I shoved the door open and the grape slipped from between them—Loss of balance, Loss of pretense, their lips landing square on each other.

Cheers erupted around the room.

Lois swatted his chest with a coy little pout. “You're awful, stealing a kiss like that!”

“Way to kill the mood.”

Rick raised an eyebrow as though he'd expected me, and pulled Lois closer by the waist.

“If Agatha hadn't shown up uninvited, I'd have won that round.”

Lois bounced over and looped her arm through mine.

“Agatha, perfect timing! Come play with us!”

I shrugged her off without a word and fixed my eyes on Rick. “No. I'm here to confirm one thing.”

I forced the tremor out of my voice. “What you said on the phone……was that real?”

“You told me you were Rick Graves at thirty-eight. You said you cheated with Lois on our wedding night. You said I ended up with depression……”

My voice came out heavy and broken. The room went quiet.

Lois slid her arm through mine again. “Agatha, it was just a joke. You've never been the type who can't take one. Why so serious all of a sudden?”

She pointed at the wedding dress crumpled on the floor. “Look, the dress is all ready. We were going to bring it over later so you'd be the prettiest bride tomorrow……”

I glanced at the stains smeared across the hem and let out a bitter laugh.

“Is there even a point anymore?”

My eyes burned red. “Rick, you don't think you owe me an explanation?”

His voice came back flat and cold.

“There's nothing to explain.”

“You heard everything just now, Agatha.”

“The marriage, that phone call to the future you made. All of it was fake.”

“Five years together. We've done everything there is to do. Marrying you? I couldn't feel less about it.”

“So yes, agreeing to marry you was just going through the motions. I never planned to show up at the wedding.”

His words landed like a bat to the back of my head. The room spun.

A week ago, Rick had proposed. I'd been so happy I couldn't sleep for days.

Five years of dating, and I thought we'd finally made it through the hard part.

Back when he didn't have a cent, he'd scrape by on nothing, saving half a month's living expenses to buy me a cake that cost more than either of us could afford.

All so I could post it and not lose face to anyone in my feed.

Every time my family pressed us about when we'd get married, he'd look at me with reddened eyes and swear it.

“Agatha, I swear, the day I have money, I'll give you a wedding so grand everyone will see me bring you home with pride.”

That day was never going to come.

He watched me stand there in silence, eyes swollen and red.

Then he stepped closer and twisted the knife.

“While you were buzzing around planning our wedding, I was checking into hotels with your best friend.”

“You were going on and on about something or other, and all I could see was how ripe Lois's lips looked. All I could think about was biting them.”

“I didn't hear a single word you said.”

My nails bit into my palms and the cold flooded through me all at once, bone-deep.

“Rick, we've been together five years. We finally……”

“Agatha.”

He cut me off, impatient. “Weren't you listening? I'm proposing to Lois tomorrow.”

“I'll admit you were the only woman I ever loved. And when I loved you most, I really did want to marry you.”

“Every time I made you get an abortion, I was on my knees in the hospital corridor slapping myself in the face.”

“But love doesn't owe anyone a reason.”

“Now that I've found Lois, I finally understand. She's the one I love.”

My face was draining of color, and he could see it.

Lois stepped forward and cut him off. “Enough, Rick! Can't you see how awful she looks? Stop talking……”

She turned to me, all worry and warmth. “Aggie, don't listen to him. He's just messing with you. Tomorrow's your wedding……”

I lifted my eyes and stared at the woman in front of me through swollen, reddened lids.

My best friend. Or so I'd believed.

When she had nothing left and nowhere to go, I'd wired her every last cent I had so she could make rent.

Her first job was one I'd found for her.

When a mugger came at her with a knife, I threw myself in front of it without thinking.

I was covered in blood, and she held me and cried and swore we'd be best friends for life.

This best friend.

She stole my boyfriend and drove the knife in when I was at my weakest.

“Lois, what wedding are you even talking about?”

“Didn't you hear him? The person he wants to marry is you.”

“Drop the act. It's sickening.”

Lois's eyes brimmed with tears. “Aggie, I……”

“Who are you calling sickening? Don't push your luck, Agatha.”

Rick's expression shifted first. He pulled Lois behind him.

“I'm the one who doesn't want to marry you. If you want to hate someone, hate me. Leave her out of it.”

I shook my head with a bitter half-laugh.

Then I looked down, slid the wedding ring off my finger, and held it out to Lois.

“This belongs on your hand anyway.”

Lois frowned slightly and glanced back at Rick.

“Your castoffs? Why would you give those to her—she's not here to pick up your trash.”

Rick scoffed, snatched the ring, and stuffed it back into my pocket.

“If there's nothing else, you should go. We have a party to get back to.”

Telling me to leave. Not even pretending otherwise.

I let my gaze travel around the room. Every pair of eyes was on me.

