After work, a few coworkers and Polly dragged me into the car heading for the bar.

I hadn't been sitting there five minutes when Preston showed up.

He cut straight through the crowd toward Polly, brows drawn tight, and lifted the mojito off the table in front of her. "Are you crazy? Do you not know what day it is for you? And you're drinking?"

Polly reached to snatch it back. "Mind your own business! Give it here!"

"Give it back, nothing. Waiter, a glass of warm milk over here."

He held the glass up out of her reach, his other hand pressing her back down into her seat. His tone was all snap and scold, but the look in his eyes as he leaned over her was pure worry. "If you can't get out of bed tomorrow from the cramps, don't you dare call me crying."

The coworkers around us traded glances.

One of the girls asked the person beside her, low, "Is that Polly's boyfriend? He's so good-looking."

"No way... isn't that Milly's fiance?"

The air went quiet in an instant.

A few pairs of eyes bounced between Preston and me.

I looked down at the lemon water in my hand and thought, suddenly, how familiar this all was.

Over these years, at countless dinners, Preston peeling shrimp for Polly, ladling soup for her—people always took the two of them for a couple.

At first the two of them would explain. But after enough of that, they stopped bothering.

Preston's only comment on it: "Other people getting it wrong is their problem. As long as you know what we are to each other, that's all that matters."

Only then did Preston notice me.

He frowned, and there was a note of reproach in his voice. "Why didn't you stop her either? You know perfectly well she can't drink these two days, and you just let her act up."

The unfair blame put a nameless heat in my chest.

Polly, though, jumped in ahead of me. "Why are you snapping at her? I'm the one who insisted on coming!"

"Milly's about to marry you. What kind of attitude is that?"

Preston paused, and something faintly uncomfortable, something apologetic, crossed his face.

He sighed and reached out to put an arm around my shoulders. "Milly, I didn't mean it like that... I just get frantic when I'm worried. Don't take it to heart."

I turned my body aside.

His hand closed on nothing.

"Sit," I said. "You're here now."

Preston sat down beside me, but his eyes settled on Polly, plain and open.

My presence seemed to be a wall standing between them.

A wall keeping apart two truly loving "lovers."

Halfway through the party, a waiter leaned in toward Preston and Polly. "You two are a couple, right? We've got a promotion running these next few days—whoever holds the longest kiss in the room wins a custom-made pair of diamond rings. Want to join?"

Preston reflexively started to wave it off, then caught the flicker of hope on Polly's face.

After a long hesitation, he stood anyway, took Polly's hand, and led her to the center of the stage.

The lights drew in around them.

Polly rose up on her toes and kissed him.

Preston went stiff for a second.

Then he closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss, deeper.

I sat in the booth, watching them.

The whispers and the stares of the people around me landed on me, but I no longer felt any of the earlier awkwardness, any of the ache.

I didn't even feel it hurt.

Probably it had hurt so many times that the place had gone numb.

Applause broke out.

They'd won.

The waiter smiled and handed over the box with the pair of rings. Polly let go of Preston's lips, her face a little flushed, and turned to trot over to me.

"Milly!" She dug out the man's ring and pushed it into my hand. "This one's for you! You're not angry, are you? I just wanted this pair of rings, there was nothing else to it..."

I glanced at the man's ring in my palm. The band was too wide; my finger couldn't hold it at all.

"It's too big, I can't wear it. Give it to someone it fits."

I handed the ring back.

Polly's eyes went instinctively to Preston.

She tossed the ring over to him. "Lucky you!"

Preston caught it, gave a short laugh, and came to sit down beside me. "My wife's always had an easy temper, always understanding—she wouldn't fuss over a little thing like this. Not like you, kicking up something every other minute."

I caught the smell of Preston's cologne, and it only turned my stomach.

I really didn't care.

After all, twenty years of friendship and a ten-year long-distance run of love—today, that too came to a complete end.

The party ended quickly. Preston went down to the parking garage to get the car and left Polly and me waiting by the door.

We had just reached the entrance when Polly patted her pockets. "My phone's gone. Milly, can you go look for it for me? I'll check around out here. Maybe it dropped somewhere along the way."

I nodded and turned back to the private room.

I searched the whole place and never found Polly's phone, so I went back to the bar entrance.

What I walked into was chaos.

Preston had a man by the collar, while two waiters held him back, one on each arm.

