Not His First Choice Chapter 02
In the cab, I opened the points app.
Every single change, logged in neat little rows.
【Brought lunch +10】
【Didn’t complain about forgotten birthday +50】
【Upset Lily -100】
Every point was a piece of me I’d swallowed down.
He never knew—every day I’d been saving, I’d been picturing his face on the day I hit ten thousand.
Would he be shocked? Would he regret it? Would he drop to one knee in front of everyone and say, “Nora, I’m sorry for making you wait so long”?
My nails dug into my palm. The pain snapped me back.
I got back to the apartment and started packing.
His shirts and my dresses hung together in the closet. I pulled them out one by one and dropped them into my suitcase.
When I got to the desk, his computer was still on.
A folder on the screen was labeled “Receipts.”
I clicked.
My birthday gift—a necklace. Four hundred fifty dollars.
Same day, Lily got a bracelet from the same brand. Four thousand five hundred.
The weekend trip I’d cashed in three thousand points for—B&B, one twenty a night.
That same week, Lily had posted a picture from a floor-to-ceiling window at a five-star hotel. Same city.
I kept scrolling.
Eight years.
Everything he ever bought me—for Lily, it was always more expensive, better, more thoughtful.
At the bottom, a note: 【Promised her I’d always put her first, even if I got a girlfriend.】
I stared at the screen. A dull ache pressed into my chest. I wanted to cry and couldn’t. Eight years of hoping, shattered into a spreadsheet.
I closed the laptop and dragged my suitcase to the living room.
Right in the center of the TV console sat that photo of the three of us—the only one in eight years where I was in the middle.
In it, I was smiling small, lips pressed together, eyes bright.
Back then, I thought I’d finally been let in.
I took the frame down, slid the photo out, and dropped it in the trash.
The lock clicked at the entryway.
Lily came in first, kicking off her shoes like she lived here.
“Hey Nora, you’re still up? I had a fight at home. Gonna crash here a few days.”
Ethan came in behind her, hanging up her coat without a word.
“She’ll take the guest room. That okay with you?”
Before, I would’ve said “sure,” then lain awake at night listening to them watching movies in the living room, their laughter leaking under the door.
If I made a fuss, he’d threaten to take off a hundred points, and I’d shut up.
But now I didn’t care about points anymore.
I looked up at Ethan. “You’re asking me if it’s okay? Eight years. Every time she comes over, did you ever ask me once?”
I turned to Lily. “You had nowhere to go, so you came to my place again? You know he has a girlfriend, right?”
Lily’s face went white. She said nothing.
Ethan frowned. “She had nowhere else—”
“Then move out and live with her!”
Ethan froze for a second, then scoffed. “You even hearing yourself?”
Lily’s eyes filled up. “It’s fine, I’ll just get a hotel. Don’t fight because of me—”
“Oh, so you know it’s because of you! Eight years. Nicely put, no boundaries. Not nicely put, you’re the other woman!”
Ethan’s face dropped. His voice came out hot. “Apologize to her.”
“Why the hell should I?”
He lowered his voice. “Nora. If you don’t apologize, that’s two thousand points.”
I stared into his eyes and suddenly laughed out loud. “Take them. Take whatever you want.”
I grabbed my suitcase and started for the door.
He caught my arm. When I looked down, I saw the ring on his finger.
A thin silver band. Identical to the one Lily wore.
And my ring finger had been bare for eight years, waiting for him.
I lifted my hand, held my empty ring finger up in front of his face.
“Ethan. I waited eight years.”
“And what did I get? You and her wearing matching rings. A folder on your computer about her, where you promised you’d always put her first!”
Ethan’s face went white. “You went through my computer?”
He drew a sharp breath. “I promised her. The year her parents divorced, she was scared and alone. I told her she’d never be by herself. That has nothing to do with love, it’s just—”
“Just what? Just that I deserved second place?”
“Ethan, I’m done waiting!”
I lifted my hand and slapped him across the face.
The crack echoed. His head turned, cheek slowly reddening. He looked at me like he couldn’t believe it.
I didn’t look twice. I dragged my suitcase out the door and into the rain.