Turning the Page

After I left my parents' house, I sent two messages.

The first was to my boss, telling him I was quitting.

The second was addressed to the owner of a Belmont bridal boutique, stating that I would be in the city three days later to begin advanced training.

When I got home and opened the door, I saw Sebastian Graham sitting on the couch, playing a game on his phone.

His hair was already styled with gel and neatly combed.

He had dressed up specifically to try on formalwear. "Welcome back."

"Yeah."

"You got off work pretty early today."

"Today's Saturday."

"Oh, right. It's Saturday. So where did you go today?" he asked casually without even looking at me.

"I went to my parents' house."

"Oh."

After that, neither of us spoke.

A few seconds later, he finally remembered something and looked at me. "Didn't I say I was going to your parents' house today to ask for their blessing?"

He had actually forgotten something we'd agreed on less than a week ago.

I looked at him. "Dad and Mom prepared a whole table of food and waited three hours for you."

Sebastian looked a little embarrassed. "I've been really busy these past few days, so I forgot."

Then he shifted the blame to me. "Why didn't you remind me earlier?"

I had reminded him that morning to remember to buy a gift before we went to my parents' house.

But at the time, he had been texting Claire Crawford on his phone. He had only given me a careless, "Okay."

"I reminded you this morning."

He frowned. "This morning? I was talking to Claire about something, so I didn't notice."

I stared at him. "What could possibly be more important than us?"

He immediately looked back at his phone and said fondly, "Of course there was. Didn't you see my story? I went wedding dress shopping with Claire today. Her birthday is coming up, and her birthday wish this year is for me to make good on the wedding promise I made to her when we were kids. She's so cute. She's still like a little kid who never grew up."

I asked, "So you're planning to have a wedding ceremony with her?"

"Yeah," he answered without hesitation. "That's why we went to try on formalwear today."

He paused, then seemed to realize how that sounded. "But don't overthink it. It's not a real wedding. It's just a birthday-themed party."

I asked, "What about us?"

Sebastian let out a soft laugh. "Us? There's no rush for us."

We had been together for seven years, and he still thought there was no rush.

He was willing to make Claire's childhood dream come true, yet he couldn't even give me a proper wedding ceremony.

When he saw that I didn't answer, he looked at me. "Are you mad?"

I shook my head. "I'm not mad. There's no reason for me to be mad."

He tried to comfort me. "Exactly. You're the most understanding person I know. Claire always says you're easygoing and never make a big deal out of things."

The truth was, I wasn't someone who didn't want to make a big deal out of things.

I just couldn't.

Whenever I did, he would remind me that Claire was only his little sister figure. They had grown up together since they were kids. That always left me with nothing to say.

"Oh, by the way, just tell your parents we'll go back another day." He dismissed all the effort my parents and I had put into today so easily.

I asked, "When is another day? The day after tomorrow?"

The day after tomorrow was Claire's birthday. It was also our seventh anniversary.

As expected, Sebastian rejected the idea immediately, "Not the day after tomorrow. It's Claire's birthday. We can deal with our stuff later. Don't worry. I'm not going to leave you."

He said he wouldn't leave me. But I didn't want to wait anymore.

I walked over to the dining table and saw a pile of takeout containers. "What's this?"

He glanced over. "I went to a famous restaurant with Claire today. We couldn't finish everything, so I brought some home for you."

I opened the bag and found nothing but leftovers.

I touched one of the containers and felt its temperature. "The food is cold."

He didn't seem to care. "It's been pretty warm lately anyway. Just eat it."

He had forgotten again that I had a serious stomach condition and couldn't eat food that had gone cold.

I looked at the food. "I don't want this. I want tacos from the place by our neighborhood entrance."

Sebastian froze for a moment, then waved his phone. "You want them now? I don't have time to go buy them for you."

He always had time to go out and eat with Claire.

But he didn't have time to buy me some tacos.

"Forget it. I'll heat this up myself."

He looked at me. "What's wrong with you? You seem kind of down today."

I put all the food into the microwave. "Nothing. Maybe I'm just tired."

"Oh. If you're tired, eat early and get some sleep."

Beep! The last dish was ready.

I carried it to the table and started eating.

But the food tasted awful.

Just like my relationship with Sebastian, it was almost impossible to swallow.

I spat it out.

Then I threw everything into the trash.