I Ran Errands for My Boyfriend Then Decided to Break Up Chapter 01
At our law school reunion dinner, I came back after
stepping out to pick up a pack of cigarettes for my
boyfriend, only to find my best friend sitting in my seat.
My glass and place setting had been cleared away and
replaced with a fresh set. There was no sign I had ever been there.
When Madeline Pierce saw me return, she started to get
up, but Graham Sullivan pressed her back into the chair.
“She doesn’t understand our case discussions anyway. All
she’d do here is sit there and smile along.”
No one else dared to say a word.
Everyone knew that a crisis at home had forced me to
drop out midway through law school.
Back in law school, Graham and Madeline had been known
as the program’s powerhouse duo, working together on
one difficult matter after another through the school’s legal clinic.
After graduation, they quickly became rising stars in the city’s elite legal community, while everyone saw me as nothing more than the lowly legal assistant who had only gotten the job because I was dating the managing partner.
I stood there, stunned.
Graham took the cigarettes I had bought him and casually
for said, “Madeline wants a caramel latte. Go pick one up her.”
He did not even look at me. He simply turned back and
resumed the conversation.
As the two of them talked and laughed, exhaustion
suddenly washed over me.
I no longer wanted to keep chasing someone I could never
catch up to, no matter how hard I tried.
Half an hour had passed since I returned with the cigarettes.
Aside from ordering me to get the caramel latte, Graham
had not looked at me again. He and Madeline moved from
discussing the case they had won the week before to
talking about the firm’s future plans.
I had lost count of how many times I had faded into the
background whenever the two of them were together.
It was not until Madeline finished replying to a message
that Graham finally looked back at me in surprise.
“Why haven’t you gone yet?”
I had already run three errands for them since the dinner
began. The pouring rain had soaked me again and again
until every inch of me was drenched.
When Graham finally noticed the water running down my
face, he fell silent for a moment.
Madeline hurried to smooth things over.
“I only mentioned it in passing. Don’t go out again in this rain.”
As she spoke, she reached into her purse and pulled out a handkerchief with practiced ease.
It was identical to Graham’s.
When I came back into their lives six months after leaving
law school, Graham started bringing three breakfasts instead of two.
After graduation, it was not just breakfast. Even movie tickets came in threes.
But that balance gradually began to shift.
At some point, Graham had gotten into the habit of bringing breakfast only for Madeline.
“Oh, don’t smoke. Audrey hates the smell.”
Madeline snatched the cigarette from Graham’s hand and stubbed it out.
He merely laughed and shook his head in helpless amusement.
After seven years with him, I knew better than anyone
what it looked like when he doted on someone without reservation.
I had asked him countless times not to smoke because I
hated the smell, but he always said I did not understand
what he was dealing with and that I would not even let
him have this one small freedom.
The man who hated being controlled had somehow gotten
used to letting Madeline tell him what to do.
The conversation around the table came alive again.
I turned and walked straight out of the private dining room.
I took a slow breath and called the firm’s HR manager to resign.
She was stunned.
“You handle practically everything that keeps this firm
running. If you leave, we’ll be in chaos.”
“How about I talk to Mr. Sullivan and see if we can move
you into another role?”
I had asked to be transferred into another role more than
once since my first year at the firm.
Whenever I helped a colleague win a case, Graham said it was a fluke.
When I applied for an associate position, he said I did not have enough experience.
At bonus time, he calculated my performance score down to six decimal places.
He said, “You’re my girlfriend. I have to avoid even the appearance of favoritism.”
Madeline, meanwhile, was promoted twice in a single year.
Graham said her qualifications spoke for themselves.
She received practically every award at the firm’s annual
gala, and he called it looking out for an old classmate.
After seven years of working myself to the bone, I was still invisible.
I glanced back. Neither of them had even turned to see
where I had gone.
A faint smile crossed my face.
Then I said, “Janet, please process my resignation. Don’t tell him.”