When Edna Crossby ditches the marriage registration for the fifth time, I block her contact number and social media accounts on the spot.

If she's in any of the social gatherings, I turn down the invitations right away.

I'd rather take the long route than walk past the cafe Edna frequents.

If she attends a team-building session, I take the day off without hesitation.

Even when Edna shows up on my doorstep with gifts in hand on Christmas Eve, I pretend that I'm not home at all.

I don't answer any calls from her. I don't respond to texts she sends me. Just like that, I completely fade away from Edna's world.

In the past, Edna used to be the focus of my life. My emotions fluctuated all the time because of her.

When Edna flakes out on me for the fifth time, I finally snap out of my lovesick stupor.

I don't want to live life like this anymore. Rather than getting abandoned time and again, I might as well live my life on my own happily.

Edna Crosby stood me up at the city hall for the marriage registration again, all for the sake of her childhood sweetheart, Nolan Page.

I received no replies when I texted her, and she never picked up when I called.

All around me, smiling couples arrived in pairs, here to register their marriages. Only I sat alone on a bench, feeling completely out of place.

When the call finally went through, it was Nolan's voice on the other end. "I'm so sorry about this, Zack. I got scratched by a stray cat, so Edna's with me at the hospital getting a rabies shot."

He said it so matter-of-factly, even with a hint of spoiled pride.

Including today, this made the fifth time Edna had stood me up.

The fourth time, Nolan had twisted his ankle, so she had rushed him to the hospital.

The third time, it suddenly rained, so she dropped everything to bring him an umbrella.

The second time, he had gotten drunk in a bar in the middle of the day, so she had been in a hurry to pick him up.

…

On all five attempts, Nolan was the reason our marriage registration failed. Every single time, she didn't hesitate to pick him over me and abandon me.

The office was wrapping up for the day, so a staff member approached and gently asked, "Excuse me. Are you still waiting to file your registration?"

I lightly shook my head. "No."

"If something came up, you can always reschedule for another day," she kindly reminded me.

"It's fine. I won't be coming back," I calmly replied.

During the past four failed attempts, I had been furious and desperate. But today, something in me lifted the moment I heard Nolan's voice on the phone.

I didn't feel that familiar panic of losing Edna or the urge to scream and demand an explanation. All I did was calmly pull out my phone and text her.

"Let's break up."

With that, I blocked her number and all social media accounts. Just like that, we were officially done.

I didn't feel like going home, so I wandered aimlessly through the streets until I pushed open the door of a cafe on the corner.

It wasn't until the familiar bluesy jazz and aroma of coffee washed over me that I suddenly realized that this was the cafe Edna frequented the most.

It was ironic that even as I tried to escape her, my instincts led me to the places she loved.

Edna and I were colleagues at the same company. To be honest, she was the one who had made the first move on me.

I still remembered her first day as a new hire when she came rushing out with a stack of files and walked straight into my arms.

Later, she told me that was the moment she decided I was the one.

Edna said I was handsome, clean-cut, and mild-tempered. She complimented me on my work and on matching her ideal type in every way.

Back then, I just found her impulsive acts interesting and casually accepted her request to exchange numbers.

After that day, she occasionally brought me homemade lunches and found excuses to meet up. Before long, we naturally ended up as a couple.

Two months into our relationship, I called her one day, but a man picked up.

For a second, I thought I had dialed the wrong number, until the man spoke with a casual, annoying familiarity and called out my name.

"You're Zackary Pratt, aren't you? I'm Nolan Page. Edna's in the kitchen cooking for me, but hang on. I'll have her call you back."

In the background, I could hear Edna humming lightly and the clatter of a spatula against a pot. That was the first time I learned of Nolan's existence.

At first, I assumed he was her relative, but she told me that Nolan was a neighbor she had grown up with. He had been studying abroad and recently returned after graduating from college.

Though she had said it indifferently, a man's sharp instincts set off alarms in my mind. Things might not be as simple as she made them out to be.

On our next date, I finally met Nolan in person. He was more than half a head taller than Edna, casually dressed yet with obvious effort. There was a touch of playful handsomeness in his eyes.

What irked me most was that his hand had never left Edna's shoulder from the moment he entered the restaurant until we sat down.

Throughout the meal, he and Edna kept feeding each other and sharing food. She completely left me on the sidelines and showered him with all sorts of attentive care.

