Chapter 1

A friend asked me to be her bridesmaid.

When I stepped out of the changing room in a white gown, Denys Fox, who had come to pick me up, visibly froze for a second.

My friend took the chance to push me into his arms, teasing.

She asked whether Denys and I should just hold our wedding next month, together with hers.

It was only a joke, but Denys's expression shifted again and again.

He stepped back, quietly, careful about it.

Only after he'd put some distance between us did he say, No rush.

My friend wanted to press him further, but I stopped her.

This gown was never meant for his eyes anyway.

1

"Wasn't he supposed to take you home? Why did he leave first?"

Sasha always spoke her mind.

Even while she turned to haggle with the shop clerk,

she kept griping about what exactly was wrong with Denys, how he always went vague and evasive the moment marriage came up.

I watched Denys, the man who was supposed to be driving me home,

hurry off after a single phone call.

For so long I'd been lying to myself.

Only now did I see how obvious his indifference had been all along.

"Lucia Harding! Are you even listening?"

"In my experience, if a guy won't consider marriage after three years of dating, you basically should be done with him."

"You've been with Denys nine years, right? If it's not working, cut it off fast. Don't waste your youth and your time."

Seeing that I said nothing,

that I only stared silently as Denys's car drove off into the distance,

Sasha finally caught herself, thought she'd said the wrong thing, and apologized to me over and over.

I came back to myself and said, with a smile, that it was fine.

Sasha's husband had been standing beside her the whole time.

He watched her chat with me, doting, crouching down now and then to fix the hem of her dress.

The two of them bickered and laughed over which gown looked better.

This was Sasha's third wedding.

The first was in her hometown, the second in her husband's hometown.

This third one was the reception for friends and coworkers.

So it turned out that when you love someone, if she wants it, you'll even hold the wedding this many times.

"I know."

"When we were kids, we promised each other, if we ever could, we'd hold our weddings together."

"Next month, when you get married, we'll do it together."

Sasha thought I was joking.

But after she saw me casually pick out a gown of my own, she asked, half believing me.

"You're planning to drag Denys straight to the altar that day? You think that'll work?"

I smiled and didn't answer her.

Next month's wedding, I was getting married.

Just not to Denys.

2

【Something came up at the firm. I can't make it back. Grab a cab yourself.】

Half an hour later, Denys's message arrived on my phone, right on schedule.

【Okay.】

【Dinner together tonight?】

The other side showed typing for a long while, then stopped.

Denys still begged off dinner with work.

But today was my birthday.

We'd agreed on it a week ago.

Dinner at that restaurant everyone online was raving about.

Then the movie I'd wanted to see for so long.

Our chat log even stopped on the reservation details for the restaurant.

I don't know if he forgot, or if he just thought it didn't matter at all.

I can't even remember when it started.

More and more things kept piling up between Denys and me.

Meeting clients, sorting through documents, entertaining contacts.

Denys always had a reason to reasonably back out of whatever we'd planned.

Eating together, watching a movie, walking through the grocery store, seeing a doctor when one of us was sick.

To Denys, none of that ever mattered.

All that busywork for his career.

I went from understanding it, to less and less understanding after all the times he wasn't there.

And after countless arguments,

in the end I could only force myself to get used to all of it.

I'd meant to just take a cab home.

But after seeing the confirmation message from the restaurant, I changed my mind on the spot.

At the restaurant door, it was so crowded that even with a reservation I waited half an hour.

When my number finally came up, the server suddenly grew awkward.