He Left Me in the Rain for Seven Hours,I Left Him for Good

Five years to the day, and I came back from the restroom to find my half-eaten plate cleared away to nothing.

My boyfriend tapped his watch and studied me. "This date was scheduled for a hundred and twenty minutes. You went over by ten."

Beside us sat the anniversary cake, still sealed in its box—the one Neil Barnes had ordered tossed in the trash.

I didn't cry. I didn't make a scene. I just said, "I'll grab a cab home myself. You don't need to drive me."

From the day I met him, Neil had always been this way.

Our life ran on one vocabulary only: "efficiency," "rules," "stick to the plan."