Linda's POV

Aaron had cheated on me. I couldn't believe it. I had actually caught him in the act, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time. 

It was Aaron's birthday coming up soon, so I thought planning a surprise birthday party for him was a great idea. Boy, did that turn out to be a regrettable decision.

I distinctly remember that he was complaining a few days ago about how he didn't feel like he was appreciated by the people around him, so this was a good reminder to him about how he was loved by many. 

I had planned everything meticulously down to the last detail, I had invited almost everyone we knew, set up decorations in his apartment, and even bought his favourite cake. I had asked his classmate for his schedule that day too to make sure it didn't clash with anything. 

His class finished at 6 pm, I planned the party for 7 pm, and it was already 7:30. Why wasn't he back in his room yet? He said he didn't have any plans in particular for today, so where was he? 

L: you out getting dinner or something? 

A: nope

Wow, what a detailed response. I texted him one more time asking a more specific question about his whereabouts. 

L: where are you right now? 

No response. I apologised to the party and let them know that Aaron was running late. They all grunt collectively. 

After about another hour or so of waiting for him to enter through the door, I texted him again. 

L: hello, where are you? 

A: in my room.

What?! He obviously wasn't in his room, because all of us are here. Why was he lying?!

Then, the sound of a key jiggling inside a knob was heard from outside the door, I started panicking. 

"Everyone get in your positions!" I belted in the softest tone that I could. I held the cake in my hands ready to surprise him as soon as he opens the door. 

As soon as the door opened, I saw my boyfriend locking lips with an unknown blonde woman. I dropped the cake on the floor. 

The whole crowd gasped in unison. I had never been so humiliated in my entire life. 

"Screw you Aaron! We're over! I never want to see your face again!" 

Those were the last words that I said to him as a girlfriend. I couldn't believe he could ever hurt me like that.  

Aaron spammed my phone with messages, but I knew that I didn't want to reply to them. Since when did he care about me anyway? He obviously didn't care about me enough to not cheat.

I texted the cafe that I was working at and told them that I was not going to make it to my shift on Friday. I also decided to skip the classes that I had on that day too. I needed a full self-care day, so I decided that I was just going to stay at home and wallow in my loss. 

I took out the expensive food I had bought for Aaron's birthday. I'm glad that in my outrage, that I had at least picked up the food from the party with me. I didn't want it to go to waste after all. I took out the bottle.

I poured myself another glass, then another, then another. 

After a whole day of avoiding my problems, I knew what I had to do to get back at Aaron. I had to find a new better boyfriend as soon as possible. I wanted him to know that he was easily replaceable and that I was much better off without him. 

I went on an Aaron social-media purge frenzy. And I saw an advertisement for a popular new dating app called Flipped. 

‘Well trying this couldn't hurt would it?' I thought to myself. 

I called Mia for her advice. 

"It's been a day and you want to move on already?" she asked. 

"Yea-"

"It's about time! Aaron was trash, I want you to be with a better man! And I know just the perfect selfie for your profile picture."

She sent over a sweet, yet slightly sultry picture of me in a silk dress. This was a selfie I took at a dinner with Mia in a fancy restaurant last year. I don't look like I'm too desperate or that I'm also not trying at all. 

"Perfect, thanks, Mia. I'll let you know if anyone likes my selfie," I said. 

"You better! I gotta go, I have to study, talk to you later, okay?" 

With that, she hung up and I continued filling up the details of my account. After I was done, I decided to take a nice deep sleep so that I could rest as much as I could. My hangover was intense, and I had to try to be in my best shape for when I'm starting work soon. 

***

The next day, I woke up and tried to go back to my usual routine. I turned on my phone and my account was already pinging with notifications. The notifications were informing me that there were people who liked my selfie.

In this app, you can match with people who liked your selfie, and if they like yours back, you can start a conversation with them to get to know them better.

I filtered through the people who liked my selfie, and one, in particular, stood out to me the most. His username was oscargoestoyou. I laughed at his username, it was so cute. 

I clicked on his profile. Sadly, there was no face in his profile photo. I could only see a fit male physique and a sharp jawline. I gasped, from what I was seeing, he was hot. Without hesitating, I liked his selfie back. 

5 seconds later, the app pinged again to tell me that I and oscargoestoyou were a perfect match.

I looked through his profile again to look for any other pictures but to no avail. I did however get to see the geographical distance between us. It was 100 kilometres. Okay, not bad I guess? At least he's not in completely different content than me. 

After a couple of hours, I get a message from him.

O: hi there.

