Chapter 2

As far as I was concerned, we had broken up a long time ago.

A few months back, I'd come across a post on an anonymous forum. It had been posted a year earlier.

The poster hadn't given his name, but I knew that voice too well.

Seven years together. The other night I got home really late. She'd fallen asleep on the couch, and when she heard the door she got up, hair a mess, yawning, and asked if I wanted something to eat. In that moment all I felt was turned off. She used to be the girl I chased for two years. Just a few years later, she's turned into some ordinary woman who doesn't even bother taking care of herself. But it's been seven years, and we went to school together. Too many strings attached. Breaking up would be such a pain. I'm so damn hopeless.

He'd been sick of me for more than a year.

It wasn't as if I hadn't sensed it. Over that year, his temper had gotten worse and worse, and he had no patience for me at all.

At first I thought it was stress from work. Then I noticed how close he'd gotten to Ava, the new intern at his company. He took her out to meet his friends without even trying to hide it.

Once I ran into them at a cocktail party, and he said offhandedly, "New intern at the company. She doesn't know anything yet, so I'm bringing her around to see how things work."

I didn't make a scene. I didn't ask any questions. I just said, "Okay."

Ava didn't try to hide either. She hooked her arm through his and smiled at me. "You must be Maya. Julian's mentioned you."

She was twenty-one, fresh out of school, bright and bold.

My friends said there wasn't a single thing about her, not her looks, her personality, her family, or her education, that beat me.

"The only thing she's got on you is that she's new."

I was in bad shape back then. There was a weight on my chest, and I didn't know where the relationship could go from there.

Only when I saw that post did I understand that Ava wasn't the problem.

What he wanted was something new. If it hadn't been her, it would have been someone else.

The next time he blew up at me, I told him I wanted to break up.

He thought I was just being dramatic. He didn't try to stop me. He only said, "Then go."

So I went. I still couldn't hold back the tears on my way out the door.

He sat there watching me, looking impatient.

Later, when I went back to get my things, I heard him talking to a few friends as I reached the door.

Someone told him he should try to smooth things over with me. After all, it had been so many years.

His voice was flat. "If she really leaves, good. Then Ava and I can finally be together."

"You chased Maya for two years, and you'll just let her go like that?"

"What else? I haven't felt anything for her in a long time."

"Don't you think you're kind of a jerk?"

He laughed. "I've done right by her for all these years. I yelled at her one time and she wants to break up. Let her. Give her a few days on her own and she'll come back."

"What if she doesn't?"

"Don't worry. Maya won't leave. If she actually did, I'd thank her. Ava's been with me all this time. I owe her something."

"Wow, man."

A few of them shook their heads. He didn't say anything else. He looked like he was talking about a business deal that had already fallen through.

I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my palms, and I didn't even feel it.

After he left, I cleared out all my things and moved back into my own rental. Only he and a few of his friends knew about the breakup, and no one cared.

After that, he took Ava skiing in Switzerland, then to New Zealand.

I didn't sit around either.

Through friends and dating apps, I met a lot of people.

For three months, neither of us contacted the other.

It wasn't until Ethan texted about the reunion and asked me to come with Julian that we finally spoke on the phone.

"What did you say?" On the other end of the line, his voice changed completely. "Broke up?"