Chapter 6
Once again, Maverick left me completely speechless.
Married?
Just like that?
I mean, sure-I’d seen plenty of relationship experts online say that dating for too long is a bad idea.
But I wasn’t about to jump from a seven-year marathon straight into a shotgun wedding, right?
From one extreme to another.
That’s kink of crazy.
And what’s crazier-why was Maverick in such a rush to get marrie
I didn’t know his exact situation.
But if my mom approved of him, he had to be decent at minimum.net
Moms don’t set their daughters up with losers.
And his looks, his vibe, his Mercedes-they all screamed success.
A guy like that? He’d be in high demand on the dating market.
I’m not putting myself down.
But he was way too eager.
Something felt off.
“Are you divorced? Do you have kids?”
“Never married. No kids.”
“Then… are you gay? Do you want a fake marriage?” It hit me all at once. I started waving my hands. “No, no, no-I’m not signing up to be a beard!”
Maverick had been calm and composed the whole time. But now? He finally cracked.
He pulled the car into the emergency lane and stopped. Then he turned to face me, jaw clenched.
15:57
‘You’ll Regret Leaving Me!’-Poor Thing, You Still Think You Matter? I Already Married Better!
3.9%
Chapter 6
“I am NOT gay!”
“Why can’t it just be that I fell for you at first sight?”
Love at first sight?
I actually laughed.
I’m way too old for rom-com fantasies.
“Come on. Don’t mess with me.”
“I’m not messing with you! I did fall for you at first sight! Fifteen years ago!”
After he started driving again, Maverick told me a story.
Turns out he’s three years younger than me.
We were actually middle school classmates.
But back then, he was this tiny, scrawny kid who looked like a beansprout.
If he hadn’t said something, I never would’ve connected the dots.
And three years younger but in my grade?
That’s because he was a legit child prodigy.
A math genius.
Won first place in state competitions while still in elementary school.
Skipped a bunch of grades.
But because he was so much younger than everyone else, and because he was always getting praised, the other boys were jealous.
They bullied him constantly.
They’d corner him in the bathroom, pee on his pants so he couldn’t go back to class, and threaten him not to tell the teachers.
He’d just hide in a stall and cry.
I was the tallest girl back then-basically everyone’s big sis.
Chapter 6
I noticed what was happening and started protecting him.
I even pulled him out of the boys’ bathroom a few times and used my jacket to cover his soaked pants.
For a while, I was his “leader.”
He was my “little sidekick.”
He depended on me completely.
Then he got accepted into a university gifted program for exceptional students.
While the rest of us were still in high school, he was already in college.
After that, he went abroad.
Grad school. PhD.
Fifteen years flew by. I’d completely forgotten his name.
After all, compared to the formal-sounding “Maverick Stone,” the
nickname “Beansprout” was way easier to remember.
Last year, he finally came back.
Now he’s a senior VP at a major tech company, pulling in nearly eight figures a year.
His family started pressuring him to settle down.
Set him up on tons of blind dates.
None of them worked out.
“Because I like you.”
“I made up my mind fifteen years ago.”
“That when I grew up, when I became someone worthy-I’d come back and marry you.”
His eyes stayed on the road. But his words wrapped around me like fire.
I felt like my face was burning like fire.
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