Ten years of waiting, and my boyfriend still hadn’t proposed—until his mother did it for him on social media.
A fake engagement, an unexpected post, and a deleted lie.
But if she wanted an engagement, I was going to give her one. And this time, I’d play along—on my own terms.
I was halfway through my second cup of coffee, letting the warmth settle in my chest, when a sharp knock rattled my front door.
The sound wasn’t unusual—Lisa had a habit of showing up whenever she pleased, armed with gossip, questionable life advice, or a bottle of cheap wine.
But this time, as I opened the door, she stood there grinning like a lottery winner, holding a cake box like it contained the meaning of life.
“Congratulations, girl!” she squealed, pushing past me before I could say a word.
I frowned, gripping the edge of my coffee mug. “For what?”
Lisa rolled her eyes, like I was the slowest person alive.
“Don’t play dumb, Emily. Your engagement, obviously!”
She shoved the cake box at me, her excitement practically vibrating off her.
“Figured I’d bring something sweet to celebrate the fact that you finally locked that man down.”
My brain short-circuited. The words didn’t land all at once; they tumbled through my head like loose marbles, bouncing off the edges of reason.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my voice coming out slower than I intended.
Lisa’s smile faltered.
“Wait… you don’t know?”
A strange, cold sensation crawled up my spine, the kind that told me I was about to hate whatever came next.
My fingers trembled as I reached for my laptop, the weight of an unshakable dread pressing against my ribs.
I opened it.
And there it was.
A post from Ryan’s mother, written in that overly cheerful, exclamation-mark-riddled way she did everything.
“Congratulations to my son for proposing to the love of his life! I’m so happy to welcome Emily officially into the family!”
I felt my stomach turn, as if I’d just swallowed something rotten.
My eyes darted over the comment section, and it was a sea of finally! and about time!
and we knew it was coming!
But the thing was… it hadn’t happened.
I hadn’t been proposed to. I hadn’t said yes. I hadn’t even had an inkling that Ryan was thinking about it.
Lisa sat down beside me, peering at the screen over my shoulder.
“Em… what the hell?”
I stared at the post, my heartbeat hammering in my ears.
Ten years.
Ten years of waiting. Of sitting through family dinners where someone would nudge Ryan and ask, So, when’s the big day? and he’d laugh, shake his head, and say, When the time is right.
Apparently, his mother had decided that time for him.
A fresh wave of anger bloomed in my chest, hot and suffocating.
My fingers clenched around my phone, my nails digging into the case.
And just as quickly as the post had appeared—it vanished.
Deleted.
Like it had never been there at all.
I exhaled through my nose, slow and steady, feeling something inside me shift. This wasn’t shock anymore. It wasn’t even a disappointment.
It was clarity.
I picked up my phone, flexed my fingers, and turned to Lisa, a slow smirk pulling at the corner of my lips.
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