Two months ago, she'd come home and a box of condoms had fallen out of her coat pocket.
Lemon-flavored. I'd assumed she bought them for us. I'd even felt a little shy about it.
They were for Leonard?
The humiliation hit me like a bucket of ice water dumped over my head.
Leonard was still rambling, oblivious:
"I get the feeling your girlfriend doesn't really love you that much. I mean, why else would she let you live in a rental?"
"My girlfriend always says money is where the love is. That's why she gives me nothing but the best."
His tone was so guileless, so innocent. To me, every word was a knife twisting deeper.
I laughed bitterly. It wasn't that Rowena didn't understand the importance of money.
She just didn't think I was worth spending it on.
I'd never once experienced the kind of devotion she showed him. Every sentence he spoke was another cut, slow and precise, flaying me alive.
I practically fled to the bathroom.
But when I came back to the living room, Leonard was holding my phone, staring at the screen with a blank expression.
My pupils contracted.
I'd left in such a rush that I'd forgotten to lock it.
Leonard's voice came out soft, almost fragile:
"What a coincidence. Your girlfriend's name is Rowena Ashworth too?"
My hands and feet went ice-cold. Before I could say a word, there was a noise at the front door.
"Ulysses, I picked up that cake you love..."
Rowena pushed the door open and locked eyes with Leonard, who was sitting on the couch.
"You're a goddamn bastard!"
Leonard burst into tears and ran out.
Rowena panicked instantly.
She whipped around and glared at me, her face twisted with a fury I had never seen before:
"I told you I never wanted to break up with you! Why would you hurt Leonard like this?"
"You think this little stunt will drive him away? Not a chance! The more jealous you act, the harder I'll protect him!"
She shoved my hand away when I tried to explain and rushed after Leonard.
The motion was too forceful. She knocked the piggy bank off the shelf.
Ceramic shards exploded across the floor, and with them, a shower of loose change.
I ignored the cut on my ankle and stared at the coins scattered on the ground.
Those first few years after I started working, the hours were brutal and the pay was pitiful. Rowena had bought that piggy bank specifically for me, told me to toss in whatever spare change I had.
She'd joked that we'd save up enough for a penthouse someday.
She forgot about it eventually. I never did. I kept dropping coins in, one by one. Sometimes I'd even go to the farmers' market and ask vendors to break bills into change.
As if filling that jar meant Rowena and I would finally have a home of our own.
I crouched down and counted the coins slowly.
Most of them were dimes and nickels. Barely any quarters.
It wasn't much.
But it was enough to buy a plane ticket out of here.
I didn't know what Rowena said to Leonard.
That night, a post went viral, trending on every platform.
