Chapter 2

"Enough, Noah," Ava said. "A cheap ring doesn't make you married."

Mason stepped closer, wearing his usual innocent smile.

"I know you were upset about the door lock. I asked Ava to remove my access the next day. I didn't even stay at your place. You don't have to keep punishing her."

"You never needed to apologize," Ava told him immediately. Then she turned to me. "We've been apart long enough. Let's stop making this a thing."

She always decided how I was allowed to feel. She always decided when the argument was over.

When Mason got drunk, she drove him home and told me not to be jealous. When he flirted with her at work, she said I was imagining it. When she took him away on what she'd called a business trip, she accused me of being controlling for asking why the photos showed only the two of them.

Six arguments in five years. Every one of them about Mason.

"I'm leaving," I said.

Ava caught my wrist. "You want me to beg? Is that it?"

"No. You can keep looking after the guy who shares your bed."

Her expression changed.

"What are you talking about?"

Three months earlier I'd seen an anonymous forum post: *What do you do if you get drunk and accidentally wake up in your older coworker's bed? She's got a boyfriend, and now they're fighting about me.*

The account included a selfie of Mason. There was only one older woman at work he called his mentor.

I showed them the post. Ava's friends immediately claimed it had been a dare from a party game.

"You took it seriously?" somebody laughed.

Mason nodded rapidly. "A stupid joke, Noah. That's all."

Ava looked at me as if the explanation should fix everything.

But there were other posts: Ava staying up to talk him through insomnia, Ava picking him up during storms, Ava letting him sleep in her apartment. Hundreds of tiny choices that had left no room for me.

I withdrew my hand.

"Ava, this relationship ended six months ago."