Chapter 1

On Thanksgiving, I cooked a feast with David Linton's favourites. But he didn't show up again. I paused for a moment and then checked the Instagram account of his first love, Selene Whitmore. By then, I did it almost without thinking. "I'd like to praise somebody. He ditched his girlfriend and came to me just because I said my light went out. I hope he maintains this habit of putting his friend before his girlfriend," Selene wrote. The caption was accompanied by a photo of David standing on a stool, looking up as he changed a lightbulb. Selene supported his legs with both hands, her face casually brushing against his private parts. He didn't move to dodge her. In fact, there was even a faint smile on the corner of his lips. The image was an eyesore, but I didn't have a meltdown. Instead, I calmly liked the post and asked David for a breakup. David, however, didn't believe it at all. "She's just throwing a tantrum. I'll just ignore her for a few days. I can easily cheer her up with a beckon of a finger after that," he said. But little did he know, it had only been for him to cheer me up in the past because I had loved him. From that moment on, there was no way he could ever coax me again. … I didn't receive a reply from my boyfriend, David Linton, after I sent the breakup text. Yet his first love, Selene Whitmore, sent me a video of him and his friends laughing in a lively private room. "Darina Stretford has been simping over you for seven years, yet she had the guts to ask for a breakup. She can't be serious, can she?" asked one of his friends. David was cutting a mango cake as he replied casually, "She's just throwing a tantrum, trying to make me go back to be with her. I was going to return after I changed the lightbulb. But the more she acts like this, the more I won't let her have her way. I'll just ignore her for a few days." He brought the cake slice to Selene's mouth and said, "This is the new flavor from Candy Cove. Try and see if you like it." His friends wore playful expressions as they teased him. "Darina is just a stand-in anyway. You might as well just break up with her." "The real deal is back now too. Haven't you guys considered getting together?" "That's right, Selene. You're the only person David has held in his heart all these years." David said nothing. He just looked at Selene with a burning gaze. "What are you guys talking about? David and I are just good friends, and the purest of all friends at that," said Selene, looking shocked. Pretending to be annoyed, she smacked David and said, "Hurry up and cheer your girlfriend up. Otherwise, I'll never be able to clear my name." David's gaze turned a little gloomy. His tone was hard to read as he said, "Don't worry. I can coax her with a beckon of my finger." I watched the video in a daze. I had already made up my mind to move on, yet my heart still broke. After all, he was the man I had fallen in love with at first sight when I was younger, the one I had loved for seven whole years. I had been the one to confess my feelings to him on Thanksgiving when I was a freshman. I knew he was the aloof college heartthrob who icily turned down countless women's confessions. I only confessed so I wouldn't have any regrets. But he looked at my face for a long time under the moonlight. Then, suddenly, he stroked my hair and said, "Silly, I should be the one confessing. Would you be my girlfriend?" I thought I would cherish that pulsing and beautiful moment forever. That was until the day he kissed me and mumbled "Selene" in the heat of the moment. I froze completely. That was the first time we gave each other the silent treatment. Three days later, he brought me a small piece of cake to cheer me up, saying, "That's just a girl I once had a crush on. It's nothing more than that." Seeing the dark circles under his eyes, I gave in and made up with him. At that time, I confidently thought Selene wouldn't come between us. She was just his first love, the one that got away. She was just a part of his past—a story that never even began. And I was his girlfriend, his present and future. I was head over heels for him all four years in college. After I graduated, I followed him to an unfamiliar city, even when that meant cutting ties with my family. He was very good to me. He would buy me a cake from Candy Cove, the popular dessert shop, as soon as they launched something new. He would blow-dry my hair for me gently and patiently. He would rub my belly for me all night when I was on my period. There was no sweet-talking, but our days together were simple and heartwarming. I used to think we would get married and spend the rest of our lives together. But everything changed when Selene returned to the country half a year ago. "You've really found a girlfriend who looks just like me, huh?" she said calmly. After that, the truth just kept eating away at me, little by little. It turned out that David had only confessed his feelings to me to make up for the regret he had felt after Selene turned him down. The cake that he had bought me without fail was from her favorite shop. Those thoughtful things he had done for me were what she had expected from her future boyfriend. He was just using me as a stand-in to soothe his loneliness. He was using me as a practice dummy to become Selene's ideal man. I thought of the promise he once made to me. "Dari, let's get married in our seventh year together. You've left your hometown for me. I'll spend every Thanksgiving with you in the future," he said. This was our seventh Thanksgiving together. But he had clearly forgotten about it. It was a good thing that he had forgotten. After all, I was going to return home to get married.