All Chapters of No Migratory Birds in Antarctica: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Mia's POVRain came down in sheets.I didn't move.I only stood across the street, staring through the restaurant's glass wall at the two people who had pulled me out of the wreckage of my childhood.They were holding each other tightly.A beautiful woman, a handsome man, love moving openly between them.They looked perfect together.It was the kind of scene you almost felt guilty interrupting.I had no umbrella, but I stayed on that street corner for a full fifteen minutes.Only when the clock reached seven — the exact time we had agreed to meet — did I wipe the rain from my hair and walk briskly into the private dining room."Unbelievable. My ride broke down halfway here, and I couldn't get another one. I had to run through the rain. I'm freezing!"Summer Reed immediately pulled off her expensive jacket and wrapped it around my wet hair."You idiot. Why didn't you call us? We would've come to get you. You just got over a cold!"Ethan Hayes used to be the most attentive p

Scene after scene from the past rose in my mind.My smile grew.Then I clicked to the next page.And the smile disappeared."I always thought of Summer as Mia's best friend. Honestly, I used to get annoyed because she was always stealing Mia's time from me. But tonight I saw Summer onstage at the dance competition. She was incredible. I felt something strange in my chest. What is wrong with me?"The entry was dated five months ago.I stared at the date.Hadn't Ethan told me the app stopped working two years ago because of a bug?I scrolled down quickly."The three of us had dinner today. Summer sat across from me, and I kept looking at her without meaning to. She has dimples when she smiles. How did I never notice?"Another entry."Summer's grandmother died. I went with Mia to comfort her. Watching Summer cry like that, I wanted to hold her so badly."Then:"I can't stop thinking about her. I'm a terrible person."My fingers went cold.I kept scrolling."Our hands touch

I never figured out whether I followed him because I was worried about Summer, or because some self-destructive part of me wanted to see, one last time, what Ethan looked like when he was terrified for another woman.Either way, I went to the hospital.The antiseptic smell hit me as soon as I entered the hallway.Summer's room wasn't hard to find.The door had been left slightly open.Wide enough for me to see everything.Summer lay in the hospital bed with a cast on her right leg.She looked pale and exhausted.Still beautiful.Ethan stood beside her."Why didn't you tell me?"Summer looked away."Why would I? You're my best friend's boyfriend. You—""Summer."His voice broke."Why are you still saying that? We already admitted what we feel. You know that.""Enough."Summer closed her eyes."That night was a mistake. Don't hold on to it. I've thought everything through. Mia is the most important friend I've ever had. I won't hurt her, and I won't let you hurt her eit

Ethan spent three nights unable to sleep.On the fourth day, he found Mia again.After that, he started orbiting her life.He was clumsy about it, persistent, and completely sincere.At first, Mia resisted all of it.But slowly, she began to smile at him.If he scraped his arm playing basketball, she would stare at the injury with obvious worry before pretending she didn't care.Ethan had read enough romance novels to believe he understood what was happening.Wanting to protect someone for no logical reason...That had to be love.So he confessed.So he promised forever.And six years passed.He treated Mia like something fragile and precious.He remembered everything.Everyone called him the perfect boyfriend.He was proud of that.Then one night, at a dance competition, he looked at Summer differently for the first time.The girl he had always found loud, opinionated, and impossible was moving across the stage like a swan. Bright, confident, alive.Something opened

Antarctica was far larger than he had imagined, and far more merciless.Extreme weather and storms that arrived out of nowhere stopped him every time, long before he had covered any real distance.Each attempt ended the same way: hypothermia dropping him onto an endless white plain.Even with his mind going dim from the cold, one thought kept repeating itself.He hadn't found me yet. He couldn't die out here.That was the only reason he managed, each time, to drag together the last of his strength and send a distress signal.Eventually he understood that the whole approach was stupid and a waste of time.So he pinned his hopes on other routes.He applied for temporary logistics crews, support teams, anything attached to a polar expedition.Every application died quietly.Over that year, he lost weight he couldn't afford to lose. Guilt, urgency, missing me.Then his former supervisor came to him.There was a major media assignment, he said. Land it cleanly and the network wo