He Deleted My Number After 972 Messages of Love Chapter 01

He Deleted My Number After 972 Messages of Love Chapter 01

Jesse Carter pulled a dare: Hand over his phone.

He opened his chat with Sadie and typed “I like you” into the search bar. The app pulled up every single match—nine hundred and seventy-two of them.

Then he checked Chloe’s chat. Three.

The teasing chatter all around them fell silent in an instant.

Chloe’s eyes welled up, and she burst into tears right there.

Jesse didn’t even glance at me. He just locked his screen, set the phone face-down on the table, and turned to her with a soft laugh.

“C’mon, it’s not even that big of a deal to cry over.”

“You already knew—it was just a three-month fake relationship I put on for show.”

“None of those words meant a thing.”

Those more than nine hundred “I like you” messages were all sent by Jesse when he got drunk one night a while ago.

He’d crouched on the curb that night, refusing to let anyone pull him up, hunched over his phone as he fired off those four words one after another.

“I’m gonna send all nine hundred and ninety-nine ‘I like you’s.”

“Once I’m done, we call off the bet, and we’re officially together. Okay?”

…

Jesse didn’t glance my way even once while deleting my contact.

An eerie hush fell over the private party room.

Everyone looked uneasy, stealing quick sideways glances at me now and then.

Chloe’s quiet sniffles slowly died down.

“D-do you not have even the smallest crush on her at all?”

Jesse brushed the tears off her cheek with a soft chuckle.

“What are you talking about?”

“I already told you, it was nothing but an act.”

“Then why’d you send her that many “I like you” texts? You two only dated three months tops, remember?”

Jesse paused almost imperceptibly, his voice turning cold and flat.

“I was totally hammered that night.”

“I hardly recall any of it.”

Chloe was finally calmed down.

The whole gathering was thrown for a loop—it was someone’s birthday party, after all.

The atmosphere stayed stiff for the rest of the night, and we dragged things along until it was time to cut the birthday cake.

Once the cake had been cut, everyone quickly made up excuses to leave, visibly relieved.