Page 40 of The Fake Out Flex

"Thanks for coming today. I know it couldn't have been easy for you."

"Thanks for going with peonies and not chrysanthemums, otherwise it wouldn't have been easy on anyone standing within ten feet of me."

Bryce at least has the decency to look bad. "I'm sorry about the flowers. And the, you know…"

"Humiliating breakup on live TV that went viral and forced me to go into hiding for a month?"

He exhales deeply. "Yeah. That. I honestly never meant to hurt you. It had been building inside me for a while, and I guess it just…came out."

"It's fine."

It isn't.

It was, and will always be, a rotten thing to do to someone.

Note to all the men out there who may need to hear this—breakups should be a private thing, not an on-live-TV thing.

"I'm okay, really. Doing heaps better, and for what it's worth, I am over you."

Now that is unequivocally true.

We had issues in our relationship that I put up with because I was making Bryce 'put up' with something, too.

Looking back on it, I see how wrong it was of me to frame it that way. I was up-front about everything right from the beginning. He knew what he was getting into from the moment we started dating.

"I'm really, truly over you," I repeat, my gaze flicking over his shoulder. "So you can tell that bridesmaid-zilla over there that she can stop death-staring me."

Bryce turns around and gives her a discreet thumbs up to chill her out a bit.

"I know you have a million people to get to, so I won't keep you. I just wanted to say…" A tightness grips my chest. "Thank you."

"Thank you?" Bryce looks understandably shocked. "What are you thanking me for?"

In the aftermath of the story going viral, the press hounded Bryce for more information. Why did he really break up with me? There had to be a juicy story there, right?

"Thank you for never mentioning?—"

"Ah. That."

For once, he catches my drift without me having to spell it out for him.

Because believe me, while being the Breakup Sneeze Girl was bad, being the Virgin Breakup Sneeze Girl would have been a thousand times more mortifying.

To his credit, Bryce turned down every interview invite and kept his mouth shut until the story blew over.

"Evie, I would never…"

"I know. Deep down, you're a decent guy, Bryce. That's why I'm here. That's why I really do wish you and Mercedes all the best."

I feel lighter as I say the words, and it hits me.

This is why I needed to come today.

It wasn't to prove anything to him or anyone else, it was to help me put this whole saga behind me and finally move on.

And I have. I really have.

"Take care. Have a great life, Bryce."

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