00:00it was supposed to be just another night dinner a dumb show playing in the background the kind
00:05of night where the biggest decision was what to order for dessert comfortable familiar or so i
00:11thought she laughed at something on her phone a short quiet chuckle the kind that wasn't meant
00:17for me the screen lit up and for a second just a second i saw it his name a name i didn't recognize
00:25but my gut twisted anyway she caught me looking too quickly she flipped the phone face down her
00:32fingers tightening around it just a little a flicker of something flashed across her face
00:37too fast to catch then she smiled that easy practiced smile nobody she said just a friend
00:45but when someone says nobody and hides the screen like it's fire you know you just know i tried to
00:52shake it off tried to play along to act like i wasn't already tracing the cracks forming beneath
00:58my feet but her smile felt different now her laugh was softer distant like she was already somewhere
01:06else maybe she had been for a while maybe i just hadn't seen it i didn't confront her that night
01:12didn't demand answers didn't accuse i waited watched listened and it didn't take long
01:20she started staying up later took her phone to the bathroom kept it face down always her notifications
01:27were just vibrations now silent secret she smiled at texts she didn't want me to see
01:32smiled like she used to smile at me i became a ghost in my own home and shesh became a stranger
01:40wearing the face of the woman i loved one night i broke she was in the shower her phone buzzed on the
01:47nightstand i wasn't going to check it i swear i wasn't but my hand moved on its own like it knew
01:54something my heart wasn't ready to face i picked it up the screen unlocked with her face just as another
02:00message popped up his name again only this time not just one message dozens hundreds pictures
02:10memories plans i wasn't part of inside jokes whispered secrets shared dreams not a fling not a mistake
02:20not a moment of weakness this was something real something built over time piece by piece behind my
02:28back she hadn't just betrayed me she had replaced me i didn't wait for her to come out of the shower
02:35didn't need to hear the lies the excuses the gaslighting i walked into the closet grabbed my
02:42bag took what i needed and left just like that no goodbye no note no sound she didn't think i'd really
02:51do it but she didn't know me anymore the days after were a blur a cheap hotel a phone that wouldn't
02:59stop buzzing her name over and over where are you talk to me this isn't fair i can explain but what
03:08was there to explain she made her choice i made mine i blocked her number deleted our pictures
03:16unfollowed erased her as best i could but you don't really erase someone you love you just try to mute the
03:23volume of their memory two weeks later i moved into a small apartment started over breathed again
03:30some nights i still woke up reaching for her habit i guess cruel muscle memory but over time the silence
03:39became peaceful over time the ache stopped screaming six months passed and then she found me i was walking
03:48home from work groceries in one hand headphones in the other turned the corner and there she was
03:55standing outside my building she looked smaller not physically but emotionally like guilt had hollowed
04:02her out from the inside hey she said softly like nothing had happened i didn't speak just stared can
04:11we talk she asked i should have walked past her should have kept going but i didn't maybe part of
04:19me still wanted answers maybe part of me just wanted to hear her say it we sat in a cafe down the block
04:25one i never took her to my new space she stirred her coffee but didn't drink it her hands shook her voice
04:33barely a whisper i never thought you'd really leave she said that was her first mistake she thought love
04:42made me weak but it didn't it made me strong enough to walk away she said it wasn't serious that she was
04:50lost that it was a mistake but mistakes don't happen over months mistakes don't text you every morning
04:57mistakes don't replace the man who shared your bed she cried said she missed me said her life hadn't been
05:04the same and i believed her but it didn't matter because regret doesn't erase betrayal and guilt isn't
05:12love i don't need you to forgive me she whispered i just needed you to know i still think about us
05:19i nodded and for the first time in a long time i felt nothing no pain no rage no longing
05:27just clarity you think about us i said quietly but you didn't fight for us when it mattered
05:33she didn't argue she couldn't she stood up waited for me to say something anything but i had already
05:41said what mattered i left her at the table walked back into my life a life that no longer had room for
05:48someone who once thought i'd stay no matter what if someone shows you what you mean to them
05:53believe them don't wait for closure don't wait for apologies that come too late because sometimes
06:00the strongest thing you can do is leave when they don't expect you to and never look back
06:05you
06:10you
06:12you
06:14you
06:16you
06:18you
06:20you
06:22you
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