“But you promised.”

“Yeah, but, you know, things came up. I’ll make it up to you babe, honest.”

He wouldn’t, he never did, and now it was time to break one or two promises of her own.

While he was busy not booking their dinner out for her birthday, she’d handed in notice on her apartment lease. While he was not on their planned weekend away together, she’d landed a job in New Zealand. While he was too tied up with work to come over and watch the Star Wars marathon, she’d packed the place and put the lot into a shipping container. When he had an urgent trip that no one else could do, she’d had a big farewell bash at ‘their’ restaurant.

Now that he couldn’t make Saturday morning coffee at their favourite café, she was leaving the hotel she’d been at for the past two nights and catching a taxi to the airport.

It took him a week to notice, she thought it would be longer.

“Babe, you all set for my work drinks tonight?”

“Sorry, babe, things came up, I’ll make it up to you, honest.”

“But my boss was looking forward to chatting with you, asked specifically, what should I tell him?”

“Tell him you broke a few too many promises and now you’re paying the price.”

“Come on babe, don’t be snarky, this is important. I’ll swing by your place around six and pick you up.”

She snorted, “Good luck with that.”

She hung up before he could ask.

The call came a few hours later, “Babe, what the fuck. There are two dudes in your apartment who reckon you moved out.”

“They’d be right.”

“Not funny. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was going to tell you over dinner on my birthday, but you didn’t book it. Then I was going to tell you on our weekend away but you couldn’t make it. Then I was going to tell you when you were supposed to come over for Star Wars but you had work. Then I was going to tell you over coffee last weekend, but something came up.”

“Yeah, yeah, cute. Now what’s your new address. If it’s not too far away I can still pick you up. If it’s too far, you’ll just have to get a cab.”

“It’s in New Zealand, babe, take a hint.”

She hung up with a grin.

(let’s just ignore the timezone issues)