All Chapters of Reckoning the Bills, Writing off Love: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"Do you like it? If you do, I'll go pay right now," Ruby said.Kobe didn't answer whether he liked it or not. He just asked hesitantly, "Ruby, you already picked out a 12,800-dollar suit for me. Isn't buying another 3,600-dollar one as a backup a bit excessive?"Maybe I should just settle for something cheaper. My fiancee is just an ordinary worker anyway. Anything will do."Despite his words, the reluctance written all over Kobe's face gave him away.I caught it, and naturally, so did Ruby."We aren't settling," she said firmly. "You only get married once. You have to wear what you love so you don't live with regrets."Ruby handed her card to the sales associate. "Ring up this one together with the 12,800-dollar suit from earlier."She shot Kobe an affectionate smile. "Professor Boyle has helped me out so much. Gifting you a couple of designer suits is nothing."As I watched Ruby throw money around without batting an eye, my mind flashed back to the day we picked out my suit.

By the time I took a cab back to the hospital, Mom's anesthesia had worn off.Seeing me return alone, she asked, "Why didn't Ruby come with you?"As I hesitated, trying to come up with an excuse, Mom let out a quiet sigh. "Lennon, the doctor said my recovery is going to take a while. What if you and Ruby push the wedding back?"When she saw my stunned expression, her eyes welled up with tears. "You can't get married without family there. If you end up getting mistreated, there won't be anyone around to back you up."A wave of bitterness washed over me.Mom was just a regular person with modest means. She had always felt that dating Ruby was a step-up for me.Because of that, the first time Ruby visited our home, Mom had cooked a massive feast and prepared a 200-dollar allowance for her. But when Ruby arrived, she complained that the food was too greasy and refused the money. She said our relationship was strictly 50-50, and accepting cash meant she'd just have to pay it back la

Just as I got into the cab, my buddy, Joshua Davis, called. His voice dripped with anger as he asked, "Lennon, where are you? How could that heartless bitch do this to you?"The tears I had just managed to swallow spilled over again.Staring out the window, I choked back a sob. "It's fine. It's over now. Ruby tricked me, but I paid her back."That group chat didn't just have our close friends. It had our families and Ruby's business partners too.In the business world, integrity was everything. When people saw that Ruby could even manipulate the person sleeping beside her, prospective partners would definitely think twice before doing business with her again."She brought it on herself!" Joshua barked. "Where are you right now? Which hospital is your mom at? I need to see you today, or I won't be able to sleep."Noticing how insistent he was, I gave him Mom's room number and agreed to meet him there.The moment I hung up, Ruby's number lit up my screen.I ignored it, so she sta

Ruby has listed out everything. "I threw out the slippers your mom wore. They were three dollars."I also called a deep-cleaning service for the entire apartment. It was 16 dollars for three hours, so splitting it comes out to 9.50 dollars each."With bloodshot eyes, I scanned the QR code she held out to me and sent the payment.I didn't sleep a wink that night.It seemed like Ruby remembered that moment too. She turned her head away in embarrassment. "I was just out of my mind with anger back then."She paused, her expression twisting into a look of deep betrayal, as if she were the victim here. "Lennon, how could you dismiss our entire five years together as me playing you? Was there really no point where I was actually good to you?"As I looked into her pained eyes, a heavy heat flared up in my chest, burning with pain and resentment.Yet I couldn't deny that Ruby had been good to me at times.When we first moved in together, I didn't know how to cook and couldn't stomach th

Kobe lost his mind the second the words left Ruby's mouth.The commotion in the hospital room had already been grinding on everyone's nerves, so when he started screaming, security stepped in and hauled him out.Seeing that the mess was tied to Ruby, they kicked her out right along with him, cutting off her desperate attempts to explain herself to me.The moment the door closed behind them, Joshua turned to me nervously. "You aren't seriously thinking about taking her back, are you?"I shook my head without a second thought. "I just realized Ruby actually does love me. She played me for five years. Dangling a little hope in front of her just to let her fall harder should be a fair game, right?"Joshua stared at me in shock for a couple of seconds before bursting into a laugh. "Now that is the Lennon Stein I know!"After that, Joshua and I went around apologizing to the other patients and their families in the room, handing out fruit baskets to smooth things over.Fearing Kobe mi