No Turning Back Now, Liam

The sheets were still warm, Liam' s scent clinging to the pillows, a familiar comfort in his minimalist apartment.

This was our routine for years-best friends who' d blurred the lines into something I thought was real, a future we were building.

Then he walked out of the bathroom, casually announcing Olivia, his high school "what if," was back in town; my architectural advice, my city knowledge, repurposed for her date.

The name hit me, cold and hard, a revelation that crumbled my world: I was just a convenience, an "easy" placeholder until his long-lost love returned.