After a while, Alexis looked at him and asked softly, "Do you still love me?"

Leonel was lying on the bed with one hand covering his eyes. After what seemed like forever, he answered her question. “Perhaps a Little. But nevertheless, Alexis, we both have to move on with our lives.”

"I understand." Alexis nodded.

Then she got out of bed and started to put on her clothes right there in front of him.

She wasn't in a hurry at all. She put on each piece of clothing calmly and quietly.

Once she was done, she said with her back to him, "I'm leaving."

Leonel didn't say anything in response.

Instead, he propped himself up on his elbow and reached for a cigarette from the bedside table which he promptly lit. Then he took a deep drag, the bitterness in his mouth easing the ache in his heart.

But just as his pain began to ease, Alexis was long gone.

Immediately, the familiar ache came back again, and he felt like he might be doomed to loneliness forever.

Not long after, just as he was finishing the cigarette, a maid suddenly rushed in. She didn't knock, instead she barged right in.

Though the room was dim, the maid could still see the scattered clothes on the floor. Leonel's belt was also there, suggesting that something had happened in the room earlier.

The maid quickly looked away.

"Miss Fowler accidentally knocked over a vase downstairs and her wrist is bleeding a lot," she reported almost breathlessly. "I want to take her to the hospital, but she keeps insisting on driving herself."

Without hesitation, Leonel quickly got off the bed.

He was wearing only his boxers.

The maid hurriedly stepped out of his path.

Throwing on a robe, Leonel limped his way downstairs. He moved quickly, even though each step caused pain in his leg.

Alexis' car was still in the driveway, the window half open.

She was seated in the car, her bleeding wrist hanging outside the car window.