He Asked Me Out to Get Back at Her, I Gave Him a Rulebook Instead Chapter 03

He Asked Me Out to Get Back at Her, I Gave Him a Rulebook Instead Chapter 03

Exactly what I thought would happen.

The bet had him on a leash. He’d started out lazy about it, but now he was careful, almost sweet.

He’d noticed something he couldn’t explain. Every time he saw Vivienne, my texts went cold, like I had eyes on him.

He cornered Vivienne about it. “Are you talking shit about me to Maren? Is that what this is?”

Vivienne’s smile dropped. She searched his face and found something missing: the jealousy she was used to seeing.

Something tightened behind her eyes. “You’re an asshole, Ronan. What, scared someone’s finally telling her the truth?”

They fought. It ended ugly.

The stream of floating comments rolled in. [Two months and the MMC still can’t get a single date out of her. I’m screaming.]

I scrolled through Ronan’s posts.

His pride was the biggest thing about him.

If I kept turning him down into month three, his ego wouldn’t survive it. And neither would my plan.

What I actually wanted was simple. A boyfriend who could handle my worst moods without flinching and had the wallet to spoil me while he did it.

The problem was image. Nobody could know I was like this. So I played the quiet, easygoing girl.

And Ronan? Ronan was perfect for the job.

He’d never air his own embarrassments. He’d sooner lie than let anyone see a crack.

Case in point: right now, he was telling his friends: “Maren’s crazy about me. She’s just shy. That’s the only reason you haven’t met her yet.”

One of his boys ate it up. “Bro, you didn’t even have to try. She just fell for you?”

“So you’re really done with Vivienne?”

Ronan’s answer came fast. Too fast. “What’s Vivienne got to do with anything? I’ve been keeping my distance. Maren gets jealous.”

Someone else jumped in. “Oh, so you really don’t care? Guess that’s why you didn’t ask about Vivienne getting dumped.”

Ronan froze.

“She broke up with him?”

…

The floating comments tore into him. [Wow, the MMC is such trash. Still hung up on the FMC and stringing the side character along.]

[He picked a RED dress for her. She doesn’t even wear red!]

[And it’s the wrong size. Girl is going through it.]

A moment later, the notification came through.

[Got you a dress. You’d look amazing in it.]

[If it’s not your thing, give it to your roommate.]

I looked at the screen and felt nothing warm.

Vivienne had been right about one thing.

Men needed training.

That night, I typed up a hundred rules for dating me and hit send.

[Fine. I’m in. Break a single rule and we’re done.]

[Rule 1: Don’t mention another woman around me. That includes your mother.]

…

[Rule 97: If I hit you, you don’t hit back. Ever. You never lay a hand on your girlfriend.]

[Rule 98: No tongue unless I say so.]

[Rule 99: Learn what I like before you touch me. Be gentle or don’t bother.]

[Rule 100: If we break up, you keep your mouth shut. No screenshots, no stories. As far as anyone knows, I was the perfect girlfriend.]

Then I sent one more. [Oh, Vivienne’s dating a new guy, by the way. Younger. Landon Mercer, I think. If this doesn’t work for you, we can just unfriend each other.]

[I don’t have time to waste either.]

[And don’t worry. Once we’re together, I’ll make you look good in public.]

Ronan stared at his phone. What the hell kind of rules were these?

No way he was agreeing to this.

He read it twice, pacing. Vivienne had never pulled anything like this.

Rule 58: If he took longer than one minute to reply, they were done.

She had to be messing with him.

He glared at his screen, jaw tight, face flushed.

I put on the red dress anyway. Found my angle. Took the shot. Sent it.

[The bust is too tight, the size is wrong, and I hate red. Memorize my measurements and every single rule. Quiz tomorrow.]

One minute passed. Nothing.

I blocked his number.

Ronan had barely finished reading the rules.

Then the photo loaded, and his brain shorted out.

She’d taken her glasses off. The red dress looked sharp against her pale skin, and her face held that same unreadable calm, like she couldn’t care less who was looking.

Something caught in his chest.

Two months of getting nothing from her, and then this. It hit different.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose and typed back. [Fine.]

He’d say yes for now. Once they were actually together, he’d talk her down. There was no way she’d actually hold him to all one hundred.

Then he saw the red exclamation mark next to his message.

[Not Delivered]

Ronan’s jaw clenched. “She actually blocked me.”