Chapter 2

Cole's POV

After freshening up, I sat with my phone and waited until 11:00 pm.

Giselle didn't call me or text me. Instead, Harry tagged me in a post on his social media account.

"You should know where to draw the line. You're going overboard if you keep this up."

He added an eye-roll emoji to the caption. A screenshot of my message where I told Giselle that I wanted to break up was attached to the post.

Countless comments flooded the post.

"I can't stand wimps like him who always ask to break up at the slightest inconvenience. Wow, I'm so scared."

"You're right! Does he think of himself as some sort of catch when he's just a bastard with no parents? Giselle's the only one who's willing to put up with him!"

My heart felt like it was being stabbed by a blade as I scrolled through the comments without replying to any of them. Not because the commenters were mocking me for not having parents. That was the truth. My heart ached because Giselle was liking all the comments.

I briefly closed my eyes before dialing her number. It didn't take long for her to pick up, as if she had been anticipating my call.

"Why did you like them?" I demanded.

"What?"

"I'm asking you why you liked those comments!" I roared, feeling as if the scar in the deepest part of my heart had been ripped open.

"You stood by and allowed them to call me a wimp," I shouted hoarsely, nearly losing my voice. "You just let them call me a bastard…"

"But they're just stating the truth," she answered gently, which made my questioning and shouting look like an utter joke.

The rest of my words died on my tongue. It felt as if someone was strangling me.

Giselle seemed to be pleased by my silence. "It's midnight, Cole. You should have calmed down by now, no matter how angry you were. It's your birthday tomorrow. I'll treat you to some fried chicken wings."

She spoke again before I could reject her. "Don't tell me that you're not going to go. You should tell me in person if you want to break up. You can't just end our five-year relationship through a text."

In the end, I agreed after giving it some thought. It wasn't because I still had lingering feelings for her. It was because she still had my belongings in her possession.

…

Giselle sent the restaurant's address to me at 1:00 pm the next day. It was a famous chicken wings restaurant in Orrislane. A reservation had to be made two weeks in advance to secure a table.

Although I had only mentioned it in passing last month, she had remembered.

Giselle updated me on the queue number every five minutes. It was the height of summer and was blazingly hot outside.

I typed and retyped my message several times before finally typing out a short reminder. "Don't get a heatstroke."

Giselle replied with a sticker of a cat giving a thumbs up.

My eyes stung as I stared at the cat. She had given it to me when we first started dating. Her smile had been so gentle when she patted the cat's head and said, "Although we're not living together, I've sent my little daughter to keep a close eye on you!"

Giselle bought food for the cat and called it her daughter. She said that I was its father, while she was its mother.

Later, the cat passed away after it was hit by a car. Blaming myself for failing to take care of it, I turned its pictures into stickers. Every time Giselle made me upset, she would send stickers of the cat apologizing and crying.

My heart softened as I stared at the cat sticker. I could feel my anger slowly fading away.

…

When Giselle informed me that there were only ten people left in the queue at 5:30 pm, I decided to head over to the restaurant before our number was called.

I watched as she and Harry shared a slice of cake in the dessert parlor next door from across the street. She sat on Harry's lap and let him fiddle around with her phone, letting him send a message to me every few minutes as she fed him spoonfuls of cake.

My vision blurred, though no wind touched my face. I looked down and rubbed my eyes before sending a message to her.

"I'm almost there."

Harry patted Giselle's behind after glancing at her phone. Only then did she languidly get off his lap.

"The drama king is finally coming," Harry said, sighing.

Giselle tugged on his sleeve and said, "I don't care what you call him in private, but you can't call him that to his face. He'll argue with me if you do."

Her movements were familiar and natural. Although her smile was gentle, my heart felt incredibly cold.

I stood in the shadows and waited for them to enter the chicken wings restaurant, only making my way over after I got my emotions under control.

Giselle approached me when I was only a few steps away. She tried to hold my hand, but I took a step back. She stared at her hand that was left suspended in midair before letting it fall to her side with a snort.

"I thought that you only agreed to come because you were feeling better."

I stared at her. My voice was devoid of emotion when I said, "I didn't come to make myself feel better. I came to break up with you."

Giselle looked at me as if I had just told her a joke. She grabbed my sleeve and dragged me toward the private room, exclaiming, "You're already an adult, Cole. You should know where to draw the line!"