She Remembers Everyone's Order, Except Mine

During a game of Truth or Dare at a gathering with friends, my girlfriend, Bridget Ellison, loses. Her punishment is to buy coffee for everyone.

Half an hour later, she returns carrying more than a dozen bags and starts handing out drinks with a smile.

"Francis, you've been pulling all-nighters for two days straight. Here's your iced long black."

"Daryl, you like java chip frappe with extra mocha sauce, right?"

"And here's yours. Lemon black tea, no ice. You've ordered it hundreds of times."

One by one, everyone gets their drink.

By the time she reaches me, only an empty bag remains. Everyone at the table freezes.

"Where's Aiden's drink?"

She pushes her peach frappe toward me and says, "I forgot. He can just share mine."

A friend immediately groans and complains, "It's the same every gathering. If you two want to show off how loving you are, can you at least come up with a new routine?"

Everyone around us laughs and teases us, but I can't bring myself to even take a sip of the drink.

I'm the only one who knows the truth. The display of affection is an act. In reality, she has truly forgotten to buy me a drink.

After four years together, Bridget still can't remember that I'm allergic to peaches.

I set the peach frappe back on the table.

I've spent four years settling for less. Now, it's time for me to leave.

Aiden's POV

Daryl Watkins inserted the straw into his drink, took a couple of sips, and his eyes lit up at once.

"Oh my, you actually remembered! You remembered that I said I liked extra mocha sauce in my java chip frappe! You're the best, Bridget!"

Bridget Ellison casually replied, "When have I ever forgotten anything you said?"

The other people in the room also agreed loudly with her. "Alright, we all know that you remember every single thing about us!"

"Yeah, and since you're dating, I bet you never forget a single birthday or anniversary either!"

Bridget turned to me and grinned widely. I just continued sipping on my bottle of water, keeping my eyes down without responding to her.

"Why aren't you drinking the frappe?" she asked, inserting the straw into the peach frappe and taking a few sips before placing it into my hands.

"Here, I've already tried it. It's not too cold or too sweet. It won't give you a tummy ache."

The few guys sitting across from us began clicking their tongues, looking at us with faux disgusted looks on their faces like they couldn't bear to watch us being lovey-dovey with each other.

I just gripped the peach frappe tighter, staring at the ice floating in the plastic cup.

Daryl leaned over just then and said, "Bridget? I've never tried that drink before. Can I try it?"

"Go ahead."

After her reply, the drink in my hands was suddenly gone. She had taken it straight out of my hands and handed it over to Daryl.

However, he didn't take the drink from her. Instead, he just lowered his head and sipped straight from the straw, taking a few massive gulps until half the cup of contents was gone.

"Oh, damn. I didn't mean to finish everything. My bad, Aiden. I forgot to leave you more. Why don't you take my drink instead?"

He then slid his half-empty java chip frappe toward me. I just shook my head and said, "It's fine."

"Just take it and drink it," he said. "I promise I'm not contagious."

His voice was loud and clear, and he suddenly saluted at me for some reason.

Everyone else in the room exchanged glances and tried not to laugh out loud, but I didn't. A short while after that, everyone else burst out into loud, deafening laughter.

Bridget chuckled and shook her head in a helpless manner while Daryl was doubled over with laughter.

I couldn't remember how many times I'd attended gatherings with Bridget's friends like this. However, I still didn't know what they kept laughing about.

Eventually, the laughter died down. Some of them glanced at me before quickly looking away. Bridget's face turned dark.

"Daryl has already apologized to you. What else do you want from him?"

I stared at her frown, wanting to say that I just didn't get their inside joke. However, she grabbed the java chip frappe and handed it to Daryl, along with the peach frappe.

"He doesn't want them, so they're both yours, Daryl."

She then turned to me with an impatient frown and said, "It's just a damn coffee, Aiden Rosario. Quit making my friends uncomfortable just because of that. It's not like he did it on purpose anyway."

Daryl added quietly, "No, it's okay. It's all my fault anyway." He then took both drinks and slinked back to his seat with his head down.

The atmosphere was tense for a couple of seconds. Then, someone else spoke up and said, "Alright, let's play a game!"

However, Bridget didn't seem interested anymore and just sat to the side while scrolling mindlessly on her phone.

We'd been dating for four years.

Bridget remembered that Daryl liked extra mocha sauce in his java chip frappe. She remembered that her other friends had spent countless sleepless nights.

However, she couldn't remember that I was deathly allergic to peaches.

If I really took a sip of that peach frappe earlier, I would have already passed out from asphyxiation by now. But she would probably just think that it was a separate occasion, or maybe that I had bad luck, or that I was simply sick to begin with.