Chapter 1

My boyfriend, Ethan Bennett, was notoriously possessive.

If I went three minutes without replying, he used to bombard me with messages.

Lately, though, I could barely reach him.

I asked what he wanted for dinner. No answer.

I called. He didn’t pick up.

Finally, I snapped. “If you don’t say something in the next three minutes, we’re done.”

He finally replied. “Baby, let’s see a movie tonight. I got you a present.”

My anger faded.

I bought two tickets and waited for him.

But even after the movie ended, he never showed.

Then I guess we were over, too.

The October wind carried a chill. I wrapped my coat tighter around myself, shivering outside the theater.

We’d agreed on the seven o’clock showing, but the movie was over and Ethan was still nowhere to be seen.

I’d called more than a dozen times. He hadn’t answered once.

People streamed past me. Standing there alone, I felt painfully out of place.

A couple passed nearby. The guy smiled fondly at his girlfriend, trying to explain. “But I made it, didn’t I? I dropped everything at work to get here. We saw the movie. Come on, don’t be mad.”

She was still pouting, but she’d clearly forgiven him. She gave his arm a playful smack.

“Then you shouldn’t have made me come alone! What kind of girl goes to the movies by herself?”

I lowered my eyes to my shoes.

Me, apparently.

Even after everyone else had left, I was still standing in the cold.

“Emma!”

At last, Ethan jogged up in the black hoodie I’d bought him, breathing hard. “Why didn’t you wait inside? It’s about to start, right?”

I turned to look at him without saying a word.

“What’s wrong?”

He scratched his head, looking baffled.

I threw the tickets I’d been clutching at his chest. He scrambled to catch them, glanced down, and put on a look of dismay.

“Oh, damn. I got the time wrong!”

Disgusted by his terrible acting, I walked away. He followed, growing more worked up as he explained.

“Emma, I really did get the time wrong. I’ve been working late. I haven’t even had dinner.”

“Can you stop getting upset over every little thing? I mixed up the time. It’s just a movie. We can watch it whenever.”

I’d had enough.

I stopped, took out my phone, and held it up.

“Ethan, fine. You misread the time. Something came up and you forgot our date. But could you at least answer your phone? I stood here for two hours. I called you seventeen times!”

He paused, then pulled out his phone.

I thought he would react the way he always had when he messed up. Feel guilty. Apologize. Hold me.

Instead, he acted completely justified.

“I put my phone on silent while I was working. Is that really such a crime?”

I laughed.

In that moment, he felt like a stranger.

We didn’t speak on the drive home. Watching neon lights slide past the window, I thought about our past.

Ethan and I had gone to high school together.

He was handsome and came from money. Plenty of girls liked him.

But none of them dared make a move.

Everyone at school knew he was pursuing me.

A warm bottle of milk every morning. A love letter every few days.

I pretended to be unfazed, then slipped him a note.

“Let’s go to the same college.”

For that one sentence, the carefree, spoiled Ethan Bennett had actually buckled down and studied like his life depended on it.

By graduation, our photos hung side by side on the school’s honors board.

He’d stood there taking pictures like an idiot, saying it was our first official photo together and he needed to save it.

We went to the same college, then found jobs in the same city. It felt as though our lives had become tied together.

He was clingy.

He always wanted to hold hands.

He told me about every little thing he did when he went out.

Even a stray kitten on the sidewalk deserved a video sent straight to me.

Everyone said Ethan was completely, willingly wrapped around my finger.

But now he sat on the couch staring at his phone, ignoring me—and the Alaskan malamute we’d raised together from a puppy.

I sighed, filled the dog’s bowl, and called him.

“Summit, come here.”

He came running.

Ethan never looked up. He kept typing, a faint smile playing across his face.