Unwilling to Be Tangled in Love, We Tangle in Hate

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On my wedding night, right as everyone was gathering to crash the bridal suite.

I got a message out of nowhere: my best friend had lost her boyfriend and slit her wrists at home.

I apologized to Max Henson and tore off to her place like a madwoman.

But when I got there, she wasn't hurt at all. She locked me inside the room instead.

My phone suddenly buzzed. Someone had dropped a video in the groomsmen's group chat.

Max's so-called girl buddy, Eileen Swanson, was sitting on his lap, giggling as she planted a hickey on his neck.

"Ever since we were kids, I've been part of every big moment in your life."

"So naturally I get a piece of the wedding night too~"

My friend called through the door.

"We were only looking out for you. We knew you'd get jealous and make a scene, so we sent you off."

"The game everyone planned for tonight is pretty wild. You're too conservative, you can't loosen up, you'd only kill the mood. That's why Eileen stepped in for you."

"If there were really anything between her and Max, it wouldn't be you standing there as the bride, would it? So quit throwing a fit."

And on the screen, Max sat there with his hands tied.

He didn't stop her. He lowered his head instead, all cozy about it.

One by one he undid the buttons on Eileen's blouse, losing himself in the game, having the time of his life.

Just like that, I lost every ounce of interest in crashing anything.

If Max thought it was fine to let his girl buddy take my place on our wedding night.

Then I could let someone else take his place at the marriage office.

...

My eyes landed on the designer jewelry box on the nightstand.

It was a brand Eileen liked to buy.

I spoke to my friend through the door.

"Melinda Donaldson, if you don't let me out, I'm dropping these earrings in the toilet and flushing them."

A second later, the door opened, just as I knew it would.

Melinda stormed in, beside herself.

"Give those back! Eileen gave them to me for getting you out of the way!"

Ha. So that was it.

I looked at her, and all I felt was let down.

"So you sold out your own best friend, for a pair of earrings?"

"When your boss was harassing you, I stood up for you, I got you into a better company. Is this how you repay me?"

Melinda rolled her eyes and yanked the jade bracelet off her wrist, hurling it down at my feet.

"Nadia Sullivan, don't flatter yourself. Eileen already told me the truth. She's the one who put in a word with my boss for me!"

"Eileen said this cheap birthday present of yours is just glass. Not even worth ten bucks. And you have the nerve to call yourself my best friend?"

"The earrings she gave me are worth close to a hundred grand. That's what a real friend does!"

"Besides, those two have known each other way longer than you've known him. It's totally normal for old friends to share each other's big moments. You're the only one making a thing out of it. I did this because I was worried you'd blow up and Max would call off the marriage, and you'd lose yourself a rich husband. What right do you have to blame me?"

I looked at the bracelet shattered in pieces, and it struck me as ridiculous.

Cheap glass not worth ten dollars?

That was something I'd bought at auction. It was worth over a million.

As for that boss at her company, he probably didn't even know who Eileen was.

Melinda was the first real friend I made in this city.

I'd always thought that between friends, there was no need to put a price tag or a name on a gift.

Turns out I'd poured my whole heart out to a dog.

I picked up the earrings and dropped them into the toilet, and while Melinda shrieked and dove after them, I left.

By the time I got back to the bridal suite, the master bedroom was full of cheering.

That video accidentally sent to the group had already been deleted.

But I still walked in on the show.

Max and Eileen were sitting on the wedding bed, playing a game where they had to French kiss for five minutes without coming up for air.

One of them bare-chested, the other down to a camisole, both their necks covered in kiss marks.

A full five minutes passed before they broke apart, a thread of saliva still stretching between their lips.

The moment they saw me push the door open, the air froze.

Eileen shrugged and drawled at Max, dripping with sarcasm.

"Sonny, your little jealousy jar is back. Game's over now. Aren't you going to go smooth her over? Don't make it look like we wronged her or something."

Max pulled me out to the living room and asked, low.

"Nadia, why'd you come back before I even came to get you?"

"A wedding's a big deal. The guys just wanted me to have a good time. They were worried you're too shy to let loose, that they might upset you by accident. That's the only reason Eileen played those games for you. There's nothing to it."

I looked at his face, not a flicker of guilt on it.

"On our wedding night, you send off your own bride, then French kiss another woman and let her leave hickeys on you, and you call that playing a game?"

"Max, do you take me for an idiot?"

Before he could get a word out, Eileen had already changed and come strolling over.

She held out a red silk slip dress to me.

"Here, this is yours. Max and I were playing strip-the-clothes-off just now and he nearly got me down to nothing, and I didn't bring pajamas, so I borrowed this for a bit."

I'd picked that out with such care for tonight.

