Not His First Choice Chapter 01
At our eight-year anniversary dinner, I ordered a spicy grilled steak. Ethan Cole’s face dropped instantly.
“Nora, that’s five hundred points off.”
“Did you forget Lily’s severely allergic to chili? She could go into anaphylactic shock.”
I didn’t say a word.
Because between us, there was a points app.
Ten points for bringing him lunch. Twenty for not being clingy. Fifty for not making a scene when I was sick.
A thousand points, and he’d take me on a trip. Three thousand, and he’d break one bad habit.
Ten thousand points, and he’d marry me.
I’d been saving for eight years. Tonight, I’d planned to tell him I’d finally hit the number.
But five hundred points gone, and my balance dropped from “10,000” back to “9,500.”
The points he’d docked for another woman—God, this wasn’t the first time in eight years.
Three hundred off for standing up too slow. Two hundred for being late with a glass of water.
She’d mentioned the AC was too cold once, and before I could even move to adjust it, four hundred points were gone.
Even tonight, our eight-year anniversary, Ethan had threatened to dock points if I didn’t agree to let Lily come along.
Ethan wrapped an arm around Lily Cole’s shoulder, murmuring softly, “Don’t pout. I’ll get you that new bag after this.”
He shoved the menu at me. “Read carefully. I don’t want tears later when I deduct more points.”
I closed the menu. “I’m not eating.”
I stood up. Ethan frowned. “Nora, what’s your problem now?”
I smiled. “Nothing. I just don’t feel like saving anymore.”
……
Lily tugged on Ethan’s sleeve. “Ethan, don’t take off so many. Nora’s been saving for eight years.”
“She didn’t do it on purpose. She just forgot about my allergy.”
Ethan caught her wrist. “You know how bad your allergies are. Why didn’t she ask before ordering?”
He turned to me, voice going cold. “Rules are rules. If she ends up in the hospital, you paying the bill?”
I stared at the plate of spicy grilled steak on the table.
His favorite.
Every time I came here, I ordered it ahead of time, so it’d be waiting the moment he sat down.
“You don’t know why I ordered it?”
Ethan blinked, then let out a scoff. “Lily’s here today. Even if I like it, you shouldn’t have ordered it.”
Ridiculous.
He loved spicy food. He could give it up for Lily, but he’d forgotten every single time my stomach cramped from eating spicy, he hadn’t even handed me a glass of water.
He could switch a dinner reservation from Italian to French because Lily said one word.
But in eight years, I’d asked ten times to see the ocean, and he’d always said he was too busy.
Eight years together, and the one he’d bent over backward for was never me.
I sniffed hard. “Ethan, I hit ten thousand points.”
The table went dead silent for five full seconds.
Ethan’s brow knit tight. “You making up numbers to jerk me around?”
“You made the rules,” I said.
“Ten thousand points, and you marry me.”
“I was going to tell you tonight. After this dinner, we were going to get married.”
“But you took off five hundred.”
He lowered his head, scrolling his phone like he’d just heard something mildly amusing. “So what?”
“Just keep saving. You’ve still got nine thousand five hundred.”
I looked him in the eye. “But I don’t want to save anymore.”
Ethan went quiet for three seconds, then curled his lip. “Nora, what are you performing? Playing the victim doesn’t work on me.”
“When you were down to three thousand points, you didn’t pull this act.”
I bit down hard, forcing the tears back.
“Then what about Lily? Why is it that when she wants to eat at some restaurant that’s impossible to book, you’re on the phone pulling strings a second later?”
“Why is it when she says she’s cold at midnight, you drive halfway across the city to bring her a blanket?”
“Why is it when she wants to watch the sunrise, you’re up at five to hike to the top with her?”
“But for me? I have to save a thousand points, three thousand, ten thousand—just for one of those?”
I threw the questions at him one after another.
Ethan’s expression went from careless to hard.
“Enough. What does this have to do with her?”
“We grew up together. We’re best friends. It’s normal to be close.”
“Which childhood best friend leans on someone else’s boyfriend, wears his jacket, wears a ring he bought her?”
Right on cue, Lily stood up, eyes red. “Ethan, Nora—I overstepped. I’ll go—”
Ethan grabbed her arm. “Sit down.”
Rain sheeted down outside the glass door. He softened his voice. “It’s pouring. Where are you going to go?”
I looked at them for two seconds, then picked up my bag.
“Nora!”
He called my name, then let out a cold laugh. “Fine. If you’ve actually got a backbone, walk out and don’t come back. Don’t be like last time, crawling back to apologize in less than two days.”