Some pitying. Some mocking. Some just there for the show.

I gave a dry, self-mocking smile and left them with one last thing.

“Rick, I put two hundred and thirty thousand into renovating this apartment. Four hundred thousand toward the down payment. I want it back.”

Rick laughed like I'd told the funniest joke he'd ever heard.

“You're seriously keeping score with me, Agatha?”

“Why wouldn't I? You're the CEO of Northstar Group. Don't tell me you can't even come up with that.”

The moment the words left my mouth, his expression turned ugly.

“Watch what you say.”

He grabbed my arm and shoved me toward the door. “These are all people from the same circles, Agatha. You spread lies like that, how am I supposed to show my face here?”

“Whether it's a lie or the truth, you know better than anyone.”

I raised my voice on purpose. “Go ahead, Rick. Add it up yourself. Five years together—how much of your money did I spend, and how much of mine did you spend?”

“Can you even do the math?”

“If there's no wedding, fine. Then let's settle every last cent.”

I dropped those words, ignored the look on his face, and walked out.

I didn't sleep that night.

By the time the sky turned gray with dawn, I was sitting up with dark circles under my eyes, dialing a number.

“Dad. I'll do it. I'll come home and get married.”

My father was quiet for a long time after hearing that. When he finally spoke, it came out as a sigh.

“Agatha. You've finally come to your senses. Though I wish it hadn't cost you five years to figure it out.”

“A girl like you, raised with everything, sheltered your whole life. You've never really suffered.”

“You and a man like Rick Graves, someone who clawed his way up from nothing. You were never the same.”

“You two were never meant for each other.”

“Now that you've come to your senses, pack your things and come home.”

I nodded, swallowing hard against the lump in my throat. “Okay.”

Five years my father told me Rick Graves was wrong for me. Five years I didn't listen.

When I first met him, he was nobody. A broke kid with nothing to his name.

These last couple of years he'd ridden the boom and made some fast money, but even so, not a cent of it was ever spent on me.

He couldn't even buy our wedding apartment without me covering half the down payment.

Whenever I was tight on cash, he'd hold me close and say, “Agatha, the company's still in its growth phase. There are so many places the money needs to go.”

“I promise, everything I earn in the future will be yours.”

“We're a team, right? What's the difference whose wallet it comes from?”

I'd nod and think that made sense.

So I kept handing over money, again and again, like a fool.

Never knowing that in some bar I'd never set foot in,

Rick talked about me the way you'd talk about an idiot.

“Agatha's such an idiot. She believes anything I tell her. Last month I dropped tens of thousands on a Chanel bag for Lois.”

“Meanwhile she's had a Coach bag sitting in her cart for over two weeks and still can't bring herself to buy it.”

The night I found out, I was ice-cold when he walked through the door. I asked him why he'd said those things.

Rick just pulled me into his arms with an explanation ready. “Agatha, I had no choice. That crowd is full of sharks. The clients are just like that.”

“I have to match my words to whoever I'm dealing with—that's how you close deals, how you make money, how we pay for the apartment.”

And once again, I was naive enough to forgive him.

Only now did I finally understand what everyone had been saying all along.

In those people's eyes, that's exactly what I was: stupid, gullible, and still tripping over herself to throw money at a man who never spent a dime on her.

But this time,

the doormat opened her eyes.

First thing the next morning, I packed two full boxes and threw every last thing into the dumpster.

The cleaning lady's eyes went wide.

“Sweetheart, you're throwing all of this away?”

She fished through the boxes, pulling out brand-new thermoses and handbags. “These are perfectly good. What a waste……”

My voice was calm. “I don't want any of it.”

“Take whatever you like.”

These were every gift Rick had given me over five years. Nothing expensive, but there were a lot of them.

Look closely, though, and every single one was cheap. The kind of thing you'd be embarrassed to show anyone.

I turned and walked away. Behind me, the cleaning lady was still shaking her head and muttering.

“Kids these days. No sense of how to hold on to things.”

I'd already booked a flight for three days from now.

Until then, I had to resign from my job and give up my lease.

After finishing the paperwork at the office, I thought about asking a friend to walk around Liberty Square with me, clear my head. But the moment I opened my chat window, I froze.

In this entire city, my only close friend was Lois Sullivan.

I put the phone down and went alone.

Then I heard the cheering up ahead.

In the center of Liberty Square, surrounded by balloons, Rick was down on one knee, gently sliding the ring he'd had custom-made for me onto Lois Sullivan's finger.

The crowd erupted. “Say yes! Say yes!”

I stood where I was, perfectly still, and felt my eyes blur with tears before I even realized it was happening.

Then someone in the crowd spotted me and shouted.

“Isn't that Agatha?”

“Knew it—total doormat. She slammed the door yesterday like she was really done, and here she is again, pathetically showing up on her own.”

“Don't tell me she's trying to get him back?”