The phone rang at nine in the morning. Two days after they walked out.
I was sitting at my kitchen table with my laptop open and a mug of coffee going cold. The spreadsheet glowed on the screen. Three years of payments. Line by line. Rent. Tuition gaps. Insurance. Conference travel. The laptop. The watch. The money I sent his mother.
I didn't recognize the number, but I picked up anyway.
"Talia, dear." Mrs. Castillo's voice poured through the speaker like honey. Warm. Almost maternal. "I hope I'm not catching you at a bad time."
I set the phone on the table. Put it on speaker. Went back to the spreadsheet.
"I wanted to reach out," she continued, "because I think we can handle this situation gracefully. For everyone's sake."
I didn't say anything.
"The Glasshouse reservation," she said. "May twentieth. I know you made that booking, and I know it must have been expensive to secure. But Matias would like to use that date for his wedding to Kenna. It's the perfect venue for them. Very elegant. Very appropriate."
I stopped scrolling. Stared at the phone.
"I'm asking you to do the right thing," Mrs. Castillo said. Her voice stayed soft. Reasonable. "Transfer the reservation to Matias. It's just a venue, Talia. You're not using it anymore. There's no reason to be petty."
My hand tightened around the mouse.
"What about the twenty-five thousand dollars?" I said.
Silence. Then a laugh. Short. Bright. Dismissive.
"Oh, honey," she said. "Consider it a life lesson."
I hung up.
I sat there for a long time, looking at the phone. Then I picked it up again and blocked the number.
I opened my contacts. Scrolled through every name connected to Matias. His mother. His cousin. The two friends from Columbia who always acted like I should be grateful he chose me. I blocked them all. One by one. No hesitation.
Then I stood up, walked to the closet, and pulled out the boxes.
It took me three hours to pack everything. The framed photos from our trip to the Berkshires. The Columbia hoodie he left at my place and never took back. The coffee table book on architecture I bought him for his birthday. The cufflinks. The watch—the graduation gift that cost me eight hundred dollars and two weeks of research to find the right one.
I didn't linger over anything. Didn't stop to remember. I just packed.
When the boxes were sealed, I loaded them into my car and drove to his apartment in Morningside Heights. I parked on the street, carried the boxes to his door, and stacked them neatly on the doormat. No note. No explanation.
I took a photo. Not for him. For me. Evidence that I'd returned everything. That I didn't owe him a single thing.
Then I drove to the hardware store and bought new locks.
The locksmith came that afternoon. A quiet man in his fifties who didn't ask questions. He installed the deadbolt and handed me two keys. I tested the lock three times after he left. Solid. Final.
I stood in my apartment and looked around. It felt different already. Lighter.
The next morning, I went to the co-working space in Williamsburg where I'd been running the business for the past year. The same space where Derek Hsu—Matias's friend, my friend, our friend—had his desk three rows over. Where I'd run into people from Columbia at the coffee station and smiled through their questions about wedding planning.
I packed my laptop, my notebooks, my favorite mug. I told the front desk I wouldn't be renewing my membership.
"Everything okay?" the manager asked.
I smiled. "Just upgrading."
I found a new workspace in SoHo. Smaller. More expensive. Private office with a door that locked. Floor-to-ceiling windows. A view of nothing but other buildings, but it was mine. No shared tables. No chance of running into anyone who knew him.
I signed the lease that afternoon and moved in the next day.
I sat down at the new desk, opened my laptop, and pulled up the product development folder I'd been building for months. The rebrand I'd been sketching during slow moments. New packaging. Tiered product lines. A TikTok strategy built around behind-the-scenes content and the story of building something from nothing.
I opened a new document and started writing.
The Q4 launch timeline took shape in clean, methodical lines. Product photography: scheduled. Influencer outreach: drafted. Ad budget: allocated. Launch date: November fifteenth. Six weeks out.
I worked until my coffee went cold. Then I made another cup and kept going.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I was supposed to be grieving. Supposed to be crying into wine glasses and calling friends and asking where it all went wrong.
But I wasn't sad.
I was awake.
For three years, I'd been carrying someone who never intended to walk beside me. I'd been building a future with a man who was already planning his exit. I'd been generous with someone who saw generosity as weakness.
And now I was done.
I saved the document. Closed the laptop. Looked out the window at the SoHo street below.
Someone else could have the grief. I had work to do.
