Choose Your Poison

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My boyfriend was venting about me on his burner account.

[Got her acrylics done again, and now my back is covered in scratch marks.]

[She leaves the bathroom door cracked every single time, turning the whole apartment into a damn sauna.]

A random user in the comments told him to get lost.

He fired back with hundreds of unhinged replies.

[Tell me to break up with her?]

[Who the hell do you think you are?]

[Hoping I drop her so you can slide in?]

[Drop your name right now.]

The very next day, the stranger replied with a single word.

[Jude.]

My boyfriend went dead silent.

Because Jude was the man I never quite got over.

Chapter 1

So hot.

The already sensitive, swollen spot was caught between someone's teeth, ground down with a deliberate, teasing pressure.

I watched him through half-lidded eyes, my fingers instinctively tangling in Ledger's hair.

"What the hell is wrong with you now?"

He used our hundred-day anniversary as an excuse yesterday and wrecked me until the middle of the night.

What was his twisted logic this time?

Ledger poked his head out from under the covers, shirtless.

The tight lines of his muscles screamed pure aggression, yet he deliberately plastered on an innocent expression.

"It's day one hundred and one. Doesn't that deserve a celebration too, Blair?"

Annoyance flared hot in my chest.

I kicked out at him, but a massive hand easily caught my ankle, wrapping completely around the joint.

He pulled this exact same needy routine yesterday, conveniently going deaf every single time I told him to stop.

Right on cue, the shrill, frantic buzzing of the doorbell ripped through the apartment.

I gritted my teeth and slapped him right across the face.

"Get the door. And leave me alone."

Ledger stayed locked in that half-kneeling position.

His head was knocked to the side, the sated, predatory gleam in his eyes instantly shattered by the impact.

He turned his head back toward me, an inch at a time, absolute disbelief written across his features.

To be fair, Ledger usually treated me like absolute royalty.

Ever since we got together, the lunatic who used to party every single night at top-tier clubs now spent all day shirtless in the kitchen, searing steaks just for me.

Was that slap a little too much?

I opened my mouth to say something, but Ledger just shoved his legs into a pair of shorts and walked out the door without a single backward glance.

I was just about to pull myself up when the phone on the nightstand rattled against the wood.

A sleek, case-less black phone.

Ledger's.

Some morbid curiosity took over, and I tapped the screen, only to find a burner account I had never seen before.

It was packed with posts, all complaining about me.

[She leaves the bathroom door cracked every single time, turning the whole apartment into a damn sauna.]

[We use the exact same body wash, so why the hell does she smell so good?]

[I always have to initiate. So annoying.]

[...]

I scrolled further down.

The complaints went all the way back to the day we started dating.

Fine.

So he had been sick of me this entire time.

No wonder he practically tortured me in bed last night.

I locked the screen, tossed it exactly where I found it, and dragged my sore body into a sitting position.

Out in the living room, Ledger dropped a package on the coffee table.

He sprawled on the couch, arms thrown over the backrest, eyes half-closed as he stared at the ceiling.

At the sound of my footsteps, his gaze flicked over, and he blinked a beat too late.

"Why are you up?"

I ignored the question, crossing my arms over my chest and staring down at him.

"Ledger. On your knees. I need to apologize."

Before the words even fully left my mouth, he was already on his knees at my feet.

If the man had a tail, it would be wagging right off his body.

If his bastard brothers from the club ever saw this, they would record it and roast him in their group chat for years.

He forced his way between my legs, shamelessly shuffling forward on his knees, and tilted his head back to look at me.

"What's wrong? Are you still sore? Want me to rub it out for you?"

I swatted his hand away and took a slow, deep breath.

One thing at a time.

I would apologize for the slap, and then I would dump his ass.

"I shouldn't have hit you just now. We're done."

I laid it out perfectly clear, so even Ledger had to understand that.

My legs still felt like jelly, and I tried to stand up, but a pair of massive hands immediately clamped down and shoved me right back onto the cushions.

Ledger's rough fingertips traced slow, burning circles into the hyper-sensitive dips of my lower back.

When he spoke, his voice carried a twisted, almost bashful edge.

"So you think the other cheek needs a slap, too?"

Chapter 2

Crazy.

Just crazy.

I was half-coaxed, half-forced by Ledger into another day of messing around in bed.

By the time I finally woke up, it was already pitch black outside.

Ledger was wearing nothing but a pair of loose sweatpants.

The rich scent of black pepper and seared meat drifted over from the kitchen.

I grabbed my phone and typed the username I remembered into the search baran anagram of my own name.

He had updated a photo post half an hour ago.

[Got her acrylics done again, and now my back is covered in scratch marks.]

The attached picture was his thoroughly wrecked back, courtesy of my nails.

The comments section was already blowing up.

[Flexing again, bro? Don't you ever get tired?]

