My chest ached so much it felt like my heart might burst.
The emotions I’d been bottling up for so long finally exploded. I yanked my hand out of Leo’s grip, my voice trembling with anger.
“What do you mean, I’m making a scene? What does giving her a ring mean, then?”
Alice froze, her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but Leo quickly stepped in front of her, shielding her from me.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he said flatly. “She came over to help cook. It was just a small gift.”
He said it so casually, as if giving Alice a ring was the most natural, insignificant thing in the world.
But all these years we’ve been together—it’s always been me buying him gifts, or we’d split the cost.
Leo never gave me anything. Not once.
The only thing he ever gave me was the gray scarf he wrapped around my neck the night I confessed my feelings to him.
We met in college at the freshman welcome party. I was the host that night, and I fell for him at first sight.
I found his contact info scrawled on the campus wall, and I chased him relentlessly—inviting him to dinner, to movies, for long walks around the quad.
At first, he turned me down. But eventually, after enough time had passed, he seemed to soften. He finally said yes.
I gave him flowers every day and wrote him cheesy love letters.
“Isn’t this way too corny?” he’d ask with a frown every time—but still, he kept them all, carefully hidden away.
To this day, those silly little notes are tucked in the drawer of his wardrobe.
I remember the day Leo accepted my confession so clearly—it was the first snowfall of the year. I stood outside the boys’ dorm, asking him to come see the snow with me.
He came down, and when he saw how red my nose was from the cold, he smiled and gently pressed his warm hand against my cheek.
“You’re pretty cute,” he said.
I took my chance, bold and shameless.
“Then do you want a girlfriend this cute?”
He hesitated, and I thought for sure I’d blown it. I was just about to change the subject when he suddenly took off his scarf and wrapped it around my neck.
“Alright then—girlfriend.”
No one thought we’d last. He was the golden boy of the law school—handsome, talented, the student council president. And I was just an ordinary girl—nothing special.
Even I thought we wouldn’t go far. But somehow, we lasted seven years.
In our senior year, Leo got a recommendation that would’ve allowed him to study abroad at Yale—an elite opportunity reserved for the very best.
But my mother, Kara Jones, fell gravely ill, and I had no choice but to start working at Eltheon Enterprises right after graduation.
When Leo said he wasn’t going, that he’d stay in the city with me to help take care of my mom—I was overjoyed.
I was truly happy for him, knowing he had such a bright future ahead. But I never expected him to give it all up for me.
During the hardest times, I worked all day while he rushed from his graduate courses straight to the hospital—talking with my mom, taking her on walks, keeping her company.
And back then, I thought: If Leo didn’t leave, then I’d never let him go. I’d hold onto him forever.
That’s why, even through all the arguments over the years, I was always the one to back down. The one to apologize, to calm his temper.
Leo had only ever taken one step toward me, but I was willing to take the other ninety-nine—just to fall into his arms.
But now… now, I was starting to feel tired.
