Chapter 1

1.

Two weeks before the engagement, I found a codebook.

For a long time before that, I'd noticed something odd in the way my boyfriend and my childhood friend talked. Like when my boyfriend would say:

"Going to sort out the storage room tonight, and air out the bedding while I'm at it."

I offered to come along, but the three of them just shook their heads and laughed.

My best friend hooked her arm through mine, smiling. "A guy's storage room is bound to be filthy. A girl shouldn't go poking around in there."

My childhood friend chimed in too. "Everyone handles his own stuff."

But the very next day, I saw the three of them together at a barbecue place.

I told myself I'd read it wrong.

Not long after, my childhood friend posted another message in our group chat:

【Feel like browsing the vintage market. Bring a tote bag.】

My boyfriend and my best friend both replied at the same time.

【7】

【7】

Three days later, my boyfriend and my best friend both said, out of nowhere, that they had business trips.

When they came back, they'd each brought me the same kind of little souvenir from a beach town, right in sync.

I told myself it was a coincidence.

Until today, when I found that codebook under my boyfriend's bed.

Only then did I understand what those phrases meant.

Sort out the storage room meant go out and hang out.

A girl shouldn't go meant don't tell Summer Prescott.

Browse the vintage market and bring a tote bag meant we're going on a trip, meet on time...

They loved that feeling of you're in on it, I'm not, sealing me off from their little world.

If that was how it was, then there was no reason for me to keep holding this relationship together.

......

I opened my phone. Today, my best friend had posted in the group again.

【Going to pick out some fabric today, might dig up a few little things while I'm at it.】

My childhood friend and my boyfriend, again, were the first to reply.

【Go for it】

I opened the notebook and looked up what that line meant.

Translated, it was: I want to go out and have fun, come keep me company, don't bring anyone else.

Fine. Then it would just be them.

The three of them had quietly formed a solid triangle.

I pushed the notebook back under the bed and called my boss overseas instead.

"Are you still short a second-in-command?"

"I've thought it through. Marriage doesn't seem as important as I made it out to be."

On the other end, a young man's voice, not exactly the steady type, was struggling to hold back his excitement.

"Yes, yes, yes, the position's still yours, it's been waiting for you. As long as you're willing to come, I'll bump your benefits up even higher."

"My assistant is getting everything ready right now."

I hung up, sent over my ID information, then went back to my room to pack.

There was a knock at the door. I opened it, and my boyfriend, Cary Gomez, was standing there.

"Summer, something's come up at the company. I can't spend your birthday with you today."

"I'll be back later, and I'll definitely buy you a present."

I didn't try to keep him, and I didn't refuse either.

"Go handle your own stuff. Work matters more, and anyway, there's a birthday every year."

He pulled me into a hug and planted a hard kiss on my cheek.

"My baby is always so understanding."

"Love you to death."

"I'm off."

He was quick and lively, good-looking, full of energy.

And all those things were exactly what I lacked most.

The moment he was gone, my best friend, Lesley Dickerson, and my childhood friend, Josh Whitfield, both texted me too.

【Sorry, Summer, my boss is making me redo the project proposal, so I can't be with you for your birthday tonight.】

【Summer, my grandma's sick, I have to go to the hospital and stay with her.】

Every excuse was one I couldn't argue with.

Before, it would have stung a little. Now, I just didn't care.

【Go do your thing.】

The three of them gathered at my favorite coffee shop.

Each got a black coffee, and together they set off, walking into the movie theater.

They picked the newest release.

That movie, I'd brought it up with them, said I wanted us to go see it together.

But one after another they'd all been busy, putting it off again and again.

Now I could see it clearly. They weren't busy. It was just that a movie for four was too crowded.