He wore a suit and held a small, velvet ring box.
His grin spread wide, the same grin that had once charmed me and now made my stomach churn.
“Surprise!” Sophie chirped, rushing toward me with a wide smile. “Jason has been planning this for weeks! And we thought, who better to help with the decorations than you?
Isn’t it romantic?”
I stared at her, the pieces slowly clicking into place.
This wasn’t Sophie and Ryan’s engagement party. This was Jason’s proposal to me.
Jason’s proposal.
Jason?!
And I had unknowingly helped decorate and cater for the entire event.
“What the hell is this?” I managed to whisper, my voice shaking as my knees almost buckled.
Jason stepped closer, the same confidence oozing from him that had once been magnetic.
“I know I messed up,” he began, as if acknowledging the understatement of the century. “But I’ve changed, Oakley.
You’re the only one for me. And I want to spend the rest of my life proving it.”
My mind reeled.
Jason, who had cheated on me with a coworker, forced me into questioning my worth, and dumped me with a single text after weeks of silence, now thought this public spectacle would erase it all?
I turned to Sophie, desperate for an explanation.
“You knew what he did to me,” I said, my voice breaking. “You knew, Sophie.”
She shrugged, smiling as if she hadn’t just betrayed me.
“Everyone makes mistakes.
Besides, he’s serious now. He’s ready to commit, Oak. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?
Isn’t that what matters?”
The air seemed to leave my lungs altogether.
Sophie had always been impulsive, but this was something else entirely.
“You thought this was okay?” I asked.
“It’s a grand gesture, Oakley!” she said brightly. “I think you’ll thank me one day.”
I had barely noticed my parents standing in the corner of the room until my mom stepped forward. Her voice was soft, pleading.
“Jason explained everything, Oak.
He made a mistake, sure, but he’s trying to make it right. Don’t be so stubborn, sweetheart. You’re not getting any younger, and how often does a man who wants to propose come along?”
I felt the walls close in.
My humiliation, my anger… it was all secondary to the suffocating realization that the people I trusted the most in this world were siding with him.
With him.
Just as I turned to leave, Noah walked in carrying the cake box I’d asked him to bring in.
I wasn’t going to trust myself to carry it with my heels on.
I had forgotten about Noah. But seeing him made me feel better. He had always been a calming presence for me.
He paused, his eyes scanning the room, his brows knitting in confusion.
Then, his gaze landed on me, tear-streaked and trembling.
“What’s going on?” he asked, his voice steady but firm.
Jason puffed up his chest like a rooster.
“I’m proposing to Oakley, Noah. You don’t have an issue with that, do you?”
Noah’s eyes darted to me, and then back to Jason.
“Do you want this?” he asked, his voice softer now.
I shook my head, unable to speak through the lump in my throat.
“Then let’s go,” Noah said without hesitation.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. The cool night air hit my face like a lifeline as we stepped outside.
We drove in silence for a while, my thoughts a tangled mess of rage and betrayal.
Finally, I told Noah everything. I expected him to offer advice or a quick solution, but he didn’t. Instead, he just listened.
Noah had been around for years, and while I told him about most things in our friendship, I wasn’t always open about talking about Jason.
Over the following months, our relationship became more intimate.
Noah became a rock of sorts. He never pushed, never pried; he simply was. And when the time was right, our friendship deepened into something more.
It started out as a dinner from a drive-thru and turned into a romantic picnic in a parking lot.
Noah reminded me that love wasn’t supposed to hurt or feel like an uphill battle.
As for Sophie?
It had been months since that night, months of cutting Sophie out of my life, deleting her texts without reading them, and dodging her calls. I thought I’d moved on, that I’d buried the hurt.
Then, one chilly afternoon in early spring, she showed up at the café where I was meeting Noah.
The bell above the door jingled as she stepped inside, her bright smile faltering slightly when she saw me.
I froze, mid-sip of my latte.
Sophie approached with hesitant steps, her voice too bright.
“Oakley! I was hoping I’d run into you!”
I didn’t return her smile.
“What do you want, Sophie?”
Her expression flickered.
Disappointment? Irritation? But she quickly covered it with the kind of grin that used to fool me.
“I just want to talk.
Can we, um, can I sit?”
I nodded.
“I’ve missed you,” she began, her voice soft as she slid into the chair. “I know you’re mad, but I hate how things ended. I just want to explain.”
“Explain what, Sophie?
That you thought it was a good idea to ambush me with the guy who destroyed me? That you cared so little about my feelings you turned my pain into some romantic gesture for Jason?”
She flinched but held her ground.
“It wasn’t like that,” she said quickly. “I was trying to help you.
You and Jason… there was so much love there, Oakley. I just thought if he could show you he was serious, you’d see it too.”
“Serious? He broke me, and you knew that.”
“People change!” she exclaimed.
“He told me he regretted it, that he wanted to make things right. Isn’t that what everyone wants? To be forgiven?”
I shook my head.
“I thought you’d be happy!
You used to love him, Oakley! How was I supposed to know you’d react like that?”
My jaw dropped.
“React like that? You mean like a normal person who doesn’t want to be blindsided by their abusive ex in front of their family and friends?”
“You’re blowing this out of proportion, Oakley.
Like you always do. I wanted you to be happy like me.”
I stared at her, the full weight of her words hitting me.
“No, you were trying to force me into the life you thought I should want. You’ve never cared about what I actually feel, Sophie.
It’s always been about you.”
“That’s not true,” she said.
“It is. Now, please leave,” I said.
Just then, the bells above the door jingled again, and Noah walked in, beaming.
“That’s my cue to leave,” Sophie huffed.
“I assume that wasn’t an apology, was it?” Noah asked.
“No,” I said with a small, bitter laugh. “But that’s okay.
I don’t need her apology anymore.”
Source: amomama
