Fifty Bowls, One Broken Engagement Chapter 01

Fifty Bowls, One Broken Engagement Chapter 01

The roast beef pasta I’d ordered had barely reached the table when Megan Walsh started picking off the beef, slice by slice. Grinning shamelessly, she said, “Claire, Ethan told me you don’t eat much, so I’ll help you out.”

“How thoughtful!”

Ethan Foster didn’t stop her. Instead, he praised her with open affection.

Yet the week before, I’d accidentally taken a sip of Megan’s yogurt, and he’d flown into a rage. He’d snapped at me for three straight days.

Remembering that, my expression turned cold. I stood to leave.

“You’re making a scene over a few slices of beef?”

Ethan grabbed my wrist. “Megan was trying to help. She didn’t want you wasting food, so you should be thanking her.”

“If that’s not enough, I’ll buy you fifty plates.”

I met his accusing stare.

For the first time, the relationship felt suffocating. I lowered my head and texted an old classmate.

“Didn’t you ask me to start a business with you? I’m in. I’ll invest $75,000.”

“What? Wasn’t that your down payment for your first home?”

“I’m not buying it anymore. And I’m not getting married either.”

…

Ethan frowned when he saw me still looking at my phone. “Who are you texting?”

Before I could answer, Megan jumped in. “Claire, you’re not seriously running to your family over something this small, are you?”

Ethan’s face darkened immediately.

“You’re an adult. Why are you still tattling to your parents?”

“We’re getting married in a month. Why are you pulling this nonsense now?”

It was almost funny.

I’d been with him for six years. There had been days when I lived on crackers and tap water, days when I worked five jobs, and days when I ran a high fever but refused to buy medicine because every dollar mattered.

I had never complained to my parents. I had never told them how hard it was.

And this was what I got in return. The ugliest possible assumption from the man I’d sacrificed everything for.

I tore my wrist from his grip and answered calmly, “I’m talking to a friend.”

“Please. I know you better than that.”

Ethan gave a mocking laugh. “It’s just a few slices of beef. I’ll replace them.”

“Server, bring fifty orders of roast beef pasta. Don’t box them up. She’s eating them here.”

Every head in the restaurant turned.

The server hurried over to confirm, certain she’d misheard him. Ethan simply pulled out his card and paid.

The approval chime sounded.

It pierced my chest like a needle, and my hands curled into fists.

Plate after plate of roast beef pasta was set in front of me.

The stares around us grew sharper with every serving.

After six years together, I had never imagined Ethan would humiliate me in public like this.

“Ethan, I can’t eat all of this.”

Megan spoke again.

She had barely touched the pasta in front of her. Taking my beef had only been another way to provoke me.

“Then don’t eat it.”

Ethan smiled at her indulgently, then turned to me. “Megan and I are heading home. Take your time.”

They left the Italian restaurant pressed close together, growing smaller in the distance. Just like my relationship with Ethan, they disappeared farther and farther away.

I blinked through my blurred vision and gave all fifty plates to the new customers coming in.