My Love, Her Leverage

“My ribeye was getting cold as I sat alone at Vince's Steakhouse, waiting for Nicole on our one-year anniversary. I' d booked her favorite corner booth, even checking myself out of the hospital despite cracked ribs, all for her. Then her text came: "Stuck in chem lab. Won't make it. Raincheck?" My heart sank. But just as I was about to signal for the check, a group was led past my table. My world stopped. It was Nicole, in the dress I bought her, laughing with her college roommate and her high school sweetheart, Luis-the one who' d ghosted her when her life fell apart. I watched, frozen, as her roommate quipped about me being "a sweet, dumb rich kid" wrapped around Nicole's finger. Nicole just shrugged, saying, "Can we not talk about him? He's ruining my mood." The woman I loved called me an inconvenience, while celebrating "new beginnings" with the man who' d abandoned her. I swallowed the bitter truth: I wasn't her boyfriend; I was a transaction. A debt repaid with her time. The pain was worse than any broken bone. Why was I always the fallback, the savior, never the choice? The next morning, her call came, a soft apology, promising to meet. A foolish part of me hoped, until Luis sat beside her at the coffee shop. This wasn't an apology; it was a shakedown for half a million dollars. And that' s when I finally said, "No."”