The Indifferent Ex-Husband: Heartstrings in the Mall of Fate novel Chapter 40

"Yeah, I'm heading back now," Sophia whispered, "Gotta hang up."

And then she hung up the phone.

Brandon slowly put down his phone only when the busy signal "beep beep" hit his ears, glancing at the screen.

The phone had already gone back to the lock screen.

He unlocked it and, on the call log page, that dialed number was still just a string of digits.

That string of digits had been saved in Brandon's contacts for eight years.

A number he jotted down in his youth, during the time he reconnected with Sophia, he almost never dialed it, even though he knew it by heart without having to save it.

Brandon couldn't tell why he never called in those years. He often thought of Sophia, remembered how she stood quietly at the podium, introducing herself with her unique soft voice, "Hi everyone, I'm Sophia." Every time he thought of her, he couldn't help but fish out the number, but he never actually dialed it.

He couldn't quite pinpoint his feelings during those years. Every time his finger hovered over the call button, memories of the graduation party when the teacher regretfully informed everyone that Sophia couldn't make it, wishing everyone fun, would flood him with a sense of loss and anger. That year, Sophia had left without a word.

On the other hand, after that loss and anger, there was the complex feeling that Sophia was not Yolanda.

Under the mix of anger and complex disappointment, every time he faced the number, he never followed through with the call.

Brandon even thought that Sophia must have changed her number by then.

It turned out she kept it all along.

He knew her number like the back of his hand, but as for his own number which hadn't changed in eight years, Sophia didn't seem to recall it.

Thinking back to her polite "Hello, who's this?" on the phone just now, Brandon's eyes dimmed again.

If he remembered correctly, this wasn't the first time she had responded with "Hello, who's this?" She genuinely didn't know who was on the other end of the line.

Sophia's figure appeared at the turn of the stairwell in the teaching building, quietly looking around.

"Nothing." His voice was still indifferent as Brandon turned the steering wheel, smoothly pulling out of the parking spot.

Sophia was used to his aloofness and sat up straighter, her gaze shifted to the road ahead, and she stayed quiet.

Brandon took a quick look at her. Her beautiful profile bathed in the evening sun, a wisp of hair curled by the wind created a delicate arc beside her cheek, looking serene yet tender.

"Are you adjusting okay at school?" Brandon asked.

Sophia glanced at him, surprised. She remembered Brandon wasn't one for small talk, but she nodded gently, "Yeah, it's alright."

"Did you have a lot of classes today?"

"Not really." Sophia didn't want to outright say she just didn't want to go back, "Today the school had a recruitment presentation by Dempsey Architects. It looked pretty good, so I checked it out."

Brandon turned to look at her. "Are you thinking of looking for a job?"