Bitter & Sweet

16. Alone

Phana's POV

I stared at the ring in my hand, crushing the note that I'd found inside the envelope with it. The words burning through my head, "Dear Pha, Sorry to do this in a note, but I'm not strong enough to face you yet. It's better if we end this now, it will be easier on both of us. I hope you can be happier now, Yo."

What had I done wrong? Pring said he'd seemed fine when he stopped by, he'd only asked where I was and then left. Why would he leave like that? How was I supposed to be happier when he'd taken my heart away with him? I needed to talk to Beam, he always seemed to know what was going on with Yo. I picked up my phone and waited.

"Do you know what time it is?" Beam asked, his voice sounded funny. "Shouldn't you be making out with Yo by now?"

"Yo broke up with me," I said, having a hard time getting the words out. "He left a note. He left the ring I gave him."

"What? Wait," Beam seemed to be speaking to someone else for a minute. "Wait, love, don't. ... Just wait, this is important." Then he was back to me, "Yo broke up with you? In a note? You didn't do anything wrong?"

"I wasn't even here," I answered. "He just dropped off the envelope with a note and my ring inside. Did he say anything to you?"

I could hear another voice in the background, it sounded suspiciously like Forth, "Yo broke up with Pha? Seriously? What happened?"

Beam shushed him and said, "He didn't say anything to me. We had a little party when they finished all the work for the campaign, but he was tired and left early. I figured he was excited to go see you."

I couldn't listen anymore. I hung up, still staring at the ring. Had Yo really decided being apart would be easier for both of us? Didn't he know that I couldn't live without him?

Ming's POV

"Let's grab some lunch, I've got 30 minutes before I have to leave for work," I said, putting my hand on Yo's shoulder. I was covering his shifts for the rest of the week, but I had a bad feeling that Yo would be turning in his resignation soon. He didn't look ready to face Pha again and from what I had seen, Pha wasn't doing well without him either.

"Sure," Yo said. We walked to the canteen, chatting about my weekend with Kit. We didn't make it to the Empire State Building yet, but I wasn't giving up. I was going to get my Kitty there and then I was going to propose. Of course, as my best friend, Yo was all for it. He was even helping me, by planning which restaurant we would go to. He kept saying I would be happy when I understood, but I didn't care about anything except asking Kit to be mine while looking at that big heart on the side of the building, just like in his favorite movie.

"Are you coming back to work next week?" I broached the subject, hoping he would say yes. I knew they could easily find someone to replace Yo as an assistant, but we worked well together and had a good system set up. I didn't really want to have to work with anyone else. Besides, Yo was the first person I had worked with that became a real friend. I knew I wouldn't lose his friendship if he quit, but it would be better if he stayed.

"I think I'll go to work for Forth," Yo answered quietly. "He offered me a job at his firm and my dad didn't even have to get the job for me."

"It doesn't matter if your dad got you the job with Pha or not," I said. Yo tried to make it a joke, but I knew how much he wanted to succeed on his own. "You were doing the work without his help, so you earned it."

"Thanks, Ming," Yo smiled at me, but his smile wasn't quite reaching his eyes.

"Pha's a mess without you," I didn't want to hurt him, but I thought he should know. "Are you going to tell me why you decided to break it off with him? You guys seemed happy together."