The man's mouth was bleeding. He spat, cursed under his breath, and walked off.

Polly cowered behind Preston, crying so hard her eyes were swollen.

The moment he saw me, Preston shook off the waiters, strode up to me, and grabbed my wrist. "Did you leave her here on purpose? Do you have any idea how dangerous that just was? If I hadn't heard the commotion and come running, she would have—"

I frowned. Blindsided by this baseless accusation, every bit of anger I'd swallowed all night came out at once.

"She said she left her phone in the room. I went back to help her find it. What does that have to do with me?"

Preston's face darkened. "Polly's had her phone in her hand the whole time. When did she ever leave it in the room?"

"Millicent, if you're going to lie, at least pick a better excuse."

I froze for a second.

And almost at once, everything clicked.

Polly staggered to her feet and pulled Preston back. "Why are you shouting at her? Who said you could shout at her?"

Then she turned to me, eyes brimming. "Milly didn't mean it, I'm sure! I'm the one who didn't stay close to her, that's why I got left alone—"

I looked at her.

For some reason, my chest ached.

Twenty years.

We'd known each other for twenty years.

And now she was using a cheap trick like this against me.

Twenty years of friendship, worth nothing now.

I gave a bitter little laugh and looked coldly at the two of them. "I already told you. She asked me to go back for her phone. Believe it or don't. I don't care anymore."

Preston frowned at me. "Millicent, I'm so disappointed in you."

"If you're jealous about what happened earlier, there's no need to hurt Polly over it."

"And to think she still calls you her best friend."

With that, he put his arm around Polly and walked toward the car.

I stayed where I was.

Watching the car speed off, all the hurt welled up anyway, and my eyes stung.

I took a deep breath and forced the tears back down.

Crying over those two really wasn't worth it.

Preston stayed at the hospital with Polly for three days.

In all three days he didn't call me once. Not a single message.

I welcomed the quiet. I packed the apartment during the day and handled my resignation paperwork at night.

Three days was more than enough to scrub every trace of myself out of that place.

The day Polly was discharged, Preston came home alone.

He walked in just as I was zipping the last suitcase shut.

He glanced at me, then at the case by my feet, and for some reason something in his chest went tight.

"Where are you going?"

My expression didn't change. "Too much old stuff. Just clearing it out."

Preston nodded and didn't press.

"Good timing, then. Polly's been shaken up these past few days, it isn't safe for her to stay alone. Let her move in here for a while. You go ahead and move out first. When she sees you right now, it still brings back that night."

He said it so naturally, as if asking his fiancee to clear the place out for her best friend was the most ordinary request in the world.

"Fine."

I agreed without hesitation.

Having some time to myself before I left was, if anything, a relief.

Preston froze, as if he hadn't expected me to agree so easily.

He'd rehearsed the question he wanted to ask a thousand times, but all that reached his mouth was: "The wedding's in three days. I'll come pick you up when the time comes."

I didn't say anything else. I dragged my suitcase out of that home.

For three days, the two of them lived very comfortably in my wedding home.

At least, from the posts Polly put up, you could tell Preston really did like her.

Preston would soothe her back to sleep when she had nightmares at night, and when she got picky and wanted some little cake from a shop six miles away, he'd drive out in the middle of the night to buy it.

None of that was anything Preston had ever done for me, even when we were falling in love.

On the last day, Polly's post had no photo. Just one line.

【Such comfortable days are about to end. Kind of sad to let them go!】

Below it was Preston's reply: 【Whenever you want to come stay, you come stay, all right?】

【There'll always be a place for you in Milly's and my wedding home.】

Reading that, I only felt lucky that I could cut off both of these twisted relationships before the wedding.

At least I wouldn't end up living as the extra third person in my own marriage.

Three days later, on the wedding day, Preston sent a message.

【I've brought Polly to the venue first. Oh, and she says she wants to walk in with you and hand you over to me herself. I think it's nice, just treat it as one more part of the ceremony.】

【Come a little later. The makeup artist and stylist are getting Polly ready right now.】

I didn't reply.

Just how absurd and out of line that request was, Preston could no longer see at all.

This wedding didn't need two brides either.

Since Polly was already there, there was no need for me to show up.

I blocked Preston and took a cab to the airport.

Right before I boarded, I called the wedding planner.

"I won't be coming to the wedding today, but I've sent a wedding gift over. Please keep an eye out for it."

"Wish the two of them a long and happy life together for me."