My boyfriend said he wanted to PRESS PAUSE on our relationship and go visit his FAMILY IN WASHINGTON. After he left, I reached out to him a few times via text asking him to let me know he arrived safe and to say hi to his mom for me. I received NO RESPONSE. I tried to call and left a message asking if he had broken up with me. NO RESPONSE. 4 weeks of silence in response to my constant calls and texts and I came to the conclusion that he’d ghosted me, and my friends agreed.
After six weeks away he showed up in my apartment yesterday. He said he was back and ready to unpause our relationship and even MARRY ME. I was SHOCKED. But before I could even say anything he looked over my shoulder and yelled “I KNEW YOU’D DO THIS, TRAITOR!”
I turned around and realized he saw HIS OWN BROTHER, Liam, walking out of my kitchen holding two mugs of coffee.
The silence in the room was deafening. My boyfriend, Josh, turned purple. “My own brother? You’re SLEEPING WITH MY BROTHER?!”
“We aren’t sleeping together!” I shouted, stepping between them. “He came over to help me pack. Since, you know, I have to move out because I can’t afford this apartment alone anymore.”
Liam set the coffee down on the table, his face calm but hard. “You disappeared for six weeks, Josh. No calls. No texts. She thought you were dead. I had to be the one to come over here and stop her from filing a missing person’s report.”
“I was TESTING HER!” Josh screamed, pointing a shaking finger at me. “I wanted to see if she was wife material! I wanted to see if she would wait for me through the ‘hard times’ before I proposed! And clearly, she failed! She ran right to you!”
I stared at him, my shock turning into cold fury. “You… you were testing me? You ghosted me for a month and a half as a test?”
“It was a LOYALTY TEST!” Josh insisted, looking at me like I was the crazy one. “If you really loved me, you would have waited in faith. But you’re just a traitor.”
Liam scoffed. “A test? Or were you just seeing if things would work out with your EX, SARAH, in Washington? Because Mom told me you stayed at her place the whole time.”
Josh’s face went pale. The “righteous anger” vanished instantly.
“GET OUT,” I said, my voice shaking but firm.
“Babe, wait, Liam doesn’t know what he’s talking about—”
“I said GET OUT!” I screamed. “The pause isn’t over. It’s a stop. WE ARE DONE.”
Liam grabbed Josh’s arm and escorted him to the door while he sputtered excuses. When the door slammed shut, the quiet returned. I sank onto the sofa, burying my face in my hands.
“I’m sorry,” Liam said gently. “I didn’t want you to find out about Sarah like that.”
“It’s okay,” I whispered, looking up at the boxes stacked against the wall. “At least I passed the test. I found out I’m worth more than that.”
