Gloria picked up on the first ring. "Hi, honey! I bet you're looking delectable in that dress I chose for you. You were supposed to send me pictures before your date. Don't tell me you forgot."

Tears filled Kenna's eyes, not the ones of laughter that usually greeted Gloria's words but those of a heartbreak too great to put into words.

Kenna didn't look delectable. There would be no pictures and no date.

"Ken? Are you all right?"

Kenna opened her mouth to speak, but all that escaped her was a strangled sob.

"Oh, honey, what happened?" asked Gloria.

Kenna took a shaky breath. She would not cry.

She clenched her free hand into a fist, uncertain whether her anger or her devastation would come pouring out of her first but determined to stop it at all costs.

"He dumped me." Kenna's voice was tight with the emotions she restrained. "Via voice note."

Gloria's most famous claim was that she had seen and heard everything, but the dead silence on her end of the line told a different story. It made Kenna feel alone, even as she looked down at her screen to see that the call was still in progress.

"Glor?" Kenna's voice cracked. "Are you still there?"

"The pathetic, cowardly toad!"

Kenna flinched, holding the phone away from her ear as Gloria's indignance exploded from it.

"Wouldn't I love to step on the little flea! Couldn't he tell you that in person? Couldn't he give you a chance to speak for yourself? Of course he couldn't. Executive Tim makes all the decisions."

A silence hung between them, forcing Kenna into a chokehold.

That was Tim, through and through, making others' decisions for them, but it was the first time Kenna resented him for it. She would've never hurt him like that. It stung more than she could say that he hadn't hesitated in doing that to her.

She should've seen this coming, all the days Tim hadn't had time to come over, all those calls he never returned. She had seen it, but she hadn't been ready to accept it. If she had, would this have been any easier?

Kenna didn't know. She didn't want to know. She didn't even want to think.

"Did he say why?" asked Gloria.

"Just that he met someone else." Kenna's voice quivered.

Hearing those words had felt like a punch to the gut. Saying them was like a million little hands tearing up Kenna's throat.

"Just when I thought he couldn't become any more despicable," said Gloria. "The scrawny rat! You deserve so much better, Ken, and don't you forget it."

The words were meant to be comforting, but they only taunted Kenna with the idea of what she yearned for but kept feeling pass by, just beyond her grasp.

She squeezed her eyes shut against the tears that threatened to fall. "Why do I bother? Why do I keep trying?" Kenna curled in on herself as if she could disappear and make this all disappear with her.

Tim was a prat, but he was just the latest in a line of many such men who had been through Kenna's life. That said more about her than it did about them. She was the common factor, the one with a problem.

She could never make the right choice.

"Oh, Ken, we all go through that." Gloria's voice was soothing and sweet like honey. "Love is not without ups and downs. There is hurt as well as happiness, and they're never in equal parts."

"Where's my happiness? Why have I only felt the hurt?" Kenna's throat constricted, burning with the effort of containing her tears.

"Don't forget, you and Tim had good times too," said Gloria.

That was true.

When Tim took Kenna to his first work party, he'd had a whisper of gossip about each person. It had made each of his bland co-workers seem much more interesting. He and Kenna had cuddled on the settee countless evenings, laughing themselves silly at movies they didn't think they'd even like. But none of that mattered now.

"Even the good times weren't worth anything more than a breakup voice note barely an hour before he was supposed to pick me up! I thought he was the one, but I was wrong." Kenna's voice shook, betraying the mess she was under this composed front she had thrown up.

It didn't go unnoticed by Gloria.

"Let it out, Ken."

At those words, Kenna's façade crashed down. Her lower lip trembled, and the first tears rolled down her cheeks.

Tim was leaving Kenna for someone else. He had said she wasn't good enough for him.

Her lip quivered. She knew without looking into her mirror that her face resembled still-wet paper mâché that had gone wrong.

"I know it hurts." Gloria's gentle voice was like an arm around Kenna's shoulders. "Feel what you must feel. Know it will pass."

In the dark hole where Kenna found herself, it didn't feel like this would pass. It felt like all there was to her existence.

"There are worse endings to love stories," said Gloria.

"Really?" Kenna snapped. "Do tell."

Only after the words had left her lips did she realise how they had come across.

"I didn't mean it like that," said Gloria. "I meant that there's hope for you. Think about the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. They were cursed by the stars. You, my friend, are not."

"Are you sure about that?"

Kenna's luck combined with her terrible taste in men suggested otherwise.

"Of course I'm sure."

"At least Romeo and Juliet knew requited love. They never experienced the agony of being dumped with a lousy message!" Kenna reached for a tissue from the box on her dressing table.

Unlike the star-crossed lovers, she would never bask in the warmth of love, only read about it in the cold pages of a book.

Romeo and Juliet had been the brightest of stars. While they burnt out quicker, at least they'd had their time to shine. The light of their love still glowed centuries after they had been buried. Kenna would just fizzle out, and nobody would look up at the night sky and see that she was gone.

No, Romeo and Juliet didn't know more tragedy than Kenna did. They had been so in love that they were willing to die rather than live without each other. Kenna had given her heart to men who trampled all over it.

A sob broke free of her lips. She was the real loser here. In the suffocating grasp of her emotions, nothing could convince her otherwise.

"Listen, do you want me to come over? I had no plans tonight. Maybe we can watch a movie," said Gloria.

Kenna nearly said yes.

Then she remembered every previous breakup, every other time Gloria had come to her flat with ice cream and a sad smile, every pitying look and too-loud laugh that only made her feel more brittle, and she decided that she'd rather be alone.

"Don't worry about me." Kenna dabbed at her tears before taking a deep breath. "I'll have a date with myself."

"That's my girl!" said Gloria. "We don't need no nimrods like Tim, do we?"

"We don't." Kenna sniffled as her heart gave a very different answer.

Maybe one day Tim would be a distant memory, and Kenna would laugh at the way she was crying over him. For now, his words and actions were wounds in her skin that kept bleeding through the bandages she had wrapped over them.

"Call me if you need anything."

"I will. Thank you, Glor. For always being there. I'm sorry I snapped at you." Kenna choked up again, but for another reason.

Maybe Gloria was right, and Kenna wasn't cursed. If she was, she would've never come across someone like Gloria, a friend who was a halo away from being an angel.

"That's all right, Ken. Now, enjoy yourself." Gloria's voice was alight with forced brightness.

Still, it made Kenna feel better.

After the start to Kenna's night, enjoying herself didn't sound possible, but she may as well give it a try.

"Good night, Glor."

"Good night."

Kenna hung up.

Outside, the night cried with her, its tears pattering in raindrops against the road.

Kenna smoothed her hair and squared her shoulders. Yes, she would be spending this night alone, but it didn't sound so sad anymore.

Gloria's words were still fresh in her mind, something to spark some feeling into her numbness. All she needed was something to take her mind off Tim—maybe a certain Shakespearean tragedy about the clash of fate and free will...

Kenna got to her feet. She knew exactly where to look.