The romantic tenderness I'd imagined never came. All I felt was sick.

I threw the slip straight into the trash.

Eileen's face darkened.

"Daughter-in-law, what's that supposed to mean?"

My voice came out cutting.

"Max's parents died a long time ago. So which grave did you crawl out of, playing family with me here?"

"My meaning couldn't be clearer. I'm saying you're a filthy little mistress. Get out of my house. Now."

Anger flashed through Eileen's eyes, and then she gave a cold little laugh.

"Max, since your wife doesn't want me here, let's just take the party somewhere else."

"Come with your buddies or stay and babysit a woman, your call. But I'll say this now: pick her, and you and I are done."

She led the rest of them out ahead of her.

Max raked a hand through his hair, irritated.

"Nadia, everyone came in good fun to celebrate, and you had to get jealous and make a scene until nobody could save face?!"

"Eileen and I grew up together, running around bare-assed as kids. To me she's no different from one of the guys. We really are just good buddies, or you wouldn't be the one standing here as the bride tonight."

I was sick of him hiding behind that word every single time. Buddies.

I slapped him across the face.

"Then get out of here with her!"

Max's special ringtone kept going off, like it was hurrying him.

Five years, and Eileen's number was the only one he'd ever set to a special ringtone.

I'd asked him why once. He always brushed it off.

"Come on, I spoiled that girl rotten when she was little. If I miss her call, who knows what kind of fit she'll throw."

And yet I was the one who could never reach him.

Sure enough, Max fired off a few messages first, and only then looked at me.

He worked his jaw, gave a cold smile, and threw out one line.

"Eileen was right. All you do is ruin the mood. No wonder even your own best friend can't stand you."

He grabbed his coat and walked out without looking back.

I couldn't stand to go back into that disgusting master bedroom, so I curled up on the couch and let the bitter tears fall.

Earlier, when I'd believed Melinda had really slit her wrists, I'd rushed out into the rain to find her, forgetting an umbrella.

The chill must have gotten into me. Deep in the night the fever hit hard, until I didn't even have the strength to sit up.

I forced myself to take my temperature. A hundred and three.

And there wasn't any fever medicine in the apartment yet.

I called Max.

More than ten calls, and no one picked up.

So I sent him a message.

Max, I'm burning up and can't get out of bed. Every pharmacy is closed at this hour. Can you come back and take me to the hospital?

Ten minutes later, he finally replied.

Fine.

But I waited a full hour and more before the door opened.

The one who walked in wasn't Max. It was Melinda.

She looked down at me.

"Eileen had too much to drink. Max was worried her stomach would hurt tonight, so he went to her place to look after her, and told me to come check on you first."

"Tsk. Face all flushed, quite the convincing act. You pressed a hot water bottle to your cheeks before I got here, didn't you?"

As she spoke, she picked up the phone that was still on a live call.

"Hey, Max, relax. Nadia's perfectly fine. She's just faking it."

"You know how she is. Always the jealous type. Just take good care of Eileen."

I stared at her, unable to believe it.

Gritting my teeth, I snatched the phone. "Max, she's lying, I'm not"

Max cut me off, impatient.

"Nadia, are you ever going to stop? Eileen guessed it exactly. You really did want to fake being sick to trick me into coming back. Even your own best friend says so, so what are you still arguing about?"

"If you hadn't gotten jealous and embarrassed Eileen and ruined her whole mood, she wouldn't have drunk too much and gotten this sick throwing up."

"If you still want to get the marriage license with me, you're going to have to accept that being with you doesn't mean I'll abandon my buddies. That's it. I have to take care of Eileen. Do some serious thinking about yourself, and dial back the possessiveness from now on."

The call ended without mercy.

Before she left, Melinda didn't miss the chance to sneer at me.

"Nadia, hey, no offense, but a country girl like you landing a blue-chip catch like Max is your good fortune. You're going to be Mrs. Henson either way, so why fight Eileen over who comes out on top?"

"Max cares so much about Eileen. Keep her happy and your married life will go easy. All I did just now was say Eileen was more generous than you and had a better figure, and Max handed me a hundred grand as a reward. That's the smart play. Don't be stupid."

After Melinda left, the fever had me blacking out in waves.

The phone rang out of nowhere. That familiar number.

I pressed answer and asked weakly.

"Are you still overseas?"

"Of course. You've gone and held a wedding with someone else, so am I not even allowed to go clear my head... Nadia, your voice is off. What's wrong?"

Hearing the man's voice tighten in an instant, I tugged at the corner of my mouth.

"The wedding happened. But we haven't gotten the license yet."

The man went silent for a second. "Nadia, are you saying..."

Before the dark swallowed me completely, I said,

"Fly home right now. The spot to get the marriage license with me is yours."