As the two sat side by side, close and natural, they did not look like neighbors at all. Instead, they seemed like a couple, whereas I, the boyfriend, felt like an unnecessary outsider.

I suppressed the discomfort, maintained a polite smile, and observed Nolan. "You two seem closer than I imagined."

He chuckled and met my gaze without flinching. "Don't misunderstand, Zack. Edna and I grew up together, so we're naturally closer than outsiders."

The way he emphasized the word "outsiders" implied that, compared to him, I was the outsider.

As he spoke, he suddenly leaned closer to Edna. "I told you I shouldn't have come, Edna. See? Zack's getting jealous."

She frowned at his words and replied, "Don't talk nonsense. Zack isn't that petty."

Yet, her hands never stopped. She naturally placed a piece of cut steak on his plate.

After that, Nolan somehow managed to have an emergency whenever Edna and I had plans. One day, he had a fever and a cold. On another day, he would forget his keys or his stomach would hurt.

Every time his call came in, Edna would leave me and choose him without hesitation, no matter how much I needed her at that moment.

I disliked how overly intimate she was with Nolan and complained to her. "Can you keep some distance from Nolan?"

But she brushed it off and said, "He's been abroad for too long, so he's just more open than we are.

"Besides, we grew up together. If anything was going to happen, it would have happened years ago."

Though Nolan had provoked me several times and explicitly hinted that they didn't have a normal relationship, her straightforward attitude made it tough for me to say much more.

After killing some time outside, I returned home and noticed a pair of women's high heels by the door. I instantly recognized them as the heels I had bought for Edna.

Though we weren't living together yet, I had given her a spare key to my apartment.

In the living room, she was curled up on the couch and taking a nap. When she heard the noise, she slowly opened her eyes and didn't look well.

I walked straight past her, hung my coat on the rack, and headed into the kitchen to start cooking, treating her like she wasn't even there.

Her voice came out hoarse when she spoke. "Zackary, why did you block me everywhere?"

I tied an apron and calmly said, "I remember sending you a message to tell you that we're done."

She sighed. "Is that just because I missed our appointment at the city hall?

"I'm sorry, but Nolan did get scratched by a cat. The wound was really deep—"

"This is the fifth time," I cut her off.

The kitchen knife hit the cutting board with a dull, heavy thud as I continued, "This is the fifth time you've stood me up for him, Edna."

She froze and looked genuinely shocked. "You were fine with it the other times. Why are you making such a big deal out of it now?"

As I turned around, I noticed the genuine confusion in her expression. It hit me then that she never thought she had done anything wrong.

I slammed the knife into a tomato. Its juice sprayed across the counter—just like the calm I had been struggling to maintain finally crumbling.

"So he calls, and you drop everything, while I can't even get you to answer one phone call?

"Are you his last friend on this planet? Does he really need someone else's girlfriend to rush over every time something happens? Do you honestly think that makes sense, Edna?"

Faced with my questions, she fell silent for a moment and clearly did not want a fight. "You're too emotional right now, Zackary. I won't fight you, but you have to understand that Nolan and I grew up together…"

I let out a short laugh at the same excuse I had heard countless times.

"Right. You grew up together, so does that give him the right to intrude on our relationship as he wishes? Is that a valid reason for you to stand me up over and over on the day we were supposed to register our marriage?

"Ask yourself, Edna. Who was your boyfriend these past few years?"

The kitchen fell into an eerie silence. The slow drip of an unclosed faucet was the only sound in the room.

Edna's eyes darted away, and she opened her mouth but ultimately said nothing.

I shut my eyes hard. The turmoil of emotions in my chest finally receded like a tide and left endless exhaustion.

I turned, walked to the door, and opened it. "You should leave. There's no need for us to get married anymore since this ends here."

She snapped her head up, and her eyes were full of disbelief. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," I said and picked up her spare key from the shoe cabinet. "Now, please leave."

She stood where she was with confusion written all over her face, as if she couldn't understand a word I was saying.

That was when my patience finally ran out. I took her wrist and gently but firmly guided her out the door.

"Zackary!"

She finally reacted. Her voice was full of panic as she screamed, "Have you lost your mind? Over something this small—"

I didn't answer and gently closed the door.

Exhaustion was the only thing I felt about my relationship with Edna. I was utterly worn out.

Right now, I had had enough and decided it was time to cut my losses.