"It was," he admitted it aloud for the first time, as there had been nobody to talk to when it had happened. "Years ago. But... we'd been together over four years, and I loved her more than-" More than his job? More than his family? He honestly didn't know anymore, but he'd loved her more than anyone else before or since.
"But she left me. Something similar to what happened with the family. Just before Christmas, too." Which in retrospect had been one of the reasons he'd been so enraged by the arrival of his mother's jumper, and had sent it back unopened. He gave a sad, pathetic excuse for a laugh. "It's funny how clueless I was then. I'd even been looking at rings..."
He gasped as the pain started returning anew, and he fought to push it back down where he could barely feel it, or anything else. "I'm just saying not to be the fool I was, and let slip away the most wonderful thing you have in your life."