Chapter 3

The next morning, I slept in until I naturally woke up in the hotel's king-size bed.

No Ethan's snoring, no sound of him smashing his keyboard while cursing at video games first thing in the morning. The feeling was absolutely amazing.

I quickly got up, washed up, and contacted a real estate agent to look at apartments.

At ten in the morning, I found a nicely furnished one-bedroom apartment just a ten-minute walk from my office. Although the rent was a bit steep, now that I didn't have to support that man-child Ethan, my salary was more than enough.

I signed the contract on the spot, paid, and got the keys.

Around noon, my best friend Jessica suddenly sent me several sixty-second voice messages, along with some screenshots.

"I'm so angry! Look at what I sent you!"

"That bastard Ethan? You've already moved out, and he still has the mood to game with that homewrecker?"

"I seriously can't believe this. Do they have any shame at all?"

I opened the screenshots.

The first one was a game stats screenshot.

Ethan and Melissa's duo queue record, from last night at eleven o'clock all the way until four in the morning today.

The second was a screenshot of Melissa's Instagram post from this morning.

The caption read: "Even though my car breaking down on the road was unlucky, having Ethan stay up all night helping me rank up turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He's so amazing!"

Below it was Ethan's comment: "Let's continue tonight."

I actually laughed.

I thought Ethan would at least have lost some sleep last night after making that bet in his chat group while so worked up.

Turns out he turned right around and contentedly helped his good buddy rank up in games.

Jessica was so angry she called me directly. "I want to reach through the internet and slap both of them! Does Ethan even know you two broke up?"

I put her on speakerphone. "Of course he knows. But he thinks I'm playing hard to get. He bet Marcus and the others that I'd definitely come back begging him within three days."

"Disgusting!" Jessica cursed on the other end. "How inflated is his ego? Does he think he's made of diamonds or something? So where are you now? You're not homeless, are you?"

"Don't worry, I've already rented an apartment." I said calmly. "Ethan's trash. Whoever wants to pick him up can have him. I was just blind before."

"Exactly! Good riddance to bad rubbish! The next one will be better!" Jessica sighed with relief. "But what if he never comes looking for you?"

I snorted coldly. "It'd be best if he didn't. I'm just afraid he'll shamelessly try to cling to me later. I've already blocked him everywhere. You don't need to send me anything about his drama anymore."

After hanging up, I looked at my freshly decorated room, my mood soaring.

That evening after work, I ordered myself a super large portion of lobster that I normally wouldn't splurge on.

No need to cook for Ethan, no need to listen to him complain that the food was too salty or too bland, no need to wash his socks for him.

This life of not having to be a free maid in a relationship felt absolutely liberating, every pore in my body celebrating.

Over the next two weeks, I threw all my energy into work.

Not only did I complete my monthly tasks ahead of schedule, but the director publicly praised me at the morning meeting.

Life without a scumbag boyfriend really did make even the air smell sweeter.