Perhaps breaking things off would have at least one benefit.

This does little to sway Michael from breaking things off.

But I think he was probably very slick about breaking things off.

Because he broke things off with her, she plans to find another way to cause more damage.

None of them ever understood why he soon thereafter broke things off or, more often, just faded away.

"But it is your intention to break things off with him before they get too serious, isn't it?"

Or of the fact that he'd been getting ready to break things off with her.

At least once, she has been on the verge of breaking things off.

He'd been right to break things off, though she had cried for days at the time.