As I was just about to reply to his message, I hear the sound of keys turning the front lock of my apartment door. I run to the front door. I could see the figure of a familiar man outside my door through the peephole outside my door.

"You have some balls showing up here Aaron!" 

He enters through the front door. His footsteps were slow, and his head hung low. His eyelids were droopy. He clearly showed signs of distress.

"Look, can we talk, please? I feel so bad for what happened the other day."

"Leave. I've already dumped you."

"What are you talking about? You don't even want to talk about what happened to us?" he said, raising his eyebrow. Oh God, this whole ‘sad boy' persona was just an act to fool me into pitying him. 

"What happened to us is that you cheated on me, God knows for how long, then, I broke up with you and I've found someone better. That is what happened Aaron," I said, standing my ground. He looked bewildered at my response. 

"Look I've already apologised for what I did, I swear I had no idea what I was doing, please take me back Linda," he begged. 

"Take me back? Why would I take you back when I've already found someone better than you?!"

"Wait, wait, you were serious about that?" He commented sarcastically. "You broke up with me for like, a day, and you've already found another guy within a day? You're lying!"

"I'm serious, you'd be surprised how fast dating apps work." 

"I don't believe you for a second, stop lying to me! And I never consented to this break-up!"

"I don't need your consent to break up Aaron? That's not how it works!" 

Before we knew it, we were yelling at each other again, he always had to have things his way, and for a long time, I went along with it. I thought there was nothing wrong with his demanding behaviour because I just wanted to make him happy, but now I didn't have that obligation anymore.

"Get out Aaron!" I yelled while pointing to the door. I was having quite enough of him and I just wanted to resume my conversation with the guy on my Flipped messages. 

Suddenly, his face turned red, and he picked up one of my chairs and threw it at the wall. He started to scream hysterically while kicking my furniture. I widened my eyes and my body shook with fear. This has never happened before. Aaron was never physically violent. 

He threw a ceramic plate right in my direction. I ducked just in time to miss the plate, only for its shards to hit the wall behind me and some of it ricocheted - hitting my shirt.

"Are you crazy?! What on earth are you doing?!" I screamed. He started flinging more plates and the bourbon glasses that were on my living room coffee table towards me. He definitely couldn't be reasoned with anymore. I hid behind my sofa, trying to contain my crying. 

"F*ck you Linda! F*ck you! I didn't even WANT a surprise party, I hate surprises!"

After he was out of ‘ammunition', I ran to the nearest room, which just so happened to be the toilet. I kept an ear to the door just in case I hear footsteps nearby. I quickly take out my phone and hurriedly texted the Flipped guy. 

L: hey, sorry to disturb. my psycho ex is in my house. in a SUPER tight situation right now. yuo mind if I aks u for a favour? u mind sendign me a voice note of yourself?

In all my fear, my hands were shaking as I typed and made a few typos. Within 30 seconds, I get a text back. 

O: What's happening? Are you okay? You should call the police.

I thought about it for a second, if I called the police, sure they'd be able to help me this time, but what if he keeps coming back? What I needed was for him to be convinced that I was already in a new relationship so that he'd give up on me.

L: pls just send a voice note to me. 

O: What do you want me to say?

L: ‘intimate-ish' voice messages would help me. he won't leave otherwise, he'd only stop if he knew that I'm in another relationship. 

Aaron starts knocking on my bathroom door gently. Oscar's online icon then switched to offline. Oh no, he hasn't even read my message yet! I waited anxiously for him to respond. My hands were shaking as I was texting him frantically. The sound of screaming and thuds outside my door was coming closer and closer. 

"Babe, can you come out? I just wanna talk, please? I'm sorry I got angry"

I opened my door defeatedly and walked out. His eyes were red, and his cheeks stained with tears. 

"Look I'm sorry about what I did, but I love you, can you please hear me out?"

"No. Leave. Now."

"it's not fully my fault that I cheated now is it?! You were always so busy studying, and working, you barely ever had time for me. Are you really surprised I was cheating on you for most of our relationship?" 

"What? What the hell are you saying? I didn't FORCE you to cheat! And for MOST of our relationship Aaron?! That's not loving someone if you went behind their back and hurt them REPEATEDLY!"

"I love you Linda, but you weren't enough for me! I had needs!"

I go to the kitchen, grabbed one of my knives and pointed it at him, "don't come near me Aaron! Plus I already told you, I have someone else now! Don't believe me?" 

I opened Flipped and sent a voice note to Oscar. 

"I miss you, darling," I said, loud and clear for Aaron to hear.