Chapter 20
\nThree Years Later, He Came Back Begging novel Chapter 20<\/p>\n
The next time Bonnie heard about Hannah, it was on Lawrence\u2019s birthday in March. Hannah had taken time off from her job in Russia just to come home. She spent the whole day cooking, setting a beautiful table, and kept calling Lawrence again and again, asking when he would come home.<\/p>\n
Lawrence\u2019s phone was tossed onto the pillow beside him. He looked tired and a little annoyed, rubbing his forehead as he tried to explain to Bonnie. He told her he\u2019d already made plans to spend his birthday with his girlfriend, not at home.<\/p>\n
He didn’t know Hannah had decided to come back out of nowhere.<\/p>\n
But Hannah hadn\u2019t been home in a long time. She\u2019d come all this way and gone through all this trouble. He couldn\u2019t just say no. Bonnie watched him get dressed and shook her head when he tried to kiss her goodbye. She pulled the blanket over herself and stayed quiet.<\/p>\n
That night was Lawrence\u2019s birthday. It was also their first night together.<\/p>\n
But instead of happy memories, Bonnie just felt empty.<\/p>\n
Later, deep in the night, Lawrence came home with the chill of early spring clinging to him. He wrapped his arms around her and whispered apology after apology, stubbornly refusing to let her go.<\/p>\n
People say young couples can make up with just a kiss and a soft promise.<\/p>\n
But the fights didn\u2019t stop. In fact, after that, they argued over Hannah again and again.<\/p>\n
Once Hannah\u2019s exchange program ended, she was everywhere. She\u2019d show up on their dates, sometimes bringing some friends with her for karaoke. In noisy bars, when Lawrence stepped away, his friends would always find things to tell Bonnie. Stories she\u2019d never heard, memories she didn\u2019t share.<\/p>\n
They told her that when Lawrence and Hannah were kids, he\u2019d peeked at her in the bath and got spanked so hard he couldn\u2019t sit. How he\u2019d been so devoted to her, written her a love letter when he first fell in love, and when Hannah rejected him, he threw a childish fit and started dating someone else to make her jealous.<\/p>\n
Hannah would just laugh and shrug by her side, never really explaining, only whispering to Bonnie that it was all dumb childhood stuff, way in the past, and now Lawrence only liked Bonnie.<\/p>\n
After that, Bonnie stopped doubting the two of them.<\/p>\n
But even so, she and Lawrence still ended up breaking up because of Hannah.<\/p>\n
Years later, Bonnie couldn\u2019t even remember the details clearly. Truth and lies, old feelings and new ones, all blurred together in her memory. But the frustration and dislike for those people, that never really faded.<\/p>\n
She forced herself to eat a little more, not putting her chopsticks down until she felt uncomfortably full.<\/p>\n
Helen and Ned exchanged glances across the table, sending silent messages to each other. Finally, Ned cleared his throat. \u201cHey, Bonnie, so\u2026 I have this friend from college. He\u2019s a programmer at a big tech company. He\u2019s not from around here, but he just bought a place in Cabinda. Would you want to meet him on a blind date?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-688","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kampoengnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter\/688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kampoengnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kampoengnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kampoengnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}