Yvonne and Jim were hand in hand, about to walk into a fancy restaurant.

Jim's friends were teasing him loudly, "You finally decided to introduce us to the girlfriend you've been hiding for four years!"

Yvonne blushed and said, "I've been so busy at work. I only just found the time to come out. Sorry, everyone!

"To make it up to you, I'll cover tonight's bill."

Four years ago, Jim was still a student.

It finally made sense why Yvonne had pushed so hard to get him hired at the company. They had been together since then.

A teammate clicked their tongue, clearly unimpressed, and Yvonne heard it.

She looked over, saw me, and quickly let go of Jim's hand, flustered.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

I scoffed. "So, this was the 'professional relationship' you were talking about?"

Yvonne's guilt was fleeting. Remembering we were in the middle of an argument, she defended herself boldly, "I'm just making it up to him by pretending to be his girlfriend. Can't you tell?

"And why are you here during work hours? Don't you care about your paycheck?

"Do you want you and your team to all get pay cuts?"

Jim was outside during work hours too, was he not? He seemed fine, but he was really after our paychecks.

When I heard this, I could not help but laugh. "Don't worry about it. You can go ahead and try. We've already quit, so you can't take anything from us.

"Enjoy your date. We won't be hanging around like spare parts."

Yvonne looked puzzled. "Quit? What's this new game you're playing?

"Cut it out. I'm swamped and don't have time for your games."

I thought, 'She really is swamped.'

She was swamped with hanging out with her younger boyfriend, taking care of his friends, and trying to cut our pay.

Jim looked like he was trying to calm things down, but he was really stirring the pot.

"Yvonne, if he says he's quit, then he's quit. He obviously doesn't care about your feelings.

"And he's even trying to take the company's key players with him. Isn't that going to hurt you?"

His buddies joined in. "Exactly, Yvonne! Only our Jim is truly good to you.”

"We've all heard from Jim that Luis is a bully and picks on the newbies. He deserves to be fired.”

"You should just divorce that loser already. Jim's handsome and tall. He's a much better fit for you."

Yvonne knew those were lies, but she did not say a word. Instead, she said with a sense of resignation, "Luis, we've been together for so long, so I'll give you one more chance.

"If you apologize to Jim and hand over all your big clients to him, I'll put you back in your old job. Otherwise..."

Otherwise, it meant divorce.

From all the times we had argued, I knew what she left unsaid.

Before, whenever she would start that sentence, I would get so worried, pleading with her not to say that dreaded word.

However, now...

I tossed the divorce papers from my pocket right in front of her. "You can't threaten me anymore. We're already divorced."