I ended my engagement after my fiancée asked for a break to see if her ex still meant something to her. She thought I would sit and wait inside the life we had spent four years building — until three days later, her mother called me, and Tessa finally realized I was never her backup plan.

“I mean, not that I’d want to be with him again,” she said. “It’s just, you know, a significant part of my past.”

I wanted to confront her right there. I wanted to ask why, out of every answer she could have given, she chose him.

But we were in front of friends, and I did not want to make a scene. So I let it pass. Outwardly, at least.

Inside, it stayed with me. Later that night, after we got home and the house was quiet except for the hum of the refrigerator, I asked her about it. “What was that about Dylan?” I said.

“Why would you choose to relive that relationship?”

She was taking off her earrings in the bedroom mirror. She did not even turn around. “It was a stupid game, Liam.

Don’t take it so seriously.”