My Fiancé's Earring Made Me Call Off the Engagement

1: 1

A video came up online saying that a guy with a pierced ear had made a vow to spend the next life with someone.

It made me think of Mason Rodriguez's pierced ear.

Smiling, I turned the screen to show him.

"So who did you secretly promise your next life to?"

"Ali."

I stared at him, thrown, while his face stayed perfectly calm.

Alison Fox was my best friend. She was also his adoptive sister.

I thought about every anniversary Mason and I had ever spent together, how he always brought Alison along.

He picked whatever restaurant she wanted.

Even when we chose the wedding house, Mason bought the one in the neighborhood Alison liked.

When he bought my wedding jewelry, he picked the style Alison liked too.

No matter the occasion, Alison always came before me.

"This is the bridesmaid dress Ali picked."

I came back to myself and lowered my head stiffly.

I noticed he'd saved Alison in his phone as "my little darling."

Me, he'd saved under my name.

I'd once made a fuss and gotten him to change it.

He'd frowned and said it wouldn't look good if anyone saw.

The moment the picture came into focus, my throat went dry.

"She chose white. Isn't that a bit much?"

A white bridesmaid dress was the same as a wedding gown.

"I think it suits her fine."

Mason studied the picture with complete seriousness.

I remembered how bored and distracted he'd looked when he came with me to choose my wedding gown.

All at once none of it seemed worth anything.

There's no need to wait for the next life. In this one, I'll let the two of you have each other.

1

A key turned in the front door.

I looked up. Alison had arrived.

"Mason, come shopping for bridesmaid dresses with me."

There were only two keys to the wedding house.

He'd said,

"You have me, what do you need a key for? The other one goes to Ali."

Then one night I waited until midnight.

He called to say Ali was scared of the thunder, so he was going to stay with her tonight.

He'd forgotten I couldn't get into the house. He'd forgotten I was scared of thunder too.

I curled up at the door until morning.

Afterward I went and had my own key made.

"Elaine Summers's spacing out."

I snapped back.

"Ali gets carsick, so you sit in the back."

Mason used that same reason every time to put me in the back seat.

I'd gone out with the two of them so many times, and Alison had never once gotten carsick.

I was the one who stepped out of the car dizzy and nauseous, sick to my stomach.

The two of them talked through the wedding schedule up front.

"Mason, walk in to this song! I love it."

I heard Mason say yes, indulgent as ever.

No one had ever asked what I thought.

My head and my chest both felt thick and tight.

They looked more like the couple getting married than he and I did.

When we arrived, the shop manager brought out the bridesmaid dress Alison had ordered.

"Miss Fox has such good taste. This gown is very popular."

Alison took the dress and went into the fitting room.

Mason opened his phone, eyes bright with anticipation, and aimed the camera at the fitting room door.

The sight took me back to when I'd tried on my wedding gown.

He'd worn the same look then, and it had made me feel loved.

"Mason, does it look good?"

"The bride is gorgeous. And this must be the groom? What a match. Would you two like to try one of those photo poses that are trending online?"

The clerk pulled up a set of photos.

The groom sat with one leg crossed over the other, photographing the bride from behind in her gown.

Hearing that, Mason frowned.

"What she's wearing is a bridesmaid dress."

The clerk looked at us, embarrassed.

"Oh, Mason, don't bother. I want to take this one."

The instant Mason nodded, the fists I'd been clenching loosened.

Back then I'd wanted to take that photo too.

But he'd said, "Elaine, don't just follow trends. That one isn't right for us."

In the end we only took the tired, ordinary posed shot.

"I also want the one where you're looking at my back! Elaine, take it for us."

Stiffly, I took the phone Alison held out.

"Don't read into it, Elaine. I just wanted to do the trending pose."

"You've already made the bridesmaid dress into a wedding gown. What else is there for me to read into?"

Saying it felt like it took everything I had left.

"Elaine, I just think it's pretty. I don't want to embarrass you at your own wedding."

Mason's eyes went dark.

"Elaine, you're marrying into this family as her older sister-in-law—Ali asks for one little thing and you have to nickel-and-dime her over it?"

From the day I met them until now, I was the one who bent for them.

They wanted something spicy, I ate through the stomach pain to keep them company.

They wanted the roller coaster, I choked down my fear and rode it with them.

And now I was the one nickel-and-diming.

He saw how white my face had gone and let out a sigh.

"Elaine, don't get jealous over nothing. We're getting married the day after tomorrow."

Hearing that, realizing he thought I was just fighting for his attention, the last bit of warmth in me went out.

I opened my phone and said yes to the overseas assignment the company wanted me to take the day after tomorrow.