He Canceled Our Ring to Buy Her a Bag, and I’m the One Who Looks Foolish Chapter 03
Ryan took off his coat and tossed it onto the sofa.
“Come with me to the new place tomorrow morning.”
“Lily’s cat needs to stay there for a few days first.”
My hand stilled around my cup.
“That’s our new home.”
Ryan glanced at me.
“Evelyn, it’s just a cat.”
“Are you seriously jealous of a cat now?”
I said nothing more.
Because I suddenly remembered that three months ago, I had said I wanted to plant a hydrangea on the balcony of our new home.
Ryan had said it was too much trouble.
He said fallen petals would make a mess.
He said our new home was not a place for me to mess around with gardening.
Lily’s cat bed could sit in the spot where I had wanted to grow flowers.
Lily’s spare key could hang by the entryway.
I was the only one who could not belong there.
When I woke up the next morning, Ryan was already gone.
There was a cup of coffee on the dining table, an iced Americano.
A sticky note was beside it.
[Something came up. Go to the new place yourself. Remember to put the litter box on the balcony.]
I looked at the coffee.
I had a sensitive stomach and never drank anything iced.
Lily was the one who liked iced Americanos.
Even when Ryan left me something to drink, he was following her habits.
My phone vibrated.
It was a message from Lily.
Lily: [Evelyn, could you please put Pumpkin’s cat bed by the window for me?]
Lily: [He’s timid and doesn’t like strangers, so please don’t scare him.]
A cute emoji followed.
I did not reply.
That afternoon, I went to the new place.
The door passcode had already been changed.
I tried three times, and each time the system showed an error.
In the end, Ryan unlocked the door remotely.
On the phone, his tone was impatient.
“I changed the passcode to Lily’s birthday so she wouldn’t forget it.”
I stood at the doorway and suddenly felt cold.
He had never remembered my birthday.
Last year, on my birthday, he sent me fifty dollars.
The note said, [Buy yourself something you like.]
But on Lily’s birthday, he booked out an entire restaurant by the river.
He even personally put together a photography exhibit for her.
Every photo in it was of Lily from childhood to adulthood.
He said that was friendship.
I believed him then.
Thinking back now, I was truly stupid.
At eight that night, I saw Lily’s Instagram post.
In the photo, there was a table full of elegant Japanese dishes.
Ryan was sitting beside her, picking the bones out of her fish.
The caption read, [It feels so nice when someone remembers I’m afraid of choking on fish bones.]
I stared at that photo for a long time.
Last month, I got a fish bone stuck in my throat.
I coughed so hard that tears came out.
Ryan sat across from me and did not even lift his head.
He said, “You’d be fine if you just ate slower.”
So it was not that he did not know how to take care of someone.
He simply could not be bothered to take care of me.
I closed Instagram and began packing my things.
There was not much to pack.
After living there for four years, everything that truly belonged to me could fit into one suitcase.
I put my ID documents, bank cards, award certificates, and a few photography books into the suitcase.
Then I organized the contact information for the bridal salon, the wedding planner, and the hotel.
One by one, I sent messages to confirm the cancellation process.
I did not tell Ryan.
I did not cry either.
I only felt a strange quiet settle over me, the way a fever finally breaks.
