Thank You for the Breakup

In the fifth month of the fake breakup Cole had asked me to play along with, I stood outside the private room with a handmade birthday cake and heard his friends making bets about me. "A three-day act turned into five months, and Mara is actually still keeping her cool. She can really endure it." Elise laughed and linked her arm through Cole's. "Don't say that. Mara is just too accommodating." Cole didn't pull away. He just corrected them mildly, "She can't leave me." Amid the roars of laughter around the table, someone asked him when he planned to end this act. He blocked a drink that someone tried to force on Elise and said carelessly, "We'll see when Elise is completely over it. Mara will throw a fit for a couple of days, and I'll just coax her a bit. She'll be fine." So everyone knew I was his girlfriend, and they all knew this fake breakup should have ended a long time ago. They just shared a tacit agreement to watch me back down, watch Elise replace me step by step, and then laugh at me for not being able to bear leaving. I pushed the door open and placed the cake in front of Cole. "You bet wrong." "From now on, there's no need to act anymore."