“I made a terrible mistake, Kara. I should have ended things over the phone. I should have driven to her company retreat and told her face-to-face. I wish to hell I did. We’ve only been engaged for two weeks. We don’t even live together.” His eyes are pleading but I don’t care. He can’t justify this. I wrap my arms around my stomach as he goes on.

“I knew from that first night when we almost kissed that I couldn’t marry her. All our calls this week felt forced and awkward and I know she could tell—that’s probably why she’s here right now. I couldn’t tell her I loved her. I said we needed to talk when I got back. I promise everything was called off in my head—all I had to do was tell her in person.”

“Screw your promises! And what? Now you’re ready to ditch perfect, nice Madison who cares about you so much and who can’t wait to marry you? Does she mean that little to you?”

“No, she’s just...” He struggles to find the words until he says, “I have tried to move on from us. I tried but no matter what, I always looked for you, for what we had, in every person I’ve dated since you left, but it doesn’t work. It can’t work because they’re not you. No one will ever be you and you’re the only person who is right for me.”

He tries to move towards me, but I only move back.

“Is that supposed to make everything better? You say something romantic and I pretend this never happened?”

“No. I don’t know.” Ryan shifts around and runs his hands through his hair, pulling at it before facing me again. “I wanted to tell you. I promised Jason I would. I tried to do it a bunch of times but something always went wrong or you’d tell me not to say anything and I’d panic. No matter what, I was going to tell you after the wedding tonight but I never should have let it come to this. I was a coward. I knew that if I told you the truth, you would want me to leave and I didn’t want to leave you. I can’t. I know I’m technically engaged—”

“You’re not technically engaged, Ryan. You ARE engaged! Are you detached from reality?”

“And what about you, Sullivan?” he asks, suddenly stepping closer. “You’re the one who conveniently forgot to mention that you’re leaving the country for half a year.”

“Don’t you dare compare my trip to you being engaged.” I actually consider hitting him.