Good Girl's Done Loving

I've always been a goody-two-shoes. The boldest thing I've ever done is falling in love with my older brother's friend, Oliver Anderson.

The day Oliver finds out about my feelings for him, he's left feeling shell-shocked for a long time. But in the end, he still agrees to become my boyfriend.

I thought we loved each other.

But Oliver sends me a video featuring him and another young woman on my birthday. In the video, they did everything a couple can possibly do.

At the end of the video, Oliver glances at the camera casually while smoking.

"Vera, this is my gift for you. Never trust a man this easily."

That's when I feel my confidence getting smashed into smithereens.

That's why when Oliver and that woman show up in front of me, I give up on pursuing him once and for all.

The moment I received the video, I thought it was a present from Oliver Anderson. I played it excitedly, but the content made me see red.

"Oliver Anderson will love Kimberly Yates forever. We'll never be apart. She's the only woman I'll call my wife in this lifetime."

I had no idea how long I sat there, replaying it over and over, almost like I was torturing myself. It was only when my ears got tired of hearing it that I finally had to admit the truth.

The one Oliver truly loved… wasn't me.

In the video, the way he spoiled Kimberly, the way he looked at her—that was the sort of thing I'd never had. He never held my hand when we were out shopping; he never pulled me into his arms and kissed me gently when I got mad.

The time he spent with me felt less like reality and more like some dream he'd woven to last me for a while.

When I saw in the video how Oliver kissed the curve of Kimberly's back with almost religious devotion, I finally broke. I closed the video, as if that could erase everything I'd just seen. Then, I curled up on the couch without making a sound.

I stayed like that in a daze for a long time before my tears finally slid down from the corner of my eyes.

Oliver's friends had told me countless times to let him go. The way they looked at me was like I was their enemy. They said, "If you really love Oliver, you should let him be happy."

Back then, I didn't understand what they meant. I just knew that I needed to do my best to be the perfect girlfriend. Basically, anywhere Oliver was, I would be somewhere nearby.

More times than I could count, he would press his fingers to his temples in helpless frustration and say, "Vera, I'm not going to run away."

I had nodded like I understood, then still ended up calling him all the time to check on him.

In the end, Oliver had given in. He had walked up to