My Imaginary Ex (COMPLETE)

Chapter 8

I wanted to make the relationship work, but it wasn't going to change as long as we worked together.

So I quit and found another job.

Zack did not like this. He had always wanted me to find a better job and boss, but I had the feeling he didn't like my reasons.

It didn't matter anyway, because the way Tim treated me didn't change. Even as I moved up from HR assistant to senior assistant to supervisor, he was still a jerk who thought he was much smarter than me and knew what was good for me.

Last year

The third and final time I broke up with Tim was a few days after our third anniversary.

I think it started quite innocently. One minute he was driving me home, and the next we were in the middle of an old fight.

"Forget I said anything," I mumbled.

"What did he want now?"

"I don't know. He wanted to talk, okay? He does that. We're friends."

"Are you sure you're just friends?" There was a tense tone in his voice that I didn't like. Accusing.

"You've met the guy. Several times."

"That's not what Marco Chan says."

Marco was one of Tim's friends at the pharma company. "What are you talking about?"

"He went to college with you. He told me he was pretty sure that Zack is your ex."

Oh god why won't it go away? And I barely knew Marco. "That's not true."

"Jasmine," Tim said, pulling out that Tone of Condescension from somewhere in his diaphragm. "Why would Marco Chan lie to me about something like that?"

"I don't know!" I yelled back. I knew that this was when I should have come clean and let my boyfriend of three years know the truth, but...it wasn't worth it. I couldn't be bothered. "I'm just sick of having to explain this. He's not my ex. He was never my boyfriend. And if you want to believe this guy and not me, then I don't want to see you anymore."

That was a tough request and I knew it. Because that lie? It could be verified by dozens of people from college. The truth? Only Zack and I—and maybe our closest high school friends—knew this, and Tim was not going to take our word for it.

But I think I wanted to push him that far. I was done with him.

The fight started because I received a text message from Zack. He asked if I wanted a ride to work the next morning.

"Sure," I texted back. I made the mistake of mentioning this to Tim, which unfortunately revived the argument we kept having about Zack and the amount of time he spent with me. Which was almost zero, by the third year of my relationship with Tim, not that he noticed. Between the new job, dates with Tim and everything else, I hadn't seen Zack that much.

Rather than drop me off at home and then leave, Tim decided that he wanted to stick around for a few hours and "reason" with me. I couldn't believe that I ever found this overbearing jerk attractive.

It was like our prior two breakups, which pretty much dissolved after hours of listening to him. But this time I didn't cave. I could feel in my bones that this breakup would stick. I felt relief was about to come.

He finally left the house past midnight, and I spent the early hours of the morning ignoring his calls. I did not look good at six-thirty AM, when Zack dropped by to pick me up.

"What happened?" He probably thought I was sick with something.

Despite the dark circles under my eyes, my fatigue from lack of sleep, and the rumbling in my stomach from skipping breakfast, I smiled. I snapped on the seat belt and said dramatically, "I broke up with Tim. Again."