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying in a private room, and there was no one at my bedside.

A nurse came in to change my IV, muttering as she worked.

"Your fever's down. There's a mild lung infection. If your friend overseas hadn't called the ambulance for you last night, you'd be meeting your maker by now."

"That husband of yours is a real piece of work. When our team got there, they couldn't get into the apartment, so they got his number from the building management."

"Finally got through to him and told him to come back. And what does he do? Swears up and down that we're actors you hired. Nothing for it but to force the door open."

"Heard you two just had your wedding yesterday. Who leaves the bride alone in the honeymoon suite? What a joke!"

I said nothing and opened my messages.

Last night, while I was burning up and blacking out, Eileen had posted a video to her feed.

Knowing my stomach's bad, worried I'd be hungry again after throwing up, a certain someone made a whole spread of nourishing food himself.

Now this is what a real buddy looks like. Not something some sick-faking little stray could ever measure up to.

Max hadn't commented. But he'd liked it.

The door pushed open, and Max walked in carrying a takeout box.

For once there was a trace of guilt on his face.

"Nadia, I only heard from the neighbors when I got home this morning. Blame that idiot best friend of yours. She couldn't even tell real illness from fake."

"You haven't eaten, right? I made you a little something. Have some to tide you over."

A few sentences, and he'd cleared himself completely.

I glanced at the food in the box and laughed.

"So in your mind, I'm only fit to eat Eileen's leftovers?"

It was all what was left of the late-night food he'd made her the night before.

Max looked a little caught out, and tried to explain.

"I left in a hurry, didn't have time to make anything new, and no restaurant's open at this hour"

"It's not that you didn't have time. It's that you just didn't care."

"Like the bouquet at the wedding. I'm allergic to baby's breath and you knew it, but Eileen liked it, so you made me take extra allergy pills and toss the bouquet to her instead."

"When we shot the wedding photos, you said she looked like a man and wondered whether anyone would ever marry her, so we should shoot a few sets with her first. You two went from sunrise to sunset while I stood off to the side with my lips blue from the cold, and she laughed at me for looking like a ghost."

I cut him off.

"And now even my wedding night, my marriage bed, she gets to use with you first, and only then does it come around to me."

"But when your company was just getting off the ground, I was the one pulling all-nighters with you. You're allergic to alcohol, so I drank in your place with the clients, drank until my stomach bled. Where was your precious buddy to take my place then?"

"Max, maybe it doesn't turn your stomach, but I can't stand it anymore. Let's break up."

Max froze for a second, then furiously smashed the box of food onto the floor.

"Nadia, this little bit of nothing, and you can't get over it?"

"So I misread you last night, and I didn't get around to fixing you fresh food. But wasn't that your own stupid fault, running out without even grabbing an umbrella? You got sick all on your own!"

"Because of you, the front door got busted down. Eileen picked that one out for me, imported, two hundred grand. You don't know how to earn money, only how to waste it, and I haven't even blamed you for it. And you still have the nerve to bring up breaking up?"

Before I could get a word out, Eileen threw the door open and ran in.

Trailing behind her were the same people who'd crashed the honeymoon suite last night.

She reached out and grabbed at Max's front, giggling.

"Monkey stealing peaches! I heard you howling all the way from the hallway. Who's got no eyes in their head, daring to make my man upset?"

Max grunted and reached to pinch her waist, grinning. "Quit it. She's here trying to break up with me. Getting married is such a headache."

Eileen curled her lip. "Nadia, I know you women love to make drama, but you should at least go take a good look at yourself first and see whether you've got the goods to back it up."

"Max has spent plenty on you these past few years, hasn't he? You eat off him, drink off him. Even this one night in a VIP room isn't cheap."

"The wedding's already done, all that's left is the license. You pick now to make a breakup scene? Aren't you deliberately trying to humiliate him?"

I ignored her and lifted my eyes to Max.

"The room isn't your money. The wedding cost, we each pay half. Everything else, the money and the things, I'll pay you back."

Max sneered. "Pay back? Who do you think you are, Eileen? She's a freelance illustrator, she can support herself. What have you got?"

"Not even a job. Just a freeloader I keep around. You think you can cover a VIP room? Nadia, I'm not an idiot."

The hand I had tucked under the blanket clenched tight.

I never would have guessed that in his mind, I was nothing but a freeloader living off him.

But every transfer he'd sent me, every piece of jewelry, I hadn't touched a cent of it.

All these years, everything I spent came from my own savings.

Eileen looped her arm through his.

"Come on, Max, you promised you'd spend Valentine's Day with me today. No backing out."

Max pinched her nose, doting. "All right, all right, you win. Only a buddy like me could put up with a tomboy like you. I'll spend every Valentine's with you, every year."