[If you hate it so much, just dump her. Why suffer?]

[Reply to above: You clearly don't hang around this comment section much. This guy attacks anyone who tells him to break up.]

[You think he's complaining? He's just aggressively showing off his girl.]

But even with all those warnings, someone left a single, blunt word.

[Drop her.]

Wait.

Was this burner account just Ledger's twisted way of showing me off?

I was still skeptical.

Just as I was about to tap into the comments on his older posts, Ledger's new replies popped up.

[Tell me to break up with her?]

[Who the hell do you think you are?]

[Hoping I drop her so you can slide in?]

[Drop your name right now.]

I peeked out of the bedroom.

Ledger was leaning against the kitchen counter, holding a spatula in one hand while his thumb flew across his phone screen with frantic speed.

He glared at the comments section for a few seconds.

Before I could even say a word, he shoved the phone into his pocket, his jaw tightening as his eyes darted away.

"You're up. Have something to eat."

I rested my chin in my hand, watching him.

The last time I looked at that face, I was dead set on dumping him.

Now, things felt entirely different.

But Ledger was distracted.

Every few minutes, he would secretly tap open his comments section to check for a reply.

I pretended not to notice and practically inhaled the food.

I thought that would be the end of it.

But right before bed, a friend request popped up on my screen.

The notification banner contained a single, simple sentence.

[It's Jude.]

Everyone thought Jude and I had a massive thing back in college.

But the truth was, exactly one month after we made it official, his family shipped him overseas.

His cold, hard attitude back then said everything I needed to know.

I deleted his contact info that very day and never spoke a single word to him again.

But now he was suddenly adding me.

"What are you looking at, Blair?"

Ledger materialized behind me without making a sound.

His arms slipped familiarly around my waist, and he nuzzled his face right into the crook of my neck.

It looked like he was just begging for cuddles, but I clearly saw his eyes darting toward my phone screen.

A sudden wave of guilt hit me.

Before he could press his heavy body against mine again, I quickly shrank down under the covers.

"It's late. Go to sleep. I have a college reunion tomorrow."

I didn't sleep well that night.

Ledger got out of bed multiple times, pacing back and forth in the living room while glued to his phone.

My eyelids felt like lead, so I didn't bother calling him out.

Who knows what kind of unhinged rants he was posting about me on his burner account now.

By the time daylight flooded the room, I rolled over.

Ledger was still asleep.

His thick, raven-black eyelashes fluttered restlessly, casting heavy shadows over his pale cheekbones.

Seriously.

Even in his sleep, he couldn't just relax.

I slipped out from under the covers without making a sound.

I was half-asleep, lazily brushing my teeth in the bathroom, when a new message notification hit my screen and practically choked the breath right out of my lungs.

Jude.

Why the hell was Jude messaging me?

[You're going to the reunion today, right?]

Chapter 3

I racked my brain the entire commute.

The only logical explanation was that I accidentally tapped "Accept" when I was fumbling to lock my phone last night.

But it had been years.

Why the hell was he suddenly coming back into my life now?

I was spinning in my office chair, lost in thought, when the intern across the desk handed me an evaluation form.

"Looking gorgeous today, Blair. Got a hot date?"

My pen hovered over the paper.

The words struck a familiar chord.

When I left the apartment this morning, Ledger had practically said the exact same thing, watching me through half-narrowed eyes.

Only his tone had been dripping with a sour jealousy he couldn't quite hide.

I finished signing the form, my strokes noticeably slower, and handed it back.

I cast a skeptical glance down at my own outfit.

Was it possible that, subconsciously knowing I might run into Jude, I had actually

That thought barely flashed through my mind before the frantic buzzing of my phone yanked me back to reality.

A text from Sadie.

My college roommate, and the only person alive who knew the real story between me and Jude.

[Holy shit. Guess who I just saw?]

A muscle ticked in my jaw.

A heavy sense of dread dropped into my stomach.

[Jude!]

[He's back in the States. Word is he's showing up to the reunion tonight. They say he hasn't dated anyone this whole time. You think he's been waiting for you?]

The rest of the workday blurred together.

I was just pulling up to grab Sadie when Ledger called.

"You've got that college reunion tonight, right?"

This had been on the calendar for weeks.

He had begged to tag along back then, and I had shot him down without a second thought.

"Nobody is bringing a plus-one. Why would you even want to go?" I had told him.

Ledger had frozen for a second before he grabbed my leg, pulling himself flush against me like a giant, clingy golden retriever.

"You just said it. I'm your plus-one."

I nodded at Sadie as she slid into the passenger seat, hitting the gas.

"Yeah, it's tonight," I answered the phone.

"Why?"

Dead silence echoed through the speaker.

Then came the sound of his heavy, ragged breathing, spiked with a mix of raw anxiety and genuine grievance.

