Chapter 3

"You're looking through my phone again!"

Ethan walked out of the bathroom, saw me with his phone, and spoke in a flat voice.

He was incredibly calm. He probably felt confident I wouldn't find anything.

"Ethan, I leave you alone for a second, and you start an e-relationship?"

I threw the phone onto the coffee table in his direction.

The screen was still lit up, displaying his recovered chats with Mimi in agonizing detail.

Ethan visibly panicked. He rushed over and grabbed the phone.

"Chloe, let me explain..."

Realizing he was caught red-handed, he put the phone down and tried to grab my arm.

"What is there to explain? You always complain that I'm bad at the game and refuse to play with me. You told me you were playing with Jake, but it turns out Jake’s name is Mimi?"

I held my warm mug of milk, taking slow sips.

"We just play games together. She’s just an online friend."

He said this so righteously.

As if being "online" made all those sweet, intimate words in the chat history completely meaningless.

"But you never sent me any of those photos you sent her."

"Those were just random snaps. They didn't mean anything."

"If they didn't mean anything, why share them with your online friend instead of me? You're bored of me, aren't you, Ethan?"

"I'm not bored of you. I want to build a life with you."

He reached out to hold my hand, but I pulled away.

"People who want to build a life together don't act like this."

Right in front of me, he opened Snapchat, deleted Mimi, then dragged me to his PC, opened the game, and unfriended her there too.

"See? I told you she's just a random online friend. Texting is just a game. It means nothing. I can delete her just like that, Chloe."

He tried to use this to brush off the fact that he had cheated.

It was as if the more casual he acted, the more petty and unreasonable I looked.