Sinking Into Him Again

#Second Chance Romance #Mutual Firsts At college, Lu Qingxun was the brightest light in the pool. With the national trials just around the corner, everyone said he would swim his way onto the national team. The day Ye Zhiyu pulled him out of the deep end, she was coughing too hard to speak. All she could remember was the water droplets on his shoulders, glittering like crushed diamonds. He taught her to swim, holding her up as he told her, “The water won’t hurt you.” Her heart raced faster than a stopwatch. Then his leg was ruined, and he ended everything with a text message. Five years later, Ye Zhiyu started a new job. The nameplate outside the CEO’s office at the end of the hall made the employee handbook slip from her hands. He entered the conference room leaning on a metal crutch, immaculate in his suit, his right leg slightly lame. His gaze passed over her without stopping. She followed him into his office and asked why he had broken up with her. Turning his chair away from her, he said, “We weren’t right for each other.” But she recognized at once the cord bracelet on his wrist, faded to gray and white. She stopped asking questions. She simply sat quietly at his company and watched him tap his crutch against every inch of the floor each day, until the day of the elevator accident. When she nearly fell, he threw aside his crutch and lunged to catch her. They tumbled to the ground together. She clung to him and sobbed, while he trembled with pain and still said, “I couldn’t control myself.” That night, she found a wooden box under his bed. Inside were a gold medal from the National College Games, a silver medal from the provincial games, and an unopened notice for the national team trials. In a drawer were three bottles of antidepressants, two of them empty. At last, she understood: the man who had given her up five years ago was the one who had sunk the deepest. This time, she would swim toward him. She would make him understand that water wouldn’t hurt anyone, and neither would she.