Chapter 3

Iris ignored Alfred. Her broken phone mattered more. Luckily, she still had the receipt.

She took a deep breath and looked at Alfred with calm eyes. "I haven't been stalking you."

He sneered, disbelief plain on his face.

His friends sensed the tension dropping fast and rushed to intervene, though their solution was to pin everything on her.

"Iris, you've got to stop being unreasonable. Alfred just got discharged. The doctor said the blood clot in his brain hasn't fully healed yet. You don't want to accidentally give him an aneurysm, do you?"

"Exactly. Even Regina knew better than to force herself on an amnesiac patient. You're being wildly irresponsible, Iris. No wonder he chose Regina over you in the end. If I were you, I would have taken the hint already."

"All right," Iris cut in.

The room fell silent.

Alfred stared at her, stunned and doubtful.

"What did you just say?" one of his friends asked.

"I said I get it. If you don't believe me, fine. Block me on social media," she replied.

These people had enabled Alfred's ridiculous scheme to cheat on her. Iris saw no reason to stay polite with any of them.

The crowd turned toward Alfred, unsure how to respond.

He sneered, "Did you have fun with your tantrum, Iris? Stop wasting my time with these cheap tricks. Like I said, the fact that I could forget you so completely proves you never meant much to me."

He reached for Regina's hand and declared, "She's my girlfriend now."

Regina smiled sweetly and looked straight at Iris. The message was obvious: "I won."

Iris dimly remembered how she once prayed and dreamed of the day Alfred would announce her as his girlfriend like this. Now she did not care at all.

She smiled and said, "Congratulations to both of you."

Alfred frowned. Irritation flickered across his face. He had not expected this reaction. Iris was holding herself together well enough to seem unaffected.

'Does she think this act will make me like her again? Is this some attempt to draw me back? Is she trying to provoke me into saying something cruel enough to shatter her own lingering fantasies?' he wondered.

Alfred guided Regina to a nearby couch with an arm around her waist and sat down, resting his arm along the back. He leaned back with lazy confidence. "Good. Then let's have a toast to our relationship."

Iris knew he meant to humiliate her, but she still asked, "Are you even supposed to drink when you still have blood clots in your brain or something?"

Was he not supposed to keep pretending he was sick for this whole charade?

Alfred smirked. 'There it is, that pointless concern of an overprotective, clingy woman. Iris can pretend all she wants. Deep down, she is still obsessed with me. There is no other explanation.'

Regina leaned into him and pressed her lips together, as if conflicted. "Freddy, I don't think she wants to do that. Maybe we shouldn't force her. I don't like forcing people."

The crowd echoed her sentiment and began urging Iris to "let go."

"Iris, don't throw away the chance to stay friends just because you can't be his girlfriend. This isn't helping you."

"They've already announced their relationship. Get a grip."

"We're only talking to you because we're friends. Otherwise, we wouldn't care at all."

'Friends?' Iris stared at them with icy disdain.

The room froze. Something about her felt unfamiliar. This was not the Iris they remembered. The Iris they knew would have crumbled under this kind of pressure, her head lowered in fear.

She had always been terrified of angering Alfred. Everyone knew that.

Iris walked up to the table and picked up a glass of wine.

"Thanks for trying to persuade me, but y'all really did not need to. I never said I was not going to drink," she said. "Here's to the longevity of Mr. Sinclair and Miss Quinn's relationship."

She smiled and drained the glass.

Iris was beautiful. Her features had always been as delicate as a doll's. Her charm and beauty were so difficult to define that even someone like Regina, the product of Alfred's careful selection among elite socialites, could not compare.

She was especially dazzling when she smiled. Every detail of her appearance seemed flawless, which was exactly why men found her dull whenever she acted restrained and conservative about sex.

That smile darkened Alfred's mood.

'Iris is laying her "big-hearted" act on too thick,' he thought.

It did not matter. One day, she would beg him to remember everything they had shared when she could no longer endure it.

He smirked.

"Good. Now, if only you would remember what you said," he sneered. "Get out of my sight."

Iris nodded. She turned to leave and caught Regina's triumphant smile.

Regina silently mouthed, "Bye, bitch."

Iris stopped in her tracks and turned back to Alfred.

The crowd snickered. They knew it. She must have failed at playing it cool and was now trying to salvage the relationship.

Alfred covered his face in exaggerated frustration. She was testing his patience. "I told you. I want you out—"

"You owe me a new phone after breaking this one. I bought it today," Iris said, holding out a receipt. "See this? Proof. This is how much I paid, and this is the time of purchase. How do you plan to compensate me?"

"Whoaaaa!" the crowd jeered.

"Tsk, tsk. That's a pretty low move."

Alfred shook his head with a grin.

Iris glanced at Regina, then turned to someone in the crowd who owned the same phone model. "If you do not want to pay me back, fine. I just need to borrow a phone for a moment. I was answering a customer's question, and I do not want to leave them waiting. I need to sign into my account and finish the conversation."

Regina's smile froze. That would expose her messages with Iris. The last thing she wanted was for Alfred to see what she had written.

She pulled out her phone in a rush. "Why do you insist on making everything so difficult, Iris? Whatever. I will pay you double the price."

Iris nodded and gave Regina her bank account number. "Please note in the transfer that this money is for my broken phone, just to avoid any future misunderstandings."

Regina bit her lip and transferred 2,000 dollars. The money itself did not bother her. What gnawed at her was the sense that Iris had launched a counterattack and landed it cleanly.

After confirming that the money had arrived, Iris thanked her politely and left.

The crowd fell silent. They had expected a punchline that never came. One person even stood to check the entrance for a full minute. Iris did not return.

"Whoa. She really left. Just like that."

"No way. She'll be back in less than three hours with some new excuse."

"I say under two hours."

They began calling out bets.

Alfred took a sip of wine and snorted. "Half an hour. That's my bet."

Regina pursed her lips, irritated. "Why do you even want her back that fast?"

Alfred slid an arm around her waist. "Come on, babe. Think about how funny it would be."

She finally smiled.

…

Half an hour passed. Then an hour. There was still no sign of Iris.

Alfred's expression grew darker by the minute.

One of his friends tried to placate him. "She's probably busy buying a new phone."

"There's a mall right across the street," another said. "She would not need this long."

"Should we call her? Maybe she's standing on a balcony somewhere, ready to jump."

"Oh shit. You might be right."

They spoke as if Iris could not exist without Alfred.

A young woman tried to call her. The call failed.

"Wait. Did she block me?" she asked, stunned.

"No way. She would never. We're her friends. I'll message her on Twitter."

Each of them checked their phones and saw the same notice on Iris' profile: "This user has blocked you."

Alfred slammed his glass onto the table. He grabbed Regina's hand and stood.

"Enough. I can't believe you all played along with her nonsense," he growled. "I'm paying the bill. We're leaving."

He stormed out.

No one moved.

The group waited until Alfred and Regina were long gone. Then someone broke the silence. "Uh, guys? Do you think Iris actually meant it when she let Alfred go?"