Someone posted a nine-grid picture on their Instagram story to flaunt their romance. The photos showcased a beautifully crafted artistic cake. The photos were taken from multiple angles and paired with a caption. [This man's love is so sweet!]

Curious, I clicked on the post. To my dismay, the cake was the same one my fiancé had picked up from me just an hour ago.

The hand that carried the cake was clasping someone else's hand in the background.

I rummaged through the trash, retrieved the invitation, opened my phone and booked a flight to France that would leave in three days.

——

Then I clicked at the nine grid photos in the center and zoomed in to take a closer look.

In the photo, it could be seen that the man's big hand had a small, dark mole near the base of the thumb and a faint scar on the knuckle. There was no doubt about it. This hand belonged to Freddy Lancaster.

Before I could dwell on this matter too much, Freddy called me. 

"Sarah, I’m heading to a class reunion tonight, so I won’t be able to pick you up. Be safe, okay? Don’t stay out too late," Freddy said. His voice was slightly muffled against noisy voices in the background.

"A class reunion? Who are you with there? Is it with Rose Jenkins?" I asked in a calm voice.

"Sarah William! What’s with the baseless suspicions again? Rose just got a new car, so a few of our college friends decided to celebrate. Can you not make a fuss about everything?" he snapped.

"You took the custom cake I made for a client without telling me. I had to rush to recreate it for free while apologizing profusely to them and you used it to celebrate Rose’s new car? Freddy, you had never done something like this before …" My voice wavered despite my efforts to hold it together. "Have you forgotten what today is? It’s our two-year anniversary.…"

"Isn't it just a cake! Sarah, don’t you think you’re overreacting? You've never acted like this before! You’ve never interrogated me over something so trivial," he said, clearly exasperated. "We can celebrate the anniversary tomorrow, okay? Stop overthinking and go home early to rest. That’s it for now. Bye."

He hung up the phone but before the call ended, I could hear Rose's coquettish voice in the background asking, "Freddy, what’s wrong?"

Tears streamed down my face as the last shred of hope I clung to shattered. I could no longer lie to myself.

What is I still hoping for?

Everything I had done this past month was nothing more than a futile attempt to hold onto something already gone. It was time to wake up from the dream.

I fished out the invitation letter from the prestigious Lyon Culinary Institute in France from the trash. It just so happened I had a chance to become an exchange student there. I then opened my phone to book a flight to France and I would be leaving in three days.

I met Freddy through some sweet twist of fate. I was a pastry chef and I was running a small but charming dessert shop. Two years ago, late one evening, I was still at the shop experimenting with a new recipe when Freddy walked in. He had just returned from a business trip and being a picky eater, he refused to eat airplane meals. After getting off the night flight, he was so hungry and having a stomach ache and it just so happened he saw my store's light was still on, so he went into the store and ordered a dessert.

I served him a trial version of my latest creation. After he finished, he added me on WhatsApp. That was how we met.

Perhaps it was true that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach. He seemed to have a crush on me and used all kinds of excuses to see me come to my shop. Not long after that, he confessed his feelings.

Freddy was a brilliant science and engineering prodigy. He had graduated from the top two universities and worked as an algorithm expert at a renowned company. His intellectual brilliance was something I admired, likely because math and science had always been my weaknesses. Moreover, he had a kind of nerdy charm that I couldn’t resist. He completely captivated me and it wasn’t long before I fell deeply in love with him.

Just over a year into our relationship, we decided to get engaged and planned to marry at the end of the year.

"You love France, don’t you? Let’s go there for our honeymoon," Freddy had said, his eyes brimming with love and tenderness.

I genuinely believed we were fated to be together. I could not wait for the end of the year to come and at that time I would be Freddy's bride. That was until a month ago, when Rose returned to the country and at that time, my dream began to crack.

Rose was Freddy's classmate at the university, or at least that was what he told me. When we met for the first time and ate dinner together, Rose took the opportunity to wait until Jeremy stepped away to pay the bill before leaning closer to me.

"Back then, I wanted to study abroad after graduation but Freddy decided that he wanted to take a job offer and work right away. I was so angry with his decision. I thought he was wasting his talent so without much thinking I broke up with him," Rose said. Her voice filled with nostalgia.

"Actually, as soon as the word came out of my mouth, I regretted it ... I also knew that he also felt remorse about it. His friend told me he buried himself in work after our breakup and took on project after project. He nearly worked himself to exhaustion. I’m so glad he had you to take care of him later ...."

Suddenly as if she had just realized who she had been talking to she stammered, "Oh … dear, I shouldn’t have brought up the past! Don't take my word to your heart, Sarah. Freddy is a wonderful guy. You two will be happy together."

It was at the exact moment, Freddy had paid the bill and returned to the table. Taking the opportunity, Rose jumped to her feet, grabbed Freddy's arm and pressed him into the seat beside me. Then she said with affection, "Freddy, you took forever to get here! I was just reminiscing with Sarah about all the fun times we had at our university back then."

