I held it carefully while driving back to our apartment, imagining how pleased Dylan would be when he saw the cake and the dinner reservation I had secretly planned weeks earlier at a well known restaurant named Blue Harbor Table.
When I entered the apartment the living room was quiet, which felt strange because Dylan had told me he would meet his gym friend Amber Sinclair for a quick drink before returning home later that evening. His shoes were still beside the door though, and that meant he was inside the apartment somewhere.
I walked down the hallway balancing the cake box in my hands, and then I heard his voice drifting from the bedroom where he was laughing loudly while speaking through FaceTime.
“I am literally changing her name in my phone to Free Food right now,” Dylan said between bursts of laughter.
Amber’s voice exploded through the speaker with delighted amusement as she said, “Stop it, you are not actually doing that.”
“I absolutely am,” Dylan replied while typing something on his phone, then he added cheerfully, “That is all Emily is good for anyway. Free meals, free rides, and a convenient entertainment budget. She is basically a walking ATM with zero personality.”
For a moment my mind refused to process what I had heard because the apartment around me contained our shared routines and quiet habits that had once felt safe. Amber laughed again and said, “But she is taking you to Blue Harbor Table for your birthday dinner next week, and that place costs at least four hundred dollars.”
“Exactly,” Dylan answered with bright enthusiasm. “That is why I am keeping her around until after the dinner, then I am finished with the relationship.”
Amber leaned closer to the camera because her voice sounded clearer and louder as she asked him, “Didn’t you match with that finance guy recently.”
“His name is Caleb Turner,” Dylan replied proudly. “I just need my birthday dinner first, then I can say goodbye to medical girl.”
The phrase medical girl hung in the air like a strange insult because my career was apparently nothing more than a convenient label to him. Amber squealed with excitement and asked Dylan to show the contact name he had saved for me. I heard him tapping his screen again before he announced proudly, “Free Food with a money bag emoji.”