You Lost Me First

There was nothing left for me in this suffocating city.

The next morning, I went to the office and submitted my resignation.

That same evening, our department manager organized a team dinner at a bar a few blocks away.

Halfway through the night, someone suggested we play Truth or Dare.

The bottle ended up pointing at Olivia. She picked dare, and they challenged her to kiss a man of her choice.

Her eyes swept across the table, quick and deliberate, before stopping on Nigel.

"I'll pick Mr. Cross," she said with a teasing smile. "Don't take it seriously. It's just a game."

The bar went quiet.

I remembered another party years ago. A girl had confessed to Nigel in front of everyone. He didn't refuse her right away and even accepted the glass of champagne she handed him.

I grabbed the glass straight from his hand and dumped it into a nearby planter.

I had always been ruthless about boundaries. Cross the line, and I would rather burn everything down than pretend it didn't matter.

My coworkers glanced at me, waiting for a reaction.

I simply smiled, lifted my glass of water, and drained it in one go. Then I started clapping.

"Go ahead," I said lightly. "Let's keep the game going. Don't kill the mood."

People stared, stunned. No one expected that from me.

Nigel's expression shifted from cautious curiosity to outright shock. He opened his mouth, as if he wanted to stop it, but my applause drowned him out.

Olivia froze for half a second, clearly thrown off by my calm reaction, then quickly recovered her sweet smile.

She looped her arms around Nigel's neck and kissed him.

For a brief moment, he hesitated.

Then he kissed her back, and he didn't stop. The longer it lasted, the more he leaned into it.

The cheers around us grew louder, but the sound felt distant, as if it couldn't reach me at all.

I suddenly remembered a long-ago night when a girl had stolen a kiss from Nigel while he was drunk. I cried the entire night after finding out, my eyes swollen by morning.

He kneeled in front of me then and said, "I swear I'll never touch another woman but you."

Now he was kissing someone else right in front of me.

That promise meant nothing.

Even though I had already decided to walk away, the pain still pressed against my chest until breathing felt hard.

A few minutes later, they finally pulled apart, both flushed.

Olivia wiped the corner of her mouth, a hint of triumph hiding behind her polite tone. "Sorry, Melissa. It was just a game. Don't be mad."

Her words sounded apologetic, but her eyes were full of open challenge.

Nigel gripped the edge of his shirt, clearly bracing for me to explode like I used to.

I calmly set down my utensils, picked up a napkin, and wiped my lips.

"It's fine," I said evenly. "As long as everyone's having fun."

I gave them a faint, almost polite smile.

The tension drained from Nigel's face. Then something else replaced it.

Disappointment.

He looked at me as if he didn't recognize me anymore.

After finishing the resignation paperwork, I went home and started packing for Kentonshire.

Then I remembered something.

In the house Nigel had sold, there was a rocking chair my mother had built by hand. She had made it as a wedding gift for me.

Now, it was the only thing she had left behind.

I decided to go get it.

When I arrived at the house, I automatically entered my birthday as the door code.

Error.

I frowned and tried again.

Still wrong.

Thinking I had mistyped, I switched to fingerprint unlock.

Access denied.

My authorization had been removed.