The bell above the door chimed again.
Assuming it was a customer, I didn’t bother looking up.
“Good morning, welcome. What can I get for you today?”
The person didn’t say a word for a long time.
Only a heavy, choked sob cut through the quiet.
Confused, I raised my head.
“Dummy…”
“It’s me.”
Standing by the door frame was a woman.
Her face was entirely drenched in tears, and her voice was so raspy it sounded like sand scraping against
paper.
The hand holding my shears locked up instantly.
After three years of total absence, I could barely recognize Joy.
She had aged terribly.
The girl who used to be so bright, vibrant, and constantly smiling like a sunflower on campus now had deeply sunken eyes.
Her hair was dry, brittle, and thrown into a messy, careless bun at the back of her head.
She stared at me in absolute desperation.
Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
Her lips trembled violently as she repeated the name that had been buried for three long years.
“Dummy… my little dummy…”
“You’re alive… thank god… you’re actually alive…”
I set the shears down.
Grabbing a towel from the counter, I methodically wiped the moisture from my hands.
“Ma’am, I think you have the wrong person.”
“My name isn’t dummy. I’m Valerie.”
“No! You’re the dummy!”
Joy lunged forward two steps in a frantic panic, reaching out to grab my arm.
I instinctively took a massive step back, completely evading her touch.
Her hand froze mid-air.
The agony on her face contorted into something deeper.
“Valerie, how could I ever mistake you for someone else?”
“We’re best friends! You always speak so slowly, and you walk so slowly.”
“Whenever people bullied you, I was always the very first person to stand up and protect you… have you forgotten all of that?”
“I haven’t forgotten.”
I calmly cut off her pathetic melodrama.
“I also haven’t forgotten that while I was lying on that operating table, bleeding out and nearly dying.”
“My absolute best friend was clutching her stomach, leaning against my fiancé’s arms and acting spoiled.”
Joy’s face turned entirely pale in an instant.