Something inside me went tight and heavy.

For the past few years, on every Valentine's Day, Eileen always found some excuse to drag Max away.

He'd promised that this year's Valentine's, he'd come with me to get our marriage license.

Max looked over at me, cold.

"Nadia, behave yourself. My company's about to close its funding round and go public. When that happens my net worth will multiply several times over, and you get to ride along and enjoy it too."

"Since you're on an IV today, we'll push the license to tomorrow. Cool your head while you're at it. Because if you really want to break up, with a background like yours, you'll never find a man better than me."

Maybe it was the couple of bags of fluid, or the fact that I hadn't been to the restroom in so long.

My lower belly cramped, and I caught Max's arm.

"I need to use the restroom, but it's hard with the IV in. Could you just come with me for a second? A few minutes, that's all."

Max was about to agree when Eileen shook his arm loose and gave a cold little snort.

"Max, you know what I hate most? People who don't keep their word."

"We said nine o'clock. If you're going to make your buddy wait around for some woman, then fine, I'll leave the country tomorrow and never come back, so your wife doesn't have to keep treating me like an eyesore and going out of her way to make my life hard."

Max shoved my hand off at once, annoyed.

"Is your other hand just for show? Plenty of people in this hospital are here alone. How come they can go to the bathroom by themselves? Everything's a whole production with you!"

He turned and walked off with his arm around Eileen, not once looking back.

I dropped my eyes, and my nose stung before I could stop it.

Right.

Some patients are here with no one at all, and I actually have a boyfriend, and he'd rather spend Valentine's with a girl he calls his buddy than spare me a few minutes.

That's what makes it worse.

What I didn't see was the look Eileen shot her friend before she left.

Holding the IV pole, I went to the restroom, and only then noticed the hook on the door was set high.

Weak from being sick, nothing in my stomach, no strength in me, I went up on my toes a few times and still couldn't reach it.

I was about to step out and find a nurse when a man pushed his way in.

One of Max's buddies.

He grinned as he hung the bag up for me. "Aw, poor thing. Max and Eileen made a point of sending me back to give you a hand."

Something in me went uneasy.

"Thanks. You can go now."

But the man acted like he hadn't heard.

"Don't be like that. IV's up, but with one hand it can't be easy getting your pants down, right?"

"Look at these little buttons, so artsy, bet they're a pain to undo. How about I help you out of them?"

"Max is off with Eileen anyway, so I'll keep you company, have a little fun. He and I are buddies. His woman's my woman. No need to be shy."

His hands started roaming, and I shoved him out the door with everything I had.

The lock was broken, so all I could do was brace my body against the door.

One bar of battery left. I called Max fast.

Only to find I'd been blocked, and then the phone died completely.

The man laughed on the other side of the door.

"Give it up, sweetheart. Save yourself the trouble."

"Max didn't want you interrupting him and Eileen, so he blocked you on everything just now. Let me help you. Wetting yourself would be so embarrassing, wouldn't it?"

He lost his patience and rammed at the door, hard enough to knock the IV loose. It fell and shattered.

I screamed for help.

Almost the instant the door gave, a nurse rushed in with security.

"What's going on here? Out, now, or we're calling the police!"

The man's face went dark, and he spat at me.

"Quit playing the untouched saint. Max already told all of us buddies what a joke you are in bed."

"Ungrateful little thing. No wonder Max thinks you're a downer. Last night he'd rather go sleep at Eileen's than lay a finger on you. And honestly, breaking you in feels like bad luck to me anyway!"

The nurse helped me up and asked, gently, if I was okay.

I looked at the back of my hand, already swollen and welling with blood, and the tears finally came.

And the last shred of feeling I had left for Max scattered into nothing.

That night, on my way out of the hospital, Max sent a message.

"Eileen's place is close to where we ate, so I'm staying at hers tonight."

"Nine tomorrow morning, meet me outside the courthouse marriage office. A few outlets are coming to interview me about my personal life for a piece on the city's entrepreneurs. Don't be late."

I didn't reply. I walked straight to the Maybach that had been waiting for me.

...

The next morning, Max waited a full hour.

No sign of me.

He watched the confusion spread across the reporters' faces.

Impatient, he pulled out his phone to call me.

And then he saw me walk out through the doors of the marriage office.

He charged over, furious.

"Nadia, didn't I take you off my block list last night?"

"You were already here, so why didn't you tell me? Made me stand around all this time. Do you even still want this license or not?"

The words had barely landed when Ernest Stephens stepped out from behind me and settled an arm around my shoulders.

He looked down at Max from that height, and let out a cold laugh.

"You've got jokes, Mr. Henson. Of course my wife wants a marriage license."

"Just not with you."