I could not help but be amazed by Freddy's expression. It seemed the man did not realize the closeness between him and Rose would be deemed ambiguous. Instead, his expression softened with memories and his eyes filled with tenderness and love toward her.

Though Rose stayed silent after that, she simply smiled and looked at me.

I did not know how I managed to keep my composure. Her proud and condescending glance made me feel the two years Freddy and I together were nothing more than fanciful delusion on my part.

What hurt me the most was his attitude. Freddy admitted that he and Rose had a romantic relationship at the university for a while but he dismissed my concerns.

"We parted ways a long time ago! Is there any reason for you to dwell on this? Rose is an exceptional LLM algorithm engineer with many talents and ideas. We are bound to cross paths a lot in our work in the future, so I can't possibly cut ties with a future star of the industry like her just because of some past feeling!" Freddy was obviously annoyed. "You don’t understand our industry. Unlike making cakes, we thrive on intellectual collaboration. We need to exchange ideas and collaborate to generate creative new ideas."

Then he added, “Besides, Rose isn’t the type of woman who gets distracted by emotions like you think she is."

I didn’t know how to respond. I had always admired his intellect and his ability to speak about complex topics that left me in awe. However, at that moment, those same qualities turned into a sharp sword that stabbed me with cold reality.

Maybe he and Rose truly belonged together while I was just a bystander watching the spark of ideas fly between the same-minded individuals.

The next morning, Freddy came to my house. This was the first time, he actually brought my favorite food, beef sandwiches.

In our relationship, I was the one who always paid attention to him and took care of his meals and drinks. Worried that he would starve himself and have a stomachache, since he tended to forget to eat or sleep when he was working, I often gave him some food on a regular basis.

Every time I did this, he would beam at me with gratefulness and tenderness and say, "Sarah, meeting you that night in your dessert shop was the luckiest moment of my life!"

It was a shame though, when his like-minded ex-girlfriend reappeared, I was reduced to nothing more than “a girl who bakes cakes” in his mind.

"Sarah, I want to eat the dessert that you made last night. Do you bring it?" Freddy asked. He acted as if nothing had happened.

In the past, I would make desserts that I custom-made simply for him every night so he could eat them for breakfast the next morning. Since he was addicted to something sweet, I became worried that too many desserts would be harmful to his health, so I specially formulated a recipe that was both tasty and low in sugar for him and he always loved it.

"I didn’t bring it home. I threw it away," I lied.

Actually, because I had worked hard to make that dessert, I could not bear to throw it away, so on the way home, I gave it to a stray dog. 

"Sarah, I’m sorry about last night. It was my fault. I was upset last night. Please forgive me," he said, then he came up to me and wrapped me in his arms to coax me. "I didn’t mean it. It’s just that some classmates were there and when I mentioned calling you, they teased me about being a henpecked husband so I got embarrassed and couldn’t back down. Then you kept pushing and I got impatient … yet it was still my fault. Let me make it up to you today. Let’s celebrate our two-year anniversary properly, okay?"

"Are you still angry? I admit I was in the wrong to take the cake without telling you. It was late and there wasn’t time to order another. I promise it won’t happen again! Please, stop being mad at me," he said, his tone grew even more agitated before he took a deep breath and softened his tone,

"Lately, it feels like you don’t understand me. I’ve been under a lot of pressure and sometimes I speak without thinking. Maybe I’m just not doing enough. Tell me what you want me to do and I’ll fix it. Just stop being upset."

Taking advantage of my distracted state, Freddy took my hand and said, “Let's go, let's take you to a fun place today, I promise, I will make up for it and give you a perfect two-year anniversary!”

I was still in a daze when he pulled me to the door.  Just as I was about to turn down his offer, his phone rang. When he answered the phone, it was actually Rose.

"Freddy, my stomach hurts so much. I think I ate something bad last night. I can’t even get up because of the pain. Could you take me to the hospital?" Her weak, delicate voice came through the receiver.

"What? What happened? Is it serious? Should I call an ambulance for you instead? … I have plans today. There is something I must do…" Freddy hesitated as he fumbled to find the right words.

"I don’t want an ambulance. I want you to take me!" Rose interrupted in a petulant tone. "No! No! Are we not even friends anymore because we broke up? Can’t we be old classmates? Or is it Sarah who won’t let you go? I’m only asking you because I’m sick and have no one else to turn to. She wouldn’t be so petty, would she?"

I looked at Freddy's hesitant eyes, my gaze filled with disdain as I waited for him to make his decision. In the end, he chose her. 

I was actually quite surprised at how calm I was at this moment.

Maybe love was just a capricious thing. When it came, I saw Freddy through rose-tinted glasses and felt every inch of him was perfect. Now that love had gone, for me, he was just an ordinary man. He was an indecisive man who was easily manipulated by another woman and oblivious to how pathetic he seemed.

I said nothing. I opened the door and silently gestured for him to leave immediately.