Chapter 1

1.

To prepare a birthday surprise for Caleb I, I flew back from New York to Boston ahead of schedule.

To kill time in the Uber to his Brookline apartment, I mindlessly scrolled through Reddit.

A trending post in a relationship advice subreddit caught my eye.

The title was: [Today I messed up. I fell for a guy with a girlfriend. But I’m going to confess my feelings on his birthday. AITAH?]

The comments were a bloodbath, a sea of "red flag" and "run, girl, run."

Trying to win people over, the original poster started adding updates, trying to prove she was "the one."

Update 1: I'm a first-year resident at a top Boston teaching hospital. My education and career prospects blow his current girlfriend's out of the water. His girlfriend? A typical trust fund kid who got into a good school through legacy admissions. We all know how much that's worth.

Update 2: We've known each other for almost a year, and I've never even seen a picture of this girl. He's probably either embarrassed by how she looks or by her in general. Me? I'm attractive, straightforward, and we're perfectly in sync, both at work and in life. We’ve known each other for 332 days, and our Snap streak is at 300.

I clicked the photo link she included. It was deliberately framed to only show the guy's wrist.

He was wearing the vintage Swiss diver's watch his father had passed down to him.

Even without a face, I knew it was Caleb instantly.

My heart sank. My finger hovered over the screen, frozen.

...

The day we broke up, my best friend tried to console me over brunch. "It's not even cheating, not really. It's just a picture. Don't be so sensitive."

I shook my head. "All those little, meaningless moments they shared with each other... they were all invitations. Invitations for the other person to enter their life."

And an endless desire to share is the breeding ground for love.

I hadn't told Caleb I was coming back, wanting to surprise him for his birthday party.

Just half an hour ago, Caleb had sent me a text with a location pin.

It was a new, trendy hot pot place in the Seaport. He was going with a few other residents after their shift.

[If it's good, I'll definitely take you next time!]

He was the same as always, checking in whenever he had a free moment, acting like the model boyfriend.

I turned off my phone screen. On this cold, rainy Boston night, I had the driver change the destination.

When I walked into the restaurant, they had just sat down.

I pulled the brim of my baseball cap down and chose a booth directly behind them.

I needed to see with my own eyes who this girl from the forums was.