Chapter 1: The Birthday Bet

In the fifth month of the fake breakup Cole had asked me to play along with, I stood outside the private room with a handmade birthday cake and heard his friends making bets about me.

"A three-day act turned into five months, and Mara is actually still keeping her cool. She can really endure it."

Elise laughed and linked her arm through Cole's. "Don't say that. Mara is just too accommodating."

Cole didn't pull away. He just corrected them mildly, "She can't leave me."

Amid the roars of laughter around the table, someone asked him when he planned to end this act.

He blocked a drink that someone tried to force on Elise and said carelessly, "We'll see when Elise is completely over it. Mara will throw a fit for a couple of days, and I'll just coax her a bit. She'll be fine."

So everyone knew I was his girlfriend, and they all knew this fake breakup should have ended a long time ago.

They just shared a tacit agreement to watch me back down, watch Elise replace me step by step, and then laugh at me for not being able to bear leaving.

I pushed the door open and placed the cake in front of Cole.

"You bet wrong."

"From now on, there's no need to act anymore."

The laughter in the private room came to an abrupt halt.

When Cole saw me, his brows furrowed before his gaze landed on the cake box.

"How did you find this place?"

Today was his twenty-ninth birthday.

Before leaving the house that morning, he had told me he had a business dinner and told me not to wait up for him.

I hadn't doubted him. I smiled and asked, "But today is your birthday. Do you want to eat the hazelnut cake I made?"

Cole's expression was cold. "I'm cutting back on sugar lately. I won't eat it."

An hour ago, I had seen Cole in an Instagram Story posted by our mutual friend Wes.

He was sitting in front of a cake as Elise put a birthday hat on him. Their shoulders were pressed tightly together.

The caption read, "Wishing Cole and his girlfriend a long and happy time together."

But when I clicked on it again an hour later, the Story was gone.

Still, I clung to a bit of absurd hope, thinking that the girlfriend might be someone else, thinking that Cole had hidden it from me because he didn't want me to misunderstand.

That was until just now, when I heard those words straight from his own mouth outside the door.

I lowered my eyes and looked at Cole.

"Didn't you say that? You only wanted to spend your birthday with the people closest to you. I came to see who your closest person is."

Elise immediately let go of his arm, her smile a little forced.

"Mara, don't misunderstand. Cody is still asking around about me lately. Everyone was afraid of giving the game away, so they intentionally called me Cole's girlfriend."

Five months ago, she was harassed by her ex-boyfriend, Cody.

Cole said Cody was paranoid and would only give up if he believed Elise had a new boyfriend.

He and Elise grew up together, and Cody knew him too. To make the act convincing, the real girlfriend had to step aside first, and that person was me.

Cole had hugged me back then and said they would only act for three days.

Three days later, he and Elise took their first photo holding hands.

A week later, he changed the matching profile picture we had used for six years.

A month later, he stopped taking me to friend gatherings.

Every time I asked when this act would end, he said Cody hadn't given up yet and told me not to be petty at a time like this.

But as it turned out, they hadn't been afraid of giving the game away for a long time.

The whole table knew the truth and even found amusement in my endurance.

I asked, "Is Cody here tonight too?"

Elise choked on her words.

Wes quickly tried to smooth things over. "He's not here, but you never know if someone might take a photo and post it. Elise is just trying to make the act look complete, isn't she?"

"Is that so?"

I looked at the watch on Elise's wrist.

That was the twenty-eighth birthday gift I had given Cole, bought with two months of my saved salary.

I asked, "Was this for the act too?"

Elise instinctively pulled her hand back under the table.

Cole finally looked a little displeased.

"It's just a watch. Her outfit didn't match today, so I lent it to her at the last minute."

He had probably forgotten that when I borrowed his tie clip to attend a press conference three months ago, he made me wipe it clean and put it back in its original place that very night.

He had said that was the first gift I gave him, that it was very important to him, and that I couldn't just casually take it.

So the important thing wasn't the gift, nor was it me.

It was only who was standing in front of him at the time.