𝓤𝓷𝓯𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓼𝓱𝓮𝓭

9

The invitation was waiting in my mailbox this morning. Before I even opened the envelope, I knew exactly what it would say. My best friend from childhood was getting married. As if on cue, my phone rang only minutes later. Lucy. Breathless, excited, asking me if I would be her maid of honor—and, almost as an afterthought, whether I had a date. I said yes with a heavy heart. Because yes meant more than dresses and speeches. It meant the engagement party, the bachelorette night, the wedding day. And it meant seeing him again. Her brother. My ex - Luca. A short while later, I was sitting on the bench in front of the boxing ring, waiting for him to notice me. Sweat-darkened strands of his short brown hair clung to his forehead, casting shadows over his green eyes. The light caught on his bare torso, making his skin gleam as he moved. When the fight ended, he leaned against the ropes, a towel already in his hand. An amused smile flickered across his face as he dried himself off. “Your brother isn’t here,” he said. The invitation lay heavy in my palm. I forced myself to look away before standing and walking toward him. I lifted the envelope into his line of sight. He stepped out of the ring, landing beside me. We had known each other forever. Shared friend groups, shared summers, shared memories that clung like old photographs. Mattheo is my older brother’s best friend. They trained at the same boxing club, and back in school they had come up with a way to earn some extra money—a service. They offered themselves as companions. Fake dates. Listeners. Problem-solvers. Whatever someone needed. All that time, he had been my first crush. Untouchable. Forbidden. And now, years later, I needed that service. The very one Mattheo and Max had abandoned long ago. The one he had sworn he would never use on me. And yet, as he stood there beside me, I realized I was about to ask him to break a promise that had once protected us both.

King

6

Husband