“Don’t make this weird—it was just a kiss for content,” Olivia told me, like I was a fan who’d wandered behind the rope and started asking questions.
Not her boyfriend. Not the guy who’d held her hair back when she threw up from anxiety before her first sponsorship. Not the one who paid half the rent while she “built the brand.”
A fan.

Her apartment—our apartment—was glowing with ring lights and softbox lamps. The living room looked like a set: neutral throw pillows, a curated stack of coffee-table books she’d never opened, a neon sign that said be real in cursive pink.

She was live. Still live.

I could hear her voice from the hallway, bright and flirty, performing into her phone. I’d come home early because she’d asked me to “be quiet” for the stream, which usually meant she was doing a Q&A or a try-on haul.

I walked in just as she leaned across the kitchen island and kissed a guy I’d never seen before.

Not a quick cheek peck. Not a joke. A real kiss—two hands on his face, the kind that takes intention.

The guy—Tyler, apparently, because her chat kept spamming his name—smirked into the camera like he belonged in the frame.

My stomach went cold.

Olivia pulled back, laughed, and the chat exploded: screaming emojis, “OMGGG,” “SHIP,” “IS THIS REAL???”

Then she saw me.

Her smile didn’t drop immediately. She just shifted it—like toggling between audience and annoyance. “Babe,” she said into the mic, still smiling for them, “relax. It’s content.”

I didn’t say a word. I stood there, keys still in my hand, watching the way she didn’t even pause the stream. Watching the way she didn’t choose privacy for a conversation that mattered.

She waved one manicured hand at me like she was shooing a stagehand. “Don’t make this weird,” she repeated, more firmly. “It was just a kiss for content.”

Tyler chuckled, leaning back like this was his living room too. “It’s literally her job, dude.”

I stared at him, then at Olivia.

And suddenly I understood something so simple it felt humiliating: I wasn’t her partner. I was a prop—useful when I made her look stable, disposable when I made her look accountable.

Olivia turned back to the camera, sweet again. “Okay guys, sorry—minor interruption,” she chirped. “Where were we? Oh! Storytime!”

The chat kept scrolling. Someone typed: WAIT IS THAT HER BOYFRIEND??
Another: GIRL THAT’S NOT CONTENT THAT’S CHEATING.
Another: HE LOOKS DEAD INSIDE.

I stayed quiet. Quiet like I was learning a new language.

Then I walked past her—not angrily, not dramatically—and went to the bedroom.

I pulled a suitcase from under the bed and started packing.

I didn’t take the TV. I didn’t take the couch. I didn’t take anything that would give her a reason to tell a different story later.

Just my clothes. My laptop. My documents. My guitar. The framed photo of my mom.

In the living room, Olivia laughed too loudly at something in the chat, trying to keep her vibe intact.

But I could hear the shift in the room anyway.

Because the comments weren’t cheering anymore.

They were changing.

And by the time I zipped the suitcase shut, the livestream didn’t sound like a party.

It sounded like a courtroom.

I carried the first suitcase out without looking at the camera.

Olivia’s eyes flicked toward me, then back to the phone. She was still smiling, but it had sharpened into something tense—like a mask tightening around panic.

“Babe,” she said, tone sugary for the audience, “can you not do this right now? We’ll talk after.”

I didn’t answer. Not because I didn’t have words. Because she didn’t deserve the version of me that argued for basic respect.

Tyler shifted uncomfortably, suddenly realizing he’d inserted himself into a relationship, not a skit. He reached for his jacket. “Uh… I’m gonna dip,” he muttered.

Olivia touched his forearm quickly—too quick. “No, stay,” she whispered, but the mic caught it anyway.

Chat went feral.

SHE SAID STAY LOL
GIRL BYE YOU MESSED UP
LET HIM LEAVE. LET THE BF LEAVE TOO.
THIS IS SO GROSS

Olivia’s face twitched. She read the comments, and something in her eyes shifted—calculating how to spin this before it became a clip with captions she couldn’t control.

“Guys,” she laughed, forcing it, “we’re fine. Me and Lucas—” she gestured vaguely toward me without saying my name— “we’re literally fine.”

I set my keys on the counter, right beside the sponsored protein powder she’d lined up for tomorrow’s shoot. It felt symbolic in a way I didn’t care to explain.

Then I went back for the second load.

Olivia finally stood and followed me into the bedroom, phone still in her hand, still broadcasting. She angled it to keep her face in frame, like the audience was a shield.

“Okay, quick intermission,” she chirped, turning to the lens. “We’re gonna take a little break while I handle a… domestic thing.”

She turned back to me, whispering through a smile, teeth clenched. “Are you seriously moving out on live?”

I kept folding shirts, calm. “Yep.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re embarrassing me.”