"That guy Jude. Is he going?" Ledger demanded. "Is that why you're going? To see him?"

I went to this reunion every single year.

If I bailed at the last minute just because Jude was in town, it would practically be screaming to the whole world that I wasn't over him.

"Ledger, stop being a psycho."

I had no idea how the hell he found out about Jude, but I had just spent the last eight hours grinding at the office.

I had zero patience to entertain his paranoid jealousy over something so trivial.

Before he could spiral into another one of his fits, I tapped the screen, cutting the call dead, and tossed the phone into the backseat.

Sadie clicked her tongue, shaking her head in the passenger seat.

"Tsk. Younger guys are literal velcro."

Ledger was five years younger than me.

Before we met, he practically lived at VIP clubs.

Sadie used to constantly warn me to keep my guard up, terrified I was going to fall too hard for a walking red flag.

But looking at us now, the tables had completely turned.

Ledger stopped going to his favorite top-tier clubs entirely.

Instead, he spent all day cooped up in the apartment, studying recipes just for me.

Whenever he was around, he managed to make even the air in the room feel perfectly tailored to my comfort.

"Hey," Sadie nudged my arm.

"You think Jude actually came back for you?"

"I heard he tore his family apart after graduation. Now he's supposedly bringing his entire overseas tech team back to the States to build his own empire."

Chapter 4

I couldn't care less about Jude, but Sadie wouldn't shut up about him the entire drive.

By the time we arrived, I basically had a mental dossier of his last few years overseas.

Jude had always been ice-cold.

He practically walked around with a giant "Do Not Approach" sign plastered to his forehead.

If we hadn't been forced into the same team for a freshman hackathon, I genuinely doubt he would have even learned my name before graduation.

But somehow, this freezing, untouchable guy was the exact same person who waited for me all night in a Christmas Eve blizzard, just to personally fasten a custom diamond necklace around my neck.

Sadie swore I was the only person who truly understood Jude.

She was dead wrong.

I always felt like I never really knew the real him.

The streets were packed with high school grads blowing off steam.

We hit bumper-to-bumper traffic the whole way, and finding a parking spot was an absolute nightmare.

When I pushed open the heavy restaurant doors, bringing a rush of stifling summer heat with me, Jude was the first thing I saw.

He wore a crisp, light blue button-down.

The top button was undone, and the sleeves were loosely rolled to his elbows, revealing the faint, striking blue veins mapping his pale forearms.

"Finally made it! You two were the last holdouts," someone called out, dragging a chair right into the empty space next to Jude.

The group aggressively ushered me into the seat.

Standing back up now would make it glaringly obvious I was avoiding him.

I cleared my throat.

"Yeah, well, my boyfriend was clinging to me, refusing to let me leave, and it was annoying as hell."

Jude's fingers, which had been resting on the table, went rigid, freezing mid-air.

Me having a boyfriend wasn't a secret.

Even before Ledger, I had dated two other guys.

Playing the pure, heartbroken saint wasn't my style.

The cold, empty reality of adulthood always demanded someone to fill the void.

Since Jude was gone, obviously, I found someone else.

The guy who pulled out my chair visibly stiffened, his mouth moving faster than his brain.

"Still dating that college kid from last time?"

Jude lowered his eyes, his sharp Adam's apple bobbing in a slow, tight swallow.

I poured myself a glass of water and answered without missing a beat.

"Nope, dumped that one ages ago."

The clinking of silverware stopped, leaving a dead silence over the table.

I dug through my purse, only to realize I had left my phone in the backseat of the car.

Was Ledger blowing up my line right now?

While my mind was spiraling, a pair of hands moved into my line of sight.

Jude placed a perfectly seared slice of premium Wagyu on my plate.

"The Wagyu here is incredibly tender, eat up, you've lost weight."

Back in college, I was surviving on absolute pennies.

The premium steak at the campus dining hall was a luxury I could barely afford once a month.

During that hackathon prep, Jude would order the most expensive cut on the menu every single time, only to claim he had zero appetite and push the entire plate in front of me.

I parted my lips, just about to speak, when a sudden commotion ripped through the entrance.

Ledger burst into the private room, chest heaving.

He grabbed a chair and slammed it down into the empty space directly behind me, spreading his long legs in a dominant, territorial stance.

Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his rapid, burning breaths ghosted right across the back of my neck.

"Too bad she hates Wagyu now."

Ledger leaned in, his voice thick with raw hostility.

"Just looking at it makes her sick."

Jude slowly retracted his chopsticks.

He took his time grabbing a wet wipe, methodically cleaning his fingers with absolute, chilling composure.

"Is that so? Then maybe someone should rethink their cooking skills."

"Or maybe, apart from just being young, you don't have a single useful skill to satisfy her."

Chapter 5

Jude rarely spoke