Slightly used ring, 14 kt gold with a rather small, fake diamond with more sparkle than a real one.  Yes, that’s right, it’s little AND fake.  A few weeks ago, he insisted one of the things he left at my house was his diamond ring.  He either meant the puppy I got for him as his engagement ring (because he thought it wasn’t fair for him to not have one), or he meant the ring he gave me.  Neither of them are diamonds, though.  The way I see it, he’s not entitled to either since he’s the one who left the relationship, and he couldn’t even be bothered to break up with me.  He has to give up his ‘ring’ and I get to keep mine.

How do I know the ring is fake?  I looked it up on the internet the day after he proposed.  Why?  To see how much he spent on the ring instead of paying me back the down payment on his car.  I was disappointed, of course, but did I dump him over it?  No.  I grew up being taught to value people over objects, love over money, and the thought over the gift.  I had a flicker of doubt and felt guilty for it, so I put it out of my mind.  That was a bad move in retrospect, but I’ve noticed quite of few of those recently.

Flash forward to today and I’m single almost a year with a ring for sale.  The person I loved was a fake, his love for me was pretend, and the ring, little AND fake, was something to string me along.  I’ll be spending time with my family tonight, and MY dog, and my other dog (that he didn’t want or care about), and I’ll be in much better company, enjoying the kind of love he’ll never feel.  Happy Valentine’s day to me!