"I think I'm in love with her, Ava." That was how my morning began. Not with breakfast, Not with sunlight, Not with peace.
Just those seven words, spoken casually by the man I had loved for most of my life.
Liam Carter stood by the kitchen counter, phone in hand, smiling at the screen like the world had finally given him something he deserved. He didn't even look at me when he said it. He didn't see how my fingers froze around the mug I was holding, or how my breath caught painfully in my chest.
"In love?" I repeated, my voice steady in a way my heart wasn't.
"Yeah," he said easily. "I didn't expect it, but… it feels right."
Right.
I swallowed and forced myself to nod. "That's good."
He finally looked up then, studying my face the way he always had — familiar, comfortable, careless. "You think so?"
"I do," I lied.
Liam and I had been best friends for eleven years. Eleven years of shared secrets, late-night talks, inside jokes, and promises we never officially made but somehow lived by anyway. Everyone who knew us assumed we were together. When they realised we weren't, they assumed it was only a matter of time.
Everyone except Liam.
"She's different from anyone I've dated," he continued, pushing his phone across the counter toward me. "Claire."
The screen showed a picture of a beautiful woman with soft curls and a confident smile. She looked polished. Put together. Like someone who knew where she was going in life.
"She's lovely," I said, after a second too long.
"She is," he agreed, a little too quickly. "I want you to meet her properly. Dinner this weekend."
My chest tightened. "All three of us?"
"Yeah. You're important to me, Ava. I want her to understand that."
Important.
That word had kept me alive for years.
I nodded again, even though my hands were trembling now. "Of course."
Liam smiled, satisfied, and went back to his phone. Just like that, the conversation was over. For him.
For me, it was the beginning of something breaking.
I met Liam when I was twelve and terrified of everything. New school, New city, New life. He was the boy who offered me half of his sandwich and told me it was okay to be scared because he was scared too.
Somehow, we never stopped choosing each other after that.
I knew when he was lying.
He knew when I was pretending to be okay.
Or at least, I thought he did.
"You've been quiet lately," he said later that afternoon as we walked to his car. "Did I do something?"
"No," I answered immediately. Too quickly. "I'm just tired."
He stopped walking. "You sure?"
I met his eyes then — the same eyes I had memorised, the same face I had loved quietly, carefully, without ever asking for anything in return.
"I'm sure," I said.
He smiled, relieved, and ruffled my hair the way he always did. "Good. I don't know what I'd do without you."
Neither did I. That was the cruelest part.
That night, I lay awake replaying every moment, every laugh, every time he had leaned on me when his relationships failed. Every time I had stayed, hoping maybe one day he would see me differently.
He never did.
And now there was Claire.
I wondered what it would be like to be loved openly. To be chosen without hesitation. To be the person someone smiled at their phone for. I had never been that person.
The next morning, Liam knocked on my door, already dressed, already ready to leave. "I'm running late," he said. "Can you help me fix this tie?"
I nodded and stepped closer, my hands brushing his chest as I adjusted the fabric. It felt the same as it always had. Familiar. Dangerous.
"You'll love Claire," he said suddenly. "She's warm. Easy to talk to."
I smiled up at him, my throat burning. "I'm sure I will."
What I didn't say was that I already hated her a little — not because she had done anything wrong, but because she was living the life I had been quietly dreaming of for years.
When I finished tying the knot, Liam looked at himself in the mirror, pleased. "Perfect."
He hugged me quickly, without thinking. "Thank you, Ava."
I watched him walk away, keys in hand, future unfolding — and for the first time, I wondered what would happen if I stopped being his safe place.
Because loving him like this was slowly destroying me.
And he didn't even know.