Chapter 1

"One, two, three!"

Sophia’s voice rang out across the Brooklyn rooftop. The bridal bouquet flew through the air.

I stood in the center of the crowd. We’d planned this. The other bridesmaids were supposed to part, letting the flowers fall right into my hands. 

But a shadow lunged in front of me.

Mia Torres. 

She wasn't even supposed to be a bridesmaid. She was my boyfriend's executive assistant, his "Plus One" for the night. But when one of the girls got a sudden stomach bug, Mia had practically sprinted to take her place.

Her fingers swiped aggressively at the white peonies. She missed. The bouquet bounced off her nails and landed squarely against my chest. I caught it reflexively.

The crowd erupted. Seven years. I had dated my boyfriend, Elias Voss, for seven years. From the dirty garage where he coded his first app to the penthouse office of Voss Tech. Everyone here knew what this meant.

"Propose! Kiss her! Put a ring on it, Elias!"

Hands pushed Elias out of the crowd. He stumbled toward me, looking entirely cornered. 

My heart hammered against my ribs. I felt the heat rushing to my cheeks. Seven years of waiting, this was finally it.

Elias stopped in front of me. He looked at the flowers. Then he looked at Mia. She was pouting, her arms crossed tight.

He smiled. Not at me. At her.

Elias reached out. He didn't pull a velvet ring box from his pocket. Instead, his fingers wrapped around the stems of my bouquet. He yanked it right out of my hands.

I froze. 

He turned and shoved the flowers straight into Mia’s chest.

"Mia caught it first, sweetheart," Elias said, his tone perfectly casual. He ruffled my hair like I was a golden retriever. "Let her have the luck. We’ve got plenty of time. Next time, I promise."

The cheering died instantly.

The spotlight drifted away from me, settling on Mia. She hugged the peonies tightly, burying her face in them. When she looked up, her eyes locked onto mine. She smirked. 

I stood there in front of fifty people with empty hands.

At the reception dinner, the nightmare continued.

Mia didn't sit at the designated plus-one table. She squeezed a chair right next to Elias at our main table.

"Oh, it's just so crowded over there, you don't mind, do you Kalinda?" she giggled, already brushing her shoulder against his.

Every five minutes, she found an excuse to touch him. Reaching for the salt, her bare arm dragged across his wrist. Laughing at a joke, her hand rested heavily on his thigh.

Elias didn't pull away. He just kept talking about Voss Tech's upcoming Series C round to the groomsmen, entirely oblivious to the disrespect playing out in front of my face. Or worse, he just didn't care.

Sophia slammed her champagne flute onto the table. 

She wore her wedding dress, but she looked ready to commit murder. She started to stand up, glaring daggers at Mia.

I grabbed her wrist beneath the tablecloth. I squeezed hard.

"Don't," I whispered. "It’s your wedding day, Soph. Don't ruin it over this."

Sophia dropped back into her chair. She leaned in, her voice a furious hiss in my ear.

"Kalinda, are you blind? She’s been throwing herself at him for six months. Half the tech circle is talking about it. They say she’s practically playing house in his office—"

"Stop." 

Sophia bit her lip.

I didn't want to hear it. Not tonight. The humiliation of the bouquet was enough. I kept my spine straight, sipping my ice water, watching Elias laugh as Mia poured him yet another drink.

The ride back to Manhattan was dead silent. 

I stared out the window at the passing city lights. Elias drove with one hand on the steering wheel, completely unbothered, humming to the radio.

"You're awfully quiet," he finally said, breaking the silence.

"You gave my bouquet to your assistant."

Elias sighed loudly, rolling his eyes. "Are we really doing this right now? Kalinda, she's my lead investor's daughter. I can't just embarrass her in the public. It’s called networking. Save some face for her."

"So you humiliated me instead."

"Nobody humiliated you!" He slapped the steering wheel. "You're being overly emotional again. Look, once the Series C funding closes, our wedding will be ten times bigger than Sophia's little Brooklyn party. You can have a hundred bouquets. Just be patient."

Patient. 

"Sophia and I made a pact when we were ten," I said, keeping my voice dead level. "Whoever gets married first, the other has to follow within a month. We promised to wear the dresses we designed together."

Elias let out a short, harsh bark of a laugh.

"You’re kidding, right? A childhood joke? Kalinda, grow up. You can't plan a real wedding in a month. You need a year just to book a decent venue. You're living in a fantasy."

He ignored the crowd chanting for a proposal. He bypassed his own public rejection to lecture me about venue logistics. He was so sure of himself. So incredibly sure that after seven years, I was just a permanent fixture in his life, incapable of walking away.

"It wasn't a joke to me," I said. "And it wasn't just about the flowers, Elias. Everyone was waiting for you to say something."

"Get down on one knee because a bunch of drunk guests yelled at me? I don't perform on command."

"No. You only perform for Mia's father's money."

The car swerved slightly. Elias shot me a furious glare. "Watch it, Kalinda. For our future. I work eighty hours a week so we can have the best life possible, and all you care about is a dead bunch of weeds and a stupid playground promise."

He pulled the car up to the curb in front of my apartment building. He put it in park and unbuckled his seatbelt. 

"Come on, don't go upstairs mad," he murmured.

He leaned across the center console. His hand cupped the back of my neck, pulling me in for a kiss.

I turned my head. 

His lips brushed my cheek. But as he got close, it hit me. 

It wasn't just the smell of his expensive scotch. It was a heavy sweet scent. 

Mia's perfume.

Elias looked genuinely stunned. "What is wrong with you tonight?"

I unbuckled my seatbelt and pushed the car door open. 

"I'm tired, Elias," I said.