Chapter 4: Confessions, Misunderstandings, and a Kiss

With his messy hair and sharp, cool features, he stepped onstage and triggered a wave of gasps.

As a hopeless face-con, I was done for the second I saw him.

After that, girls lined up to confess. Everyone wanted to pick that one guy, the ultimate catch.

Rejected girls? As common as fish in Lake Michigan.

I knew even if I confessed, I'd end up just another statistic.

So I stuck to a secret crush.

Five years later, when I heard the Grant family was looking for an arranged marriage, I pounced. I begged my dad to try.

Yeah, this marriage was my idea, and I've always been the one making moves.

But for six months, no matter how much I flirted with Julian, he was as unmoved as a stone Buddha.

I'm not after his money. Even though Julian handed me a black card on our wedding day, I never used it.

But even so, he wouldn't even give me his body.

The more I thought about it, the more frustrated I got, so I rolled over and stopped looking at him.

But I tossed and turned, unable to sleep, so I grabbed my phone and started searching online.

The more I read, the colder I felt.

All the posts said that in this situation, there are only two possibilities.

Either Julian's got some old flame he's holding out for—staying chaste, waiting for her to come back.

Or, Julian is impotent.

Yikes. I was betting on the first one.

So I spent the whole night binging romance novels about the poor original wife getting left behind after the old flame came back.

I got so worked up, I actually turned over and slapped Julian in the face.

Groggy, Julian sat up, dazed, and stared at me. Seeing me crying, a flicker of panic crossed his face.

To keep him from disturbing my reading, I tossed his body pillow—and him—out of the room.

If he doesn't want to touch me, he can sleep outside.

Early the next morning, after crying all night, I sent a message to the group chat with puffy eyes.

MiaLovesSteak: [Guys, I'm getting a divorce!]

HotWheels: [What's up? Girl?]

DramaQueen: [Did Julian do something? You've liked him for so long, why so sudden?]

MiaLovesSteak: [He rejected me again.]

MamaBear: [No way? Is he impotent? How can he stand it?]

I thought for a second, then typed:

MiaLovesSteak: [He must have another woman in his heart.]

SnarkyTurtle: [Advise divorce.]

……

MiaLovesSteak: [Tonight, see you at the usual place.]

Then I put my phone aside and crashed for a nap.

When I woke up again, it was already evening.

After throwing on some cat-eye makeup and a red spaghetti strap dress, I let my big waves swing as I headed out.

But out of habit, I still sent Julian a message, just like always.

[I'm going out to eat with five girlfriends tonight, not coming home.]

As soon as I hit send, I powered off my phone.

Julian got the message while he was frowning at his friend's off-key karaoke performance across the table.

Thinking of last night, he asked quietly, "Do you think I was too much? She cried."

Sam Miller was about to answer when he heard a notification.

It was Julian's phone.

"What's up?"

Julian glanced at it, then set his phone down.

Since getting married, whenever Mia goes out, she always floods him with messages. He'd gotten used to it. The girl's habits were good, except she liked to have fun, but she never made him worry.

"Nothing, Mia's out to dinner with her girlfriends."

Sam leaned in, eyebrows raised. "How many?"

"Five."

Sam looked up, shocked. "You broke the sacred rule?"

Julian: "???"

Sam immediately got serious, explaining the gravity of the situation.

Julian shrugged. "It's not that serious."

"No, bro, these are five girlfriends. How dare you let her go to this dinner? She definitely won't love you when she comes back, just wait and see."

Sam liked to have fun, but he knew his limits—this was no joke.

"No way."

When the Carter family came for the marriage, Dad Carter nearly cried. He only has one precious daughter, who'd crushed on him for five years. That's almost all of Mia's youth. How could she stop loving him just because of one dinner with her girlfriends?