You Wanted Me to Beg Before Marriage? Too Bad, I Walked First Chapter 03

You Wanted Me to Beg Before Marriage? Too Bad, I Walked First Chapter 03

When I went back upstairs, Evan was leaning against the bedroom door, already dressed for the courthouse wedding.

The moment he saw me, he turned his head away with obvious awkwardness.

Even that counted as a concession from him.

It was a tiny one, as though he knew he had backed me into a corner and was retreating just far enough to keep himself out of range if I finally snapped.

“I sent the photographer home,” I said.

He froze for a second. “Whatever.”

“I told you hiring one was unnecessary. You saw other couples doing it, so you had to do it too. What a waste of money.”

The couch was buried under clothes and random clutter.

I sighed and began putting everything away one item at a time.

When I picked up his bag, a pile of wrapped chocolates spilled onto the floor.

He immediately snatched the bag from me.

“Who told you that you could go through my stuff?”

Despite his accusation, he did not put it away. Instead, he held the bag wide open where I could clearly see inside.

The month before, while we were grocery shopping and discussing what we needed for the courthouse wedding, I had suggested buying extra chocolates.

“We can hand some out to the photographer and the courthouse staff,” I had said. “I’ve seen other couples do that.”

Evan had not responded. Instead, a faintly mocking look crossed his face.

“You’re pretty excited, aren’t you, Maya?”

“Are you dying for everyone to know that a woman pushing thirty finally found someone willing to marry her, especially a man like me?”

The words “a woman pushing thirty” stung, so I refused to play along and laugh as though it were a joke.

When I did not answer, he shoved past me in a rage and drove home, leaving me standing there in embarrassment beside the groceries he had knocked over.

We had never spoken about it again.

Now he stood in front of me waiting for effusive gratitude because he had remembered what I said and secretly bought the chocolates.

This was his concession, and I was apparently supposed to feel honored.

I could always figure out what he was thinking, yet he never cared enough to pay the same attention to me.

Had he bothered, he would have noticed the way I kept pulling back and hesitating.

I no longer wanted to act out the same old scene, putting on a cheerful, affectionate show and pretending everything was fine between us again.

Every time I said I was happy, I was exhausted inside.

This time, I said nothing and continued clearing off the couch.

After waiting for a reaction that never came, Evan slammed his bag onto the floor.

He was angry again.

His gaze swept around the room until he finally found something he could blame me for.

“Maya, why haven’t you cleaned my shoes yet?”

“What do you even do all day? They’re filthy. Are you blind?”

“I’m telling you right now, if you can’t get them looking brand-new again, I’m not going through with the courthouse wedding.”

I looked toward the entryway, where his shoes were still scattered carelessly across the floor.

They looked like a preview of the rest of my life, one in which I would never have a moment of peace.

No matter how desperately I tried to hold everything together, it would never make a difference.

Then I looked at Evan, sprawled across the couch with his game open again.

He watched me from the corner of his eye, waiting to see me rush over and start scrubbing his shoes.

At that moment, without even thinking, I said, “Evan, I think we should put the courthouse wedding on hold.”

Just as the words left my mouth, his matchmaking queue ended, and I heard the game begin.

I did not know whether he had heard me.

The instant I said it, a crushing weight seemed to lift from my shoulders.

With lighter steps, I opened the front door and set the trash outside.

On my way back, I accidentally stepped on his shoes again.

When I turned around, Evan was no longer playing.

He was staring at me with a dark, unreadable expression.

“What do you mean, put it on hold?”

“Maya, I’m not wasting the best years of my life waiting around for you.”

“If we’re not getting married, then we’re breaking up.”

Breaking up?

I had grown so used to living with him that I did not know whether I could adjust to living alone.

I would have to find an apartment, but maybe that would not be so bad.

I could find somewhere closer to work and sleep an extra half hour every morning. The thought was surprisingly appealing.

Once I had worked it all out, I said, “Give me one week.”