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When Otto James casually bought that $100,000 diamond necklace for my best friend,
I was still at the counter asking whether there were any deals on our wedding jewelry set.
Same weight of gold.
One set was fine and pretty, with a crafting fee of $10,000; the other was rough and dowdy, but the crafting fee was only $1,000.
I went back and forth for a long time.
I finally gritted my teeth and was reaching for the more expensive set to pay.
Otto walked over, didn't even lift his eyes, and pointed at the cheap one.
"This one. Better value for the money."
Then he turned around and, without a moment's hesitation, bought the diamond necklace he'd called the least worth its price, fastening it gently around Lois Sullivan's neck.
My hand paused over the payment, an endless bitterness welling up inside me.
The three of us had grown up together.
In Otto's eyes, Lois always deserved the most expensive things. I only deserved the ones with good value for the money.
In elementary school, Lois could sing and dance. She hosted the Children's Day show, so her birthday present was a rhinestone crown.
I had no talent for anything, only for studying, so my birthday present was a box of pencils.
Then later, after college.
Lois became a company executive. I was a back-office clerk.
Her birthday gifts turned into designer couture; mine were a practical robot vacuum, a dishwasher.
And now, with the wedding almost here, even one small thing I loved became a burden dragging down the value for the money.
I blinked and forced the tears back.
I set the jewelry set down gently and gave the clerk a smile.
"Never mind. I don't want either set."
No money, no emotional value.
So this relationship, with its terrible value for the money, I didn't want it either.
...
My voice wasn't loud, but it was enough for everyone around the counter to hear.
Startled looks turned toward me at once.
No wonder.
After all, I'd already spent an hour at that counter over this crafting fee, shameless enough to haggle it down bit by bit.
And now I was just walking away.
The clerk's face stiffened, and even the customers shopping at the next counter looked at me with disapproval.
As the impulse drained away and my clear mind took over again, I felt a flicker of regret.
But when I turned around, Otto had already run off into the distance, eyes full of doting as he took photos of Lois fussing with her new necklace.
I swallowed down the bitterness in my throat, pushed the two sets a little further away, and repeated myself.
"Take them back. I don't want either set."
The clerk came to her senses and hurriedly gathered up the two pieces.
Professional instinct made her try to keep the customer.
"Are you sure you don't want it? This set really suits you."
"You spent so long here deciding, so you must like it."
How could I not like it?
The moment I walked in, I'd had my eye on that set.
When the clerk mentioned the crafting fee, I'd instinctively looked at Otto.
His brows had been knit tight, and all he'd left me with was, whatever you like,
before turning to follow Lois as she wandered off.
Eight years together. I knew him too well.
In an instant, I'd caught the displeasure in his words.
But a wedding only happens once. This was the first time I'd wanted to fight for myself.
I'd stood at that counter for an hour, enduring the impatience of the clerk and the customers around me, and had barely managed to haggle the crafting fee down to $5,000.
Then Otto just drifted over, light and careless, and made the decision for me.
In that moment, I suddenly felt it was all completely pointless.
When I walked out of the jewelry store, the doorway was already empty.
I looked down at my phone and only then saw that Otto had messaged a while ago.
【You're too slow. Lo got bored of waiting, so I'm taking her to grab something to eat first.】
【Sent you the location. Come find us.】
Otto had put me out of his mind so naturally.
Completely forgetting that today was the day we'd gone out specifically for me, to buy our wedding supplies.
When we set out that morning, Lois had just appeared out of nowhere.
She'd slid right in between Otto and me, hooking an arm through each of ours.
"Ta-da. Surprised?"
"I heard you two were buying wedding supplies today, so I took the day off just to come help you decide."
I forced the corners of my mouth up, but a bad feeling stirred quietly inside me.
For as long as I could remember, every time it was supposedly about coming along for me, the star of the day somehow always ended up being Lois.
Still, I comforted myself. There's only one bride, and a wedding is a big deal. They'd know where the line was.
As it turned out, I was wrong.
When we ordered wedding candy, Lois said she wanted to buy some to snack on, and Otto pulled me back.
"Let Lo pick first. We can wait, it's fine."
When they were measuring me for the wedding dress, Lois mentioned, as if in passing, that she'd like a gown made too.
The tailor I'd paid a fortune to hire was suddenly busy measuring her instead.
Now it was already afternoon.
Less than a third of the plan we'd set was done.
When I got to the coffee shop, Lois had her arm looped around Otto's neck, laughing and playing.
Her eyes lit up when she saw me.
"Margie, come tell him off!"
"This brat gifted his daddy a necklace and now has the nerve to say I have to go warm his bed tonight."
"I'm telling you, I'm not just your childhood friend now, I'm your future mother-in-law, got it? If anyone's warming beds, it's you."
Otto was laughing, begging for mercy over and over.
"Okay, okay, I'll warm it, I'll warm it."
"Your Highness, how about I gift you another bag? The monogram one you had your eye on last time. Please, just let go."
"Hee. That's more like it."
I didn't say anything about the way they were clearly playing past the line. I just stared quietly at the drinks on the table.
In front of them were caramel cream lattes, topped with cream and pudding.
Set at my seat was the cheapest classic drink, an iced coffee.
I suddenly found it a little funny.
So it turned out that even the drink they got for me had to be good value for the money.
As I laughed, everything in front of me blurred.
Otto and Lois finally sensed something was wrong and went quiet, stopping what they were doing.
The words I'd been holding in my mouth for so long finally came out.
"I just came to tell you two something. The wedding's off."
"You two wanted to have your fun, didn't you? Now you can go have all the fun you want."
