Zara was listening.
"After college we ended up at the same company. Meridian. The job was miserable, the pay was bad, but I told myself I was happy because I was with her." He paused. "I noticed things. The way she and my boss James were around each other. The amount of time. The way conversations stopped when I walked into rooms." He looked up. "I never let myself think the obvious thing. I kept explaining it away."
"Ryan—" She started, but decided to let him finish.
"I found out they were engaged the same time everyone else did. At the company gala. She announced it in front of the whole room. I was the last person to know what my own relationship had become." He said it without much emotion — not because the emotion wasn't there, but because it had been processed into something flat and factual. "I've never felt worse in my life than that night."
Zara reached across the table and put her hand over his.
He looked at her hand. Then he turned his over and held it.
