I No Longer Wish to Grow Old With You

The next day, Hannah Sawyer's parents arranged a family dinner in hopes of putting the uproar over her broken engagement to rest. Yates Grant was expected to keep playing the part of her new boyfriend, and he asked me to come along.

"You're Hannah's best friend," he said. "If you're there to vouch for us, her parents will believe this relationship is real and not just some way for her to get back at her ex."

I looked at him. "And what exactly am I supposed to be to you while I'm vouching for that?"

Yates hesitated, then smiled and ruffled my hair.

"My good friend, obviously. We're only putting on an act. Don't overthink it."

At the restaurant, a server set a platter of seafood in front of me. Yates remembered my allergy. Almost instinctively, he moved the dish farther away and replaced it with a bowl of hot soup.

"Be careful. There might be dried shrimp in that too."

The tension in my fingers eased slightly.

He hadn't forgotten. He still remembered what I couldn't eat.

Then Hannah said she didn't have much of an appetite, and Yates immediately stopped paying attention to my soup.

"Is there nothing here you like?"

She shook her head, but he was already picking the cilantro out of one of the cold dishes for her and asking the server to take away the dessert with mango.

"She doesn't eat cilantro," he explained. "And mango upsets her stomach."

My soup sat untouched at the edge of the table until it went cold.

So it wasn't that he hadn't forgotten how to take care of me. It was just that the moment Hannah needed something, I became someone who could wait.

Halfway through dinner, the private room door was suddenly kicked open.

Hannah's former fiancé, Ryan Carter, stood in the doorway, reeking of alcohol. When he saw Yates holding her hand, he let out a mocking laugh.

"New boyfriend?"

Then he pointed at me.

"Why don't you ask him who the woman sitting right there is? Isn't she his actual girlfriend? The one he's been with for five years?"

The room went dead silent.

Hannah's face drained of color. She instinctively tried to pull her hand away, but Yates tightened his grip first.

"Tessa Xavier and I ended things a long time ago," he said. "Hannah didn't come between us."

I froze.

Two sentences. That was all it took for him to erase our five years together and turn me into an ex who simply refused to let go.

Hannah looked up at me. There was guilt in her eyes, but she didn't pull away again. Instead, after a moment, her fingers slowly curled around Yates's hand.

The hand I had placed in hers myself was now one she had chosen to hold on to.

Hannah's mother, Melissa Sawyer, still wasn't completely convinced. She asked the two of them to take a couple's photo and post it in the family group chat, hoping that would finally put the rumors surrounding the broken engagement to rest.

Yates handed me his phone.

"Tessa, can you take it for us?"

The screen lit up, and his wallpaper was still a photo of the two of us.

It had been taken at the beach on my birthday the year before, with his arms wrapped around me. Back then, he'd told me that when we got married, he wanted to use that picture for the welcome display at our wedding.

Now, through his camera, I watched him drape his jacket over Hannah's shoulders and pull her into his arms.

She was stiff at first.

"Come a little closer," Yates murmured. "Otherwise it won't look convincing."

After a few seconds, Hannah leaned against his shoulder.

They both looked straight into the camera.

I pressed the shutter.

Using my boyfriend's phone, I took the picture that made his relationship with my best friend official.

At last, Hannah's parents believed they were really together.

Ryan only looked at me with a sneer.

"So you're the ex who still can't let go.

"They're already together. What are you even doing here?"

Yates didn't correct him.

He only lowered his voice and said, "Tessa, you should go home first. I need to stay and calm Hannah and her parents down."