Still Over It

Eve

“Cheers,” I said with a small smile, lifting my glass toward Mia. She mirrored the gesture with her usual bright grin, and our glasses met with a soft clink that somehow felt like the first good sound I’d heard all week. I let out a long breath as the wine touched my tongue, warmth spreading through my chest in a way that finally made everything feel real.

“Finally,” Mia whispered.

“Yeah, Mia… finally.” I leaned back against the couch, still smiling. “I can’t believe we actually got a groom for me. At last, I can solve this mess.” The relief alone made the wine taste sweeter.

It had been five exhausting days. Five days of searching, interviewing, arguing, panicking, hoping, and then searching again. And surprisingly, the young man they interviewed yesterday? He seemed capable enough. Polite, clearheaded, and oddly comfortable with the idea of pretending to be someone’s husband. He promised to come by during the weekend to go through the remaining documents so we could sign everything officially.

Still, I couldn’t believe I was going to pay a total stranger to act like my husband for months—maybe a year at most. The old me would have laughed at the idea. But the current me? The one with fourteen days on the clock and an inheritance hanging by a thread? She didn’t have the luxury of laughing at anything.

Mia nodded, taking another sip from her glass before looking at me carefully. “So… what about Alpha Sage? How did he react to the news?” Her voice dropped, slow and almost shaky, like she was scared of even mentioning his name. And honestly, who wouldn’t be scared? Just saying ‘Alpha Sage’ could make the air feel heavier. He was exactly the devil everyone called him.

And girls like me? I hated devils.

“I just plainly told him I didn’t want the marriage anymore, and I blocked him immediately. I don’t need his reactions or anything of the sort. The marriage is not a do-or-die affair. Anyway, can you not make this time gloomy? We’re trying to have fun here, hello?” I snapped, the irritation rising in my voice before I could stop it.

“Sorry, sorry,” Mia rushed out, hands slightly raised as if she feared I’d throw the glass at her. “It’s just… I know who that man is, Eve. And trust me, he’s someone you don’t want to mess with.”

“Goodness, Mia!” I hissed, rolling my eyes hard enough to hurt. “There you go again. Are you seriously going to do this?”

Mia swallowed, set her glass down, and reached for my hand, her expression softening with worry. “As your best friend and your personal assistant, I’m advising you to reach out to him. Settle your differences before moving on. Sage isn’t someone you mess with, like I said.”

I scoffed and snatched my hand away. “I’m not going to do that.”

“Wha… what?” Mia stammered, confused. “But why not?”

I turned my face away, swallowing as the memory of that message flashed through my mind. “I blocked him right after sending my decision. The proposal. Everything.”

“That’s not a big deal,” Mia insisted quickly. “You can still unblock him.”

“That would make me look stupid and fucking desperate, Mia.” I exhaled sharply. “I’m not doing that.”

“That should be easier compared to being prey to an Alpha,” she muttered under her breath, concern tightening her voice.

“Well, let him do his worst,” I shot back. I stood up abruptly, grabbed my glass, drained the entire thing in one go, and slammed it down on the table with a sharp, echoing crack. Without giving Mia a chance to respond, I turned and walked toward the stairs, anger and pride carrying me all the way to my room.

The moment I got into my room, I slammed the door shut and leaned my back against it, exhaling sharply. “What is wrong with Mia?” I muttered under my breath, pacing to the center of the room. “Why would she dump all that negativity on me right when I’m finally happy? Now she has planted fear in me. Fear I definitely didn’t ask for.”

I rubbed my forehead and dropped onto my bed. At first I thought I’d sleep it off, but the more I tried, the more my mind refused to shut up. I kept rolling from one side to the other, adjusting my pillow a hundred times, willing sleep to come. It didn’t.

When I finally opened my eyes again, the room was dim and the silence felt too heavy. I reached for my phone automatically, blinking at the screen until the time burned itself into my vision.

It was 1:00 a.m. Damn!

I groaned and fell back against the mattress. “Perfect. Absolutely perfect.” I wasn’t even close to sleeping. All because of Mia and her warnings and her trembling voice.

I grabbed my phone again, hesitating for a few seconds before opening Sage’s contact. The block symbol sat there like a threat. My thumb hovered above the unblock button. I stared at it, biting my lower lip, thinking about how pathetic it would look to reverse the decision I had made so boldly.

If I unblocked him, wouldn’t it seem like I wasn’t serious… like I was scared?

I hated that thought.

Minutes passed. Then more. Before I knew it, twenty-five whole minutes had slipped by. I was still staring at the button, still biting my lip like a confused child.

“This is all Mia’s fault,” I whispered harshly. “She made me overthink. She scared me.”

But at the same time, deep down, I knew she wasn’t entirely wrong. With a long, defeated sigh, I finally tapped the button.

Unblocked.

My stomach tightened immediately. “What have I done?” I whispered, pressing my palm to my forehead. “Ugh. I don’t even have a choice.”

I inhaled slowly and sat upright, ready to do what I told myself I would do—send a message, a long one, something decent to create closure and settle this ridiculous tension before everything spiraled.

I opened the chat, breathing slowly, carefully picking my words in my head. But before I could even type a single letter, my phone buzzed violently in my hand.

It was a message. From him.

I froze for a second before opening it.

Sage: “So you finally unblocked me. Let’s meet on Saturday by 9 p.m. Unfailingly.”

The coldness in those words wasn’t loud. It was sharp, silent, and heavy in a way that made my chest tighten. He didn’t ask. He didn’t explain. He simply told me.

My eyes widened as the realization hit me in the gut. Saturday by 9 p.m.

That was the exact time! It was the exact moment that I was supposed to meet the man I hired, the man who was going to sign the contract with me. The lawyers would be there too. The paperwork. Everything.

“Oh no,” I breathed, shaking my head slowly as panic began creeping in. “No. No, no, no, no…”

Of all the times in the world, he had to pick that one.

Saturday by 9 p.m.

My heart trembled. My mind raced. And for the first time since this whole mess started… I didn’t know what to do.