Chapter 1

Zoey's POV

Yale froze at my words. He glanced at Willa, who looked just as bewildered, before turning back to me, his voice full of irritation.

"What's with the childish attitude? We're about to get married. Can't you be a little more mature, like Willa? Stop joking about our marriage, okay?"

Immature. That was the 196th flaw he'd found in me.

We'd been together for nine years, from our school days into our careers. Yet whenever Willa was around, Yale always found some reason I should step aside for her.

Willa was more popular, so she went to his friends' gatherings instead of me. She was more outgoing, so she got to take my place in couples' interviews. Her foreign language was better, so I was expected to give up my spot on a study trip with him.

Eventually, everyone assumed Yale and Willa were the couple, while I, his actual girlfriend, was kept hidden away like some dirty little secret.

For years, I wondered if I simply wasn't good enough, and I did everything I could to change. Just to earn a place in his passenger seat, I forced myself to lose weight, starving myself until my stomach bled and my thighs were thinner than Willa's arms.

Yet after nine years, that passenger seat still belonged exclusively to her.

That was when I finally understood. He didn't need a reason to favor her.

Seeing us at a standoff, Willa hurried to smooth things over.

"Yale, don't be mad. Zoey's probably just talking nonsense because she's hungry. There's no rush to get the marriage certificate. Let's eat first!"

She linked one arm through mine, took Yale's hand with the other, and led us into a restaurant.

As usual, Yale ordered a couples' meal for himself and Willa, then something separate for me.

I used to make a fuss about wanting to share the couples' meal with him, unable to understand why it always had to be Willa. He'd look at me as though I were being completely unreasonable.

"Willa eats less than you, so the set meal is better value with her. Stop being selfish and making other people spend more money just because of you."

After that, I hadn't dared bring it up again. It wasn't until I tried ordering a couples' meal with a coworker that I discovered Yale had been lying. The portions were no different from ordering separately.

He simply didn't want me to be his partner.

This time, I swallowed my frustration and asked for the couples' meal myself.

The server looked uncomfortable. "Our couples' meal is complimentary when you complete our couples' challenge. Would you like to participate?"

Yale's expression tightened. Only after Willa gave him a little punch did he reluctantly nod.

"We'll do it."

The server then asked Yale to name ten of my flaws.

He didn't hesitate.

"Introverted, impulsive, careless, oversensitive, selfish..."

The list went on and on. He rattled off dozens of flaws without stopping, until even the server couldn't bear listening anymore and finally interrupted him.

Willa gave me a sympathetic look. "He's just used to finding fault with people. He'd be exactly the same if he had to list mine."

Yet when Yale turned to Willa, he fell silent.

He thought for so long that the diners at the next table, who'd arrived after us, had already packed up and left. Still, he couldn't come up with a single flaw.

Willa finally broke the silence, joking, "Come on, your eyesight can't be that bad! You can't even see something as obvious as my pimples?"

"Even your pimples are pretty," he blurted out.

For a moment, everyone was stunned.

Then the server broke into a smile and congratulated them. They were the first couple at the restaurant to complete the "Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder" challenge, earning themselves a complimentary couples' meal.

I tilted my head back and made a show of rolling my eyes at Yale.

No one noticed how badly my eyes stung or how close I was to tears.

He could list flaw after flaw in me without repeating a single one, yet even Willa's pimples were beautiful to him.

Once again, I'd lost, and it was a crushing defeat.