Chapter 2 Sage tossed Kai's shirt back at him, quickly called an Uber, and bounced. Kai visibly panicked. He started to chase after her, then remembered I was still there and stopped. His buddies had followed us out, and now they turned on me with attitude. "Dude, if someone as chill as Sage got pissed off enough to leave, maybe we should just dissolve the whole crew like your girl wants." "Yeah man, with this level of paranoia, I'm gonna have to wear nipple covers next time I see her." Kai shut them down immediately. "Are you kidding? We swore whoever chooses chicks over bros dies first. Are you trying to curse me?" Then he turned towards me and immediately got serious. 'Raven, can we just move past this?" looked at him and his crew behind him, then nodded. 'Sure. We can move past it after we break up." As I flagged a cab, Kai squeezed in beside me. le quickly rolled down the window and shouted to his friends: Go check on Sage! Make sure she got home safe! She had a lot to drink tonight!" stared out the window in silence, thinking about how Sage was the first friend Kai ever introduced me to. age had looked me up and down with interest: Kai's taste is getting so vanilla. This is your type now?" But I'd actually seen her before. Our live-in housekeeper kept a family photo on her nightstand, and Sage was her daughter. When she talked about her daughter, she glowed with pride, saying she was obedient, thoughtful, and innocent. ut meeting Sage in person, I was shocked by how different she was from her mom's description. Intil my cop friend did a raid on some nightclub. he saw Sage in a wig and barely-there princess costume, sitting on some guy's lap, mouth-to-mouth feeding him drinks. She sent me photos. Even then, I thought maybe Sage had her reasons. Now? Juh, I didn't want to gossip behind anyone's back. So I just sighed softly and said: 'Kai, being with you is just exhausting. Let's break up." After a long silence with no response, I turned to look at him. His eyes were glued to his phone screen, constantly refreshing. Finally his buddy texted back: [Sage made it home safe] Only then did his tense shoulders relax, and he looked up at me in confusion. "What did you just say?" In that moment, I felt absolutely ridiculous. Tears started streaming down my face. Kai looked shocked and frantically tried to wipe my tears, pulling me into his arms. I promise I'll never hang out with her alone again, okay?" looked at him and said each word clearly: Kai, we're breaking up." told Kai we were breaking up so many times that week, but every time he'd just stubbornly camp out at home, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry. Meanwhile, I was busy dividing up our shared assets, consciously trying not to go soft. fter five years of not smoking, he suddenly started again, spending hours chain-smoking on the balcony, staring into space. it dinner, he'd zone out staring at a plate of stir-fried pork-Sage's favorite dish. ven when he found the nipple covers I'd shoved in his bag, he sat there examining them forever. he light completely died in his eyes, until the day his buddy called asking him to shoot hoops. le went out to the balcony and lowered his voice: Is Sage gonna be there?" fter hearing the answer, he tossed out "I'm going to play ball with the guys." le was about to walk out in his pajamas. ealizing he forgot to change, he ran back, got dressed, and spent forever fixing his hair in the mirror. le looked as giddy as a high schooler with his first crush, until I said sarcastically: Going on a date?" le gave me a quick, dismissive kiss and bolted out the door like he was escaping. hat's when I realized that no matter how hard I tried to be cold, it would still hurt. fter wiping away my tears, I tore up the wedding invitations I'd prepared and called the hotel: "Hi, I need to cancel my wedding reception."