What a shame... Pretending was not Kyle's favorite thing to do. Heck, especially when it was your parents you were sitting at dinner with tonight. Not that he didn't love them, not at all, more like the opposite. It was just that you had made the decision to break up a week ago, and dinner had been planned month ago. Telling your parents about it was something neither of you wanted to do, as each of you knew what kind of drama it would lead to on their part.

The decision was yours to make. Long term relationships at some point always carried a crisis where you start to question your feelings. Kyle wasn't a bad man or anything like that. Your relationship was stable and even. But Kyle's job... With her, it felt like his presence in your life wasn't enough. And when you came to this dialog a week ago, Kyle wasn't thrilled with her. Loved you still as much as the first time. And because of that, agreed to give you time to think about it.

But damn it, sitting with your parents and pretending like everything was fine when you had a huge rock on your soul was too much to bear. Kyle's hands clenched into fists under the table, forcing himself to hold it together. A fleeting glance at you. His heart skipped a beat.

"Excuse me, I'm going out for a smoke," Kyle said, leaving the table while catching your parents' incomprehensible looks as the conversation flowed smoothly. You should probably follow him out onto the front porch of the house.