Chapter 3

Ada said, her voice full of envy, "Harper, I'm so jealous of you. You found yourself such a hardworking boyfriend!"

"Ugh, if I were half as lucky, I wouldn't have sworn off marriage."

Nathan finished making the bed, then turned around and grabbed the mop to give the whole side of the room another pass.

He still found a spare moment to fire back at Ada. "With a job like yours, you probably think every man on earth is worthless."

"Like you're not in the exact same field I am!" Ada shot back, all claws.

The two of them went back and forth, trading legal jargon like darts. I just stood there. I'd seen this scene play out too many times to count.

But this time I didn't feel like putting up with it.

"Are you two done?"

That one line killed the noise from both of them.

Ada tugged at the hem of my shirt, treading carefully. "Harper, are you upset? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to leave you out. It's just... our fields are so different, there's nothing for the three of us to talk about together."

Nathan chimed in right on cue. "Exactly. You studied fashion design. How could you possibly understand the law? Talking with you is like comparing apples to oranges."

Once, my dream had been to study law. Law had been my first choice too.

Then, back when I was filling out my college applications, I happened to overhear Nathan say, "Obviously you don't date someone in your own field. The legal profession is grueling as it is. One of us would always be pulling late nights. A relationship like that just can't survive."

So I changed my major.

And Ada, who scraped in at the very bottom of the rankings, snagged the last open spot and landed in the law program instead. Same major as Nathan. Same class.

Since we were in different programs, I rarely got to see Nathan.

Ada, on the other hand, always kept me posted on his whereabouts. What he'd done, who he'd met, everything he'd been up to.

She'd once thrown an arm around my shoulders and thumped her chest in a solemn promise. "Harper, don't you worry. A late-stage chauvinist like Nathan is not my type. I'll keep an eye on him for you, make sure nobody sweeps him off. He belongs to you and only you!"

Nathan had comforted me once too, his voice gentle. "Even if we're not in the same field, we've got the commitment. That means we'll never run out of things to talk about. You can share your day with me, talk about the future, all of it."

To this day, those words still echo in my ears.

And the two people who spoke them forgot them long ago.

Or maybe they never cared about me at all.

I said nothing, went back to my room to pack.

One day left before I left the country, and I planned to move out and stay at a hotel for two nights.

A knock came at the bedroom door. Ada stood in the doorway, hesitating.

"Harper, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to upset you. If it bothers you, I'll go stay at a hotel for the night."

I closed my suitcase, my expression calm. "You stay. It doesn't matter to me if this whole place ends up being yours."

I didn't care anymore. Either way.

Not about the house. Not about Nathan.

I didn't want any of it.

"What kind of nonsense are you spouting now?" Nathan blocked the doorway, his face darkening. "There's a limit to throwing a tantrum. You'd better think hard about what's worth saying and what isn't."

As a lawyer, Nathan held himself to strict standards in everything he said and did. And he held me to the same.

Item sixty-seven on the list of things I couldn't forgive Nathan for: all because Ada had sent me a video of some guy, Nathan got angry and wouldn't come home.

I texted apologies, bought him gifts, ran myself ragged coaxing him for three whole days, and he stayed stone-faced the entire time, snapping at me with that hard set to his jaw.

But one line from Ada, "You look so scary like this, I'm not really used to it," and the very next second Nathan's brow smoothed out, the corners of his mouth lifted, and he was chatting away with her, all warmth.

Then Ada added, "Just forgive Harper already. I'm the one who sent the video. I won't do it again." And just like that, Nathan dropped the whole thing.

The man I couldn't win over with three days of apologies, Ada handled with a single sentence.

I met Nathan's eyes and pulled my lips into a faint curve. "Nathan, let's break up. I'm not getting married."