It's Time to Let Go

Just as I was getting ready for bed, my phone's screen lit up.

Charles had posted on his social media. "Some sceneries are better admired alone. Cheers to being single tonight."

His meaning couldn't have been more obvious.

In the past, seeing him say he was single would've kept me up all night. I would've called him in tears, admitted that I was in the wrong, and begged for his forgiveness.

But now, all I did was turn my notifications off and go to sleep.

I slept great that night—until his friend's call woke me up.

"Cindy, Charles drank too much. Come pick him up. I heard that he has something important to do tomorrow."

Right after that, I heard a familiar voice on the other end of the phone call out the name Yvonne. His friend told me to come quickly before hanging up abruptly.

I rubbed my temples and pulled up Charles' proposal group chat.

I scrolled up, reading through the thousands of messages, until I found what I was looking for. Charles was planning to propose to Yvonne tomorrow.

Everything would be over by tomorrow.

With that in mind, I decided to take a cab to the bar. I just wanted a proper closure to my seven-year relationship.

At the entrance of the private room, I saw Charles and Yvonne surrounded by a group of their friends. They looked like the perfect match, especially with how intimate they were acting with each other.

Their friends were cheering, offering their blessings. Deafening music filled my ears, yet I heard nothing.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open. The noise abruptly stopped.

Everyone stopped and stared at me in unison.

Charles' hazy gaze focused on me. When he finally realized who he was looking at, he smiled mockingly. "I knew you would come, Cindy! You were so indifferent this afternoon, but deep down, you can't let me go, can you?"

He deliberately tightened his arms around Yvonne as he spoke, as if making some sort of declaration.

"You're drunk, Charles. Stop messing around," Yvonne said, patting his arm. Then, she turned to me. "He drank a little too much tonight, Cindy. Could you take him home? We have something important tomorrow, and he can't be late."

I went up to Charles and reached out to pull him up. "Come on."

But he shook my hand off like a sulking child and turned to hug Yvonne instead, mumbling incoherently.

Yvonne smiled gently when she saw this. "Cindy will take care of you, Charles. Be good. I'll be waiting for you to propose to me tomorrow."

Ignoring the strange looks around me, I pulled Charles to his feet and called a cab.

On the way home, Yvonne kept calling Charles to check if we had arrived home. Her contact was saved as "Darling" on his phone. I stared at the word dazedly.

It was no wonder he'd never given me any affectionate nicknames during our seven years together. Even in bed, he would just call me by my name with cold detachment.

My hand trembled uncontrollably.

Unintentionally, I opened their chat history from a week ago.

"Why didn't you tell me you were back, Yvonne?"

"What's the use of telling you? You already have a girlfriend."

"Yvonne, don't be like this. I only treated her as your substitute. Now that you're back, we can get married immediately, okay?"

The tears I had been holding back finally fell, landing right on the word "substitute". My heart felt like it had shattered into pieces right then.

…

Charles slept until noon the next day, still hungover.

When he opened his eyes, he saw me bustling around, cleaning the room. Under his breath, he muttered, "Always wasting time on useless things."

Then, he got out of bed to help me, only to see the matching mugs in the trash bin. He paused.

"Didn't you make these mugs yourself at the pottery studio? Why did you throw them away?"

"They're leaking. I don't want them anymore."

Charles grabbed my hand. "What are you trying to say, Cindy?"

"Nothing." I wrest my hand out of his and said expressionlessly, "I thought you had an important event today. If you don't leave now, you'll be late."

Charles glanced at the clock on the wall. His expression darkened with anger. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier? Do you have any idea how important today is for me? Just wait. I'll deal with you when I get back!"

Panicked, he scrambled to gather his things and headed out.

"Wait, you forgot something." I stopped him and handed him the ring. "How will you propose to Yvonne without the ring?"