Chapter 3

During my time off.

To keep myself from overthinking, I packed my schedule full.

But I'd forgotten something.

A university classmate's wedding. Liam and I had already promised to be groomsman and bridesmaid.

There was no choice. I had to brace myself and fly back to Oceanview City a day early, going to my friend's house.

My hand was just raised, ready to knock.

Then I heard Liam's lazy voice from inside: "Chloe's a bit timid, so watch what you say later; don't scare her."

Someone joked, "Are you and Stella really over for good?"

"What happened this time?"

Liam paused, then grunted a muffled "Yeah." "It was exciting at first, but after a while, it was just… whatever."

"She was too controlling. Always trying to tell me what to do."

"No smoking, no drinking, no coming home late—no touching her without a condom, no matter how urgent."

The groom scoffed. "Then just marry her! I think she really liked you. She'd definitely say yes if you proposed."

My hand, poised to push the door open, froze in mid-air.

Immediately after, I heard Liam say, word by word, "I just didn't want to marry her, so I lied about being against marriage."

"Women like her are fine for fun, but for marriage, it has to be someone sweet and sensible like Chloe."

"You guys don't even know, Chloe is incredibly compliant, she barely has a temper…"

The latter half of his sentence stopped abruptly the moment I pushed the door open and our eyes met.

Liam visibly flustered for a moment, but the next second he regained his composure, smiling as he greeted me, "You're here."

Then he stood up, apologizing to everyone in the room, "It's almost time. I need to check in, or my significant other will start worrying."

After he left, the atmosphere in the room became extremely awkward.

Everyone joked and tried to change the subject.

Only Caleb, Liam's quietest friend, suddenly walked over and coldly dropped a line: "I told you two weren't right for each other a long time ago."