My Childhood Sweetheart#

: Childhood Sweethearts

My childhood sweetheart fell in love with the wealthy campus belle.

To put the campus belle's mind at ease, he came to me.

"From now on... we should see each other less. I don't want Sierra to be unhappy."

I agreed, clutching the unsent love letter in my hand.

I healed my broken heart alone, burying myself in my studies.

Years later, we met at a party.

The proud, spirited childhood sweetheart of the past was now a complete wreck, looking at me with an unreadable emotion in his eyes.

Instead, it was the campus belle who, eager to get her hands on my project, shoved him forward with a dismissive air. "Weren't you two childhood sweethearts?" she said, completely unconcerned. "Go catch up!"

1

The next time I saw Brandon Sutton was at a company victory party.

Amid the clinking glasses and obligatory schmoozing, I almost didn't recognize him.

That man, his face plastered with a sycophantic smile, was unmistakably my childhood sweetheart, Brandon Sutton.

I felt a little dazed.

Brandon Sutton and I went way back. We'd grown up together.

But he was the one who cut me off, all so he could get together with the wealthy heiress in our class.

To this day, I can still remember the resolute look on his face.

Brandon Sutton had spared no effort to get close to Sierra Shaw.

I swirled my wine, watching him through the crimson liquid as he chatted with someone in the distance.

Business cocktail parties are always a cutthroat scene, a place to kiss up and kick down.

Perhaps Brandon had said something wrong about a business deal, because the other man waved him away with an impatient flick of his hand.

I downed the rest of my wine.

'Looks like life hasn't been kind to him these past few years.'

He had used every trick in the book to chase that wealthy campus belle.

'So how did he end up so pathetic?'

I set down my glass and turned to leave.

Brandon Sutton's life had nothing to do with me anymore, and I had no interest in it.

This life he was living now... it was the one he had fought so hard for.

He had made his bed, and now he had to lie in it.

But as I turned, I came face-to-face with a familiar sight.

Bright eyes, pearly teeth, and a smile playing on her lips.

Sierra Shaw smiled and raised her glass to me, as radiant and ostentatious as ever.

"Long time no see, Jocelyn."

I curved my lips into a polite smile for Sierra Shaw.

"Long time no see, Sierra."

It really had been a long time.

Long enough that I'd almost forgotten certain things.

Suddenly, Sierra Shaw gasped softly, as if she'd just realized something.

"Langdon Group's victory party... they said it was to celebrate the first major project secured by President Ainsworth after returning to the country."

"This President Ainsworth... that wouldn't be you, would it, Jocelyn?"

I just gave a noncommittal smile.

So many years had passed. I was no longer the little girl who secretly nursed a broken heart after Brandon Sutton rejected her.

'And the title of President Ainsworth would only become more fitting.'

As she spoke, Sierra Shaw waved at someone behind me.

Brandon Sutton walked over, glass in hand, an air of utter dejection clinging to him.

I had never seen Brandon Sutton like this.

I frowned instinctively.

When he saw me, his eyes filled with a complex, unreadable emotion, as if he couldn't believe it.

"What are you dawdling for?"

Sierra Shaw chided him, as if by habit.

Brandon didn't get angry. He just meekly apologized.

"Jocelyn's back, so why the long face? Come on, say hello to President Ainsworth."

Brandon Sutton kept his head down, his gaze submissive, but I could see a storm of emotions swirling in his eyes.

"President Ainsworth."

Sierra Shaw chuckled and gave Brandon a little shove forward.

"After all these years, Brandon has grown so distant from you, President Ainsworth."

"I thought you two were childhood sweethearts? Go on, catch up."