His Heart Stayed Flat for Me, Raced for Her, I Stayed for Neither Chapter 10

His Heart Stayed Flat for Me, Raced for Her, I Stayed for Neither Chapter 10

But Caleb wouldn’t give up. 

He must have found my email address somehow. 

After he went home, he emailed me every single 

day. 

[Emily, I’m going to wait for you. I’ll come back when you’re not angry anymore.] 

[Emily, it’s raining in Millbrook. Do you have an umbrella?] 

[Emily, today is our anniversary. I ordered you a cake and flowers. I don’t know if you got them.] 

I never replied to his emails or accepted any of his 

gifts. 

One night, I got another long email from Caleb. 

He said he thought about me every day, regretted 

everything, and would wait for me forever. 

He finally made things official. He posted on his 

social media, in front of everyone, that I was his 

girlfriend. That he liked me. 

My phone started buzzing. The class group chat had exploded with hundreds of messages. 

Someone had taken a screenshot of Caleb’s post 

and shared it. 

I opened it. 

It was a long letter. 

He had posted all the photos of us together. 

At the end of the letter, he wrote: 

[Emily, I owe you a public announcement. I owe you an ‘I like you.‘ You spent years chasing me. Now it’s my turn. I’ll wait for you. Tomorrow, ten years from now, I’ll be here.] 

The comments went crazy. 

Caleb replied to every single one with the same thing: [I like Emily Carson. I always have.] 

After three years, he finally found the courage to stand up and say he liked me, in front of everyone. 

But it came too late. 

It was like showing up with an umbrella after the rain had already stopped. 

Time moved fast. 

My life abroad found its rhythm. 

That relationship felt like a storm from my 

younger years. The rain stopped, and it was over. 

Sometimes I still dreamed about my old life. 

Sometimes I still woke up sad. 

But only sometimes. 

I started learning how to dress better. I got asked 

out a few times. 

I still studied hard. My grades stayed in the top three of my class. One of my professors asked if I wanted to help with his research. 

I made friends with some other students, a few of 

whom I grew close to. 

During breaks, we traveled together. 

On my birthday, my parents threw a party at our apartment. They invited everyone I was close to. 

After I made my wish, one of my friends took my 

hand and said, “Emily, you are the most amazing 

person I know. You deserve the very best.” 

I couldn’t hold back my tears anymore. I hugged 

her and cried. 

No one had ever said anything like that to me 

before. 

For as long as I could remember, everyone around 

me told me I was average. That I wasn’t good enough for Caleb. 

I spent my entire school life believing I was 

worthless. 

It took me a long time to finally tell myself: Emily, 

you are amazing. You are good enough for 

anyone. 

In my junior year, I made a decision. I was going to 

apply for graduate school. 

My parents and my friends all supported me. 

It was a stressful time. 

I had to write personal statements, get 

recommendation letters, finish my thesis, and 

conduct research. 

I was in the library until midnight almost every day. 

I went back to my dorm and fell into bed. 

When the acceptance letter finally came, I opened 

it with shaking hands. 

And when I saw it, I started crying. 

All the years of being told I wasn’t good enough. All the laughter. All the humiliation. The feeling of 

never being worthy. 

Then, it all just melted away.