I paused and met her gaze. “You embarrassed you.”

She scoffed, and the scoff was meant for me—but she tried to play it like she was laughing. “It was for content,” she insisted, voice louder now, like volume could make it true. “People kiss on stream all the time. It’s not a big deal.”

I zipped the bag and stood. “It’s not the kiss,” I said quietly. “It’s you treating me like I’m ridiculous for caring.”

Olivia’s face hardened. Then she flicked her eyes to the phone and changed her tone instantly.

“Guys, stop being mean,” she scolded the chat, performing righteousness. “You don’t know our relationship.”

But the chat had receipts: the kiss, the “stay,” the way she hadn’t ended the stream when she saw me.

END THE LIVE IF YOU RESPECT HIM
WHY ARE YOU FILMING HIM PACK??
GIRL THAT’S ABUSIVE AF
HE’S NOT YOUR CONTENT

That last one hit her. I saw it land.

Her hand trembled slightly as she adjusted the phone. “I’m not filming him,” she snapped, but of course she was. The lens was pointed right at me like I was a storyline.

I walked past her, grabbed my guitar case, and headed for the door.

“Wait,” she said, voice cracking now, dropping the influencer polish for the first time. “Lucas—don’t. Not like this.”

I stopped in the hallway and finally spoke at full volume, clear enough for the mic to catch:

“You said don’t make it weird. I’m not. I’m leaving.”

The chat exploded again.

HE ATE
KING MOVE
SHE’S DONE
BRO RUN

Olivia’s eyes went glossy. “Turn it off,” she begged, but she wasn’t talking to me.

She was talking to the live.

Because for the first time, the audience wasn’t on her side.

By the time I reached the parking lot, the night air felt sharp and clean—like someone had opened a window in my lungs.

Jordan’s old hatchback was already there because my brother is the kind of person who shows up without needing the full story. I’d texted him one sentence: Need help moving. Now. He didn’t ask why. He just replied: On my way.

We loaded the car fast. Suitcases first, then the guitar, then the box with my documents. The whole time, my phone buzzed—notifications from Olivia’s livestream spilling onto my lock screen like fireworks.

She hadn’t ended it.

Of course she hadn’t.

To Olivia, every crisis was a chance to “control the narrative.” The problem was, she’d forgotten one detail: live audiences don’t like being reminded they’re watching real pain.

Clips were already circulating.

Someone had screen-recorded the kiss. Someone had screen-recorded my face when I walked in. Someone had screen-recorded her calling me “a minor interruption.” People were captioning it with words like gaslighting and public humiliation and he’s not your prop.

Olivia’s follower count started dropping in real time—big creators stitching her video, asking calmly why she couldn’t pause the stream to speak to her boyfriend privately.

Jordan shut my trunk and looked at me. “You good?” he asked.

I swallowed hard. “I will be.”

“I’m proud of you,” he said, then corrected himself like he didn’t want to sound cheesy. “I mean… that was the right move.”

I didn’t feel proud. I felt empty in that quiet way you feel after you finally stop holding something up by yourself.

When we pulled away, I glanced up at our balcony—my balcony—light still spilling out onto the street. For a second, I imagined Olivia inside, still talking into the phone, still trying to explain her way out of a choice she’d made with full confidence.

But then my phone buzzed again—not a notification. A call.

Olivia’s name.

I answered because I wanted closure, not because I wanted drama. “Hello.”

Her voice was wrecked. “You ruined me,” she choked. “Do you know what you did?”

I took a breath. “No,” I said calmly. “I refused to help you ruin me.”

Silence.

Then she whispered, smaller. “It was supposed to be a bit.”

“But you didn’t ask me,” I replied. “You didn’t protect me. You didn’t even stop filming.”

She sniffed. “I panicked.”

“I know,” I said. “That’s the problem.”

She went quiet again, and I could hear the livestream in the background, still running, still feeding. I pictured her holding the phone like a lifeline while it strangled her.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said, and I believed she meant it—at least in the way people mean sorry when consequences show up.

But sorry isn’t a time machine. And it’s not respect.

“I hope you learn,” I said softly. “Just… not with me.”

I hung up and turned my phone off.

Later, at Jordan’s place, I lay on the couch staring at the ceiling, waiting for heartbreak to arrive. It came in waves—anger, sadness, embarrassment, relief. But underneath all of it was something steady and unexpectedly peaceful:

I didn’t beg.
I didn’t argue with someone who treated my feelings like a nuisance.
I didn’t stay to be edited into a villain for her next “storytime.”

If you’ve read this far, I’m curious: Would you have confronted her on camera to defend yourself—or did Lucas do the smarter thing by staying quiet and leaving? And where’s your line: is “content flirting” ever okay in a relationship, or is it a hard no?