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Chloe finally thinks that she\u2019s gotten a relationship right. She feels loved and happy with Jack. Until one day, she finds a note and a personal keepsake on Jack\u2019s fridge \u2014 everything relating to her ex-boyfriend. What is going on, and how does Mike fit into the equation? Walking into Jack\u2019s kitchen, I was floating on cloud nine, completely smitten. I was all ready to cook us a good meal for our dinner date at home. But as my gaze landed on his fridge, my heart stuttered to a halt, There, right in the middle, was a magnet that I had seen before. It was the same magnet from my trip to the Caribbean with Mike, my ex-boyfriend. I stepped closer to examine it \u2014 it was a souvenir, after all, and there were probably thousands of them on fridges. But there, at the top, was a chip I knew it, I thought to myself. It\u2019s the same one. I remembered the chip because it was my fault \u2014 I had dropped the magnet as the vendor gave it to me, and I didn\u2019t have the heart to switch it for a new one. But now, here it was, staring back at me .And then, the note beneath the magnet, scrawled in Mike\u2019s handwriting, a private endearment that used to be ours. Love You, Bun!It was a portal to my past. I had met Mike when I was in university. He was a popular jock, playing football while he worked through a degree in business management.<\/p>\n
I was studying law, and we met by accident, as I stumbled into the wrong lecture theatre in my first year. Through the years, I assumed that we were growing closer and that Mike and I were working toward a long-term, sustainable future. I couldn\u2019t have been further from the truth. Although, I probably should have known better because Mike had never taken me home to meet his family. I had never met them. Mike came from a wealthy family \u2014 to the point that he didn\u2019t even need to study because his future was secure. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t have a choice,\u201d he said, one day when we went for churros. \u201cMy father demanded that I get a degree so that I can uphold the family name properly.\u201d Justr after graduation, Mike broke up with me.\u201dLook, Chloe,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve been great. And we had a good thing as students, but now, I\u2019m ready for something more. I\u2019m running one of my father\u2019s businesses successfully, and I need someone on my level.\u201d I felt a deep betrayal because, throughout our years at university, I was the one who held Mike together when his depression crippled him. It was also when he had lashed out at his friends, leaving me as the only person at his side. Despite that, I continued with my life, going to grad school and focusing on myself. Two years later, I met Jack \u2014 a man whom I had met at a walkathon when raising funds for animal welfare. Jack was everything that Mike was not. Kind, compassionate, and caring to his core. Which is how, years later, I was in his kitchen \u2014 ready to cook when I stumbled upon the blast from the past. Jack\u2019s face turned white when he saw me looking at the fridge. \u201cChloe, we need to talk,\u201d he said, his voice strained. Jack steered me to the living room and sat down. \u201cMike is my stepbrother,\u201d Jack began, his confession unraveling a tapestry of family drama and personal vendettas. He painted a picture of Mike as entitled and spoiled, a tormentor in their shared childhood. \u201cDo you know he almost stopped our parents\u2019 wedding?\u201d Jack mused. \u201cHe said that his father was too well-established to be marrying my mother, who was a nurse at the time.\u201d Yet, despite Mike\u2019s flaws, Jack had allowed him to move in, a decision that puzzled me. \u201cIt\u2019s only been a few nights, Chloe,\u201d he said. \u201cI was trying to figure out how to make it work. You have to understand, I\u2019ve always been in Mike\u2019s shadow. When he moved back with the family after university, he brought stories of his successful business and the girl he\u2019d let go.\u201d \u201cSo you knew about me?\u201d I gasped. \u201cYes, and no. Mike didn\u2019t share personal things with me; he spoke about you, sure. But I didn\u2019t get to see any photos \u2014 you know he didn\u2019t post you.\u201d That\u2019s fair, I thought. Mike didn\u2019t post about me. It was always about his friends. \u201cAnd then when I met you, it became evident that you were the same person. I should have told you a long time ago, but we\u2019ve had such a good thing going,\u201d Jack said. His words were like icy water, chilling me to the bone. Was I part of Jack trying to get back at his brother? \u201cSo, why now? Why are you telling me now?\u201d I asked. \u201cAnd why is that magnet on the fridge?\u201d Jack sighed deeply. \u201cWe had a family dinner last night, and I asked my mother for our grandmother\u2019s ring. It was always going to be mine to give to my partner. I\u2019m that serious about you, Chloe,\u201d he said slowly. \u201cWhat?\u201d I exclaimed. I didn\u2019t think that we were there yet. \u201cIt\u2019s a thought I\u2019ve had for some time,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I wasn\u2019t going to do it immediately. And anyway, Mike flipped out at the table. He has known that we\u2019ve been together for some time now.\u201d \u201cAnd then?\u201d I asked. \u201cAnd then, he came home with me last night. We had beers and spoke about you, and how I was grateful that I had gotten to meet you.\u201d Jack went on to reveal that Mike was still watching sports on the TV when he went to bed. \u201cI just know that I threw junk food at him and asked him to see himself out,\u201d Jack said. \u201cSo, he wrote the note and put the magnet on the fridge?\u201d I asked, processing the absurdity. On one hand, everything that Jack told me made sense, but on the other, it bewildered me that he had never mentioned that Mike was his brother. And come to think of it, neither had his parents when we met many times before. I went to the kitchen to get myself a yogurt \u2014 throwing the note away in the process. I needed to think. Earlier that day, I felt that everything had fallen into place for me. I was with Jack, and I was happy. But since his truth had come spilling out, I didn\u2019t know how to react. I was doubting everything. In that moment, I felt like I didn\u2019t know anything about Jack. The conversation that followed was a tangled web of justification. Jack admitted to using Mike\u2019s regrets as a tool to get closer to me, believing that he could rewrite the narrative in his favor. As I processed his confession, I realized that I was out of my depth. Here was a man who I thought was the complete opposite of Mike in how he treated me, and for the most part, that was true. But at the end of the day, Jack seemed just as caught up in his own life. For the life of me, I couldn\u2019t understand why he wouldn\u2019t just tell me that Mike was his brother. \u201cHe always does this,\u201d Jack said. \u201cHe comes in and ruins everything.\u201d Jack turned the TV on and began to flick through channels. I don\u2019t know what else to tell you,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this is just how life is when Mike is in it. It\u2019s the Mike show, Chloe. Do you think you could make us something to eat now?\u201d And that was it. Jack\u2019s confession shattered any illusion of trust or love that might have existed for me. I just couldn\u2019t look past it \u2014 there were too many questions without valid answers. I walked into the kitchen, contemplating making Jack something to eat. But then I realized that I just didn\u2019t want to be there any longer. I haven\u2019t spoken to Jack in over a week, but we\u2019re going out for dinner tonight \u2014 to discuss our future. I don\u2019t think that there\u2019s a future between us. Some lies are just too heavy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chloe finally thinks that she\u2019s gotten a relationship right. She feels loved and happy with Jack. Until one day, she finds a note and a personal keepsake… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8830,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8828\/revisions\/8830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourtimenew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}