_She loves me. _

I buy the ring.

_She loves me. _

It’s more than I can afford.

She loves me.

I make her favorite dinner.

She loves me.

The door opens and she walks in with a smile on her face.

_She loves me. _

We eat dinner, her smile still lingering.

_She loves me. _

I walk her out to the beach, but her smile has faded.

_She loves me? _

The sun sets and I get down on one knee; she begins to cry.

She loves me.

“Will you marry me?” She is silent.

_She loves me? _

Tears fall from her pain-stricken face. “I cannot”, she says. “There is another one; I don’t love you anymore.”

_She doesn’t love me. _

“I intended to break up today,” she admits.

She doesn’t love me.

“Who?” I question with agony and wrath.

_She doesn’t love me. _

“Jack,” she confesses. Her coworker.

She doesn’t love me.

I throw the ring into the ocean and walk away from her cries and pain.

I do not love her.