Bounded Proposition

PROLOGUE

I stared blankly at the ceiling of my room as tears run down my cheeks.

My heart is constantly clenching in pain as I replay the scene in my mind where Sean, my ex, just stood in place, frozen in front of me when he met his ex, Coreen, face to face again in a party when we went in the Philippines for work.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked when Coreen left and he's still standing there, frozen in place.

"Uh, yeah." He looked at me and smiled a bit, but I can already feel his deep thoughts overflowing. He drove me home after that party. He wasn't really himself after that incident. He still treated me the same way, though I often felt like he was somewhere far away with his thoughts. I felt quite jealous and insecure because of how he reacted to that.

I know to myself that she's beautiful, but I am too! I know I shouldn't feel insecure about my looks, but I just can't help it.

"You know what? I'm so mad at you! Why did you even push him away in the first place? Why did you leave him at the time where he needed you the most?" I shouted at Coreen when I went to talk to her in her office after I broke up with Sean.

"You know nothing." She replied as tears also started to roll down her cheeks.

"I might not know anything about your reasons but I would never leave the person I love when I know that I am the only one he's holding on to." My voice cracked.

"I let go of him." I said.

Her eyes widened after hearing it.

"I know you still love each other. I can see it on your eyes. Just please, don't leave him again." I said painfully and left.

I already saw that this day would come, but why does it hurt so much?

He wasn't mine, in the first place. Both of us knew that. He even told me the uncertainty of him reciprocating what I feel for him. I knew the danger of being with him, but I risked it because I just loved him so much. I thought that if I would be by his side, that I would fill the emptiness he's feeling, he'll eventually love me back.

It never happened, though.

More tears kept falling as I remember the glint of longing and familiarity in their eyes.

It's like, being an intruder in someone else's property. And I have to accept that, but it's damn hard to let go of someone you've been loving with all of yourself.

So, I let go.

I broke up with him yesterday. I couldn't stand the thought of being a stumbling block to their way in getting back together. They were just in denial of their feelings, but their eyes can't lie. I just hope they did, but I just can't deny that fact.

I stood up and went in the kitchen to get a glass of water to drink. I can't cry like this all day.

Oh, please he's not the only man in this world, Reese. I thought to myself.

But he's just the one that I see in the future who I'd spend the rest of my life with. Pfff.

I even introduced him to my parents because I was sure of him, though I knew he wasn't to me.

I heard my phone ring inside my bedroom, so I went to see who it is. It's mom.

I breathed slowly to level my breathing before I answered the phone.

"Hey, Ma." I tried to sound happy.

"Reese, how are you? We miss you so, already." I can sense her smiling on the other side of the phone.