CHAPTER 02

I couldn’t focus on work ever since the driver showed up.

My eyes kept looking at the clock, waiting for it to turn to the tenth hour.

Ryan arrived at ten on the dot.

I talked with Lucia, and she gave me 500 dollars. She had given me this job when I told her I had nowhere to go. So I have worked here since then even though I was offered higher prices per hour at other cafes. I couldn’t leave Lucia who was like a sister to me.

Ryan held the door open for me as we left the café, grinning like this was the first time we were going out.

“You look prettier when you’re working hard,” he commented.

I smiled somewhat, wiping the sweat off my face. “Stop it. I’ve been working for three years. I look and smell bad.”

He nudged my shoulder. “Come on, girl. Let me spoil you a little.”

Spoil.

The word sat strangely in my chest.

Ryan wasn’t the type to spend on things he didn’t consider “necessary.” But today his mood glowed with something too bright to be normal.

Is he taking our relationship to the next step?

Is he going to propose to me today?

My heart started to beat a little harder.

Ryan had told me that he got a promotion. He worked in a real estate company, and his salary was decent, so even if my dad were to show up, I might be able to convince him about Ryan.

We went to the mall in a taxi.

We walked through the mall, weaving past weekend crowds.

Ryan’s fingers brushed mine occasionally, but never fully intertwined.

Is he trying to say something?

Does he want me to hold his hand?

He tugged me toward a boutique window. “What about that one?”

I squinted through the glass. A cream dress, soft and flowy, but definitely on the pricier end.

“Ryan, that’s—”

“You deserve something nicer,” he said it too quickly.

I pushed the unease down and stepped forward as he led us to a bigger, fancier store.

Inside, this brighter boutique smelled like new fabric and expensive perfume. It brought some old memories back.

Salesclerks straightened at the sight of Ryan’s charming smile.

He guided me toward the dress racks, holding pieces up against me, making me spin for inspection.

My dad did not have time to choose dresses for me, so it meant a lot that Ryan was taking his time to pick a dress.

He held up a pale pink dress. “Try this one. It matches your ribbon.”

“My ribbon?” I was surprised. “You are buying a whole dress to match my ribbon?”

“Yeah,” he said softly.

I wasn’t ready for how much that single word warmed me. “I don’t have to try it. That size will fit me,” I said.

In truth, I wanted to wear this dress even if it didn’t quite fit me, because he had chosen this dress for me.

“Nice,” Ryan handed the dress to the clerk and told her we’d take it.

She beamed but asked us, “Are you sure you don’t want to try it on?”

“No need,” Ryan clarified with his hands in his pockets, “my girlfriend looks beautiful in anything.”

My heart fluttered.

Maybe today would be okay.

If he were to really propose, I might nod my head.

He bought more clothes for himself, for me, and one in a size that wasn’t mine.

Then, we left the shop, bags swinging between us.

Ryan looked energized, buzzing almost.

“Let’s get one more thing,” he said. “Something sweet.”

He dragged me toward a small chocolate stall near the escalators. The glass case shimmered with truffles shaped like tiny hearts.

There were so many chocolates I wanted to buy.

“Take as many as you want,” Ryan picked one big chocolate. “I’ll be right back.”

I nodded and started picking chocolates, biting my forefinger in indecision as my eyes wanted every single one.

A minute passed before I finally paid 110 dollars for chocolates.

Ryan wasn’t back, so I waited by the escalator.

A couple of minutes went by.

“Where did he go?” Carrying all the bags, I roamed as I looked for him.

He couldn’t have gone far, so I didn’t bother putting the bags down and calling his mobile.

As I walked past the store we had recently bought dresses at, I saw a tall, chubby woman with glossy hair and designer heels, flipping her curls as she smiled at the man standing before her.

It was Ryan.

I walked into the store.

He broke a sample from the big chocolate, held it delicately between his fingers… and smiled at her.

He smiled the way he smiled at me.

“I have a girlfriend who gets grumpy without sugar,” he slid the chocolate into her mouth.

The world tilted.

My breath caught. All the noise of the mall faded. My fingers went numb around the shopping bags.

He really said it.

Word for word.

Those same words he had told me that morning and a few times in the past.

The chubby woman giggled, her voice annoyingly soft. “Do you always use sweetness to flirt, Ryan?”

She knew his name.

He offered her the chocolate.

Her fingertips brushed his jaw in a way too close for her to be just a friend.

And he didn’t stop her.

My heart cracked quietly, faint enough that no one heard it but me.

When the woman finally noticed me frozen a few steps away, her smile sharpened with interest—like she’d realized something juicy.

Ryan turned, and his face drained of color.

“E-Elena—”

I didn’t wait for him to finish.

I dropped the bags and the chocolate boxes and walked away.

Behind me, his loud voice barely reached my ears.

“Elena, wait! It’s not what it looks like!”

But for the first time since I’d met him… I didn’t believe him.

Tears clouded my eyes, and my heart grew so heavy I found it difficult to walk as if the floor dipped, urging me to disappear.

I had dreamed of a simple, warm future with Ryan, but today, all that imagined sweetness turned to sourness.

As I walked past a reflective store window, I saw myself and the pink ribbon, which had stubbornly stayed tight.

I removed it, dropped it on the floor, and walked off with my hair loose and my life hanging in the balance.