Chapter 1Heartbreak & Abs By the Bay

At his birthday party, Asher Vance suggested playing a game of "Blind Man's Bluff."

He deliberately mistook his childhood sweetheart for me and held her in a passionate kiss for three whole minutes.

The crowd started teasing: "Asher, your girl is jealous. You better go comfort her."

Asher said dismissively: "It's just a game. If we took this seriously, we would have broken up dozens of times by now."

He didn't know that this time, I really took it seriously.

On my way home alone, Hayden sent me nine shirtless photos of his abs.

I swiped through them one by one, dialed his number, and summoned the courage to ask: "My boyfriend doesn't have abs. Can I borrow yours to touch?"

* * *

The private karaoke room went dead silent when Asher Vance pulled Jenny into his arms and kissed her.

Everyone’s eyes darted towards me, gauging my reaction.

I was stunned.

Asher was my boyfriend of three years.

Tonight was his birthday, and we were celebrating with a bunch of friends in a private room at a trendy bar downtown.

When the party was in full swing, he suggested playing "Blind Man's Bluff."

Asher’s best friend started riling him up: "Asher, you and Chloe have been together for three years, you guys must have incredible telepathy. How about you find her while blindfolded and give her a French kiss?"

Honestly, I was hesitant.

I didn't want to play this kind of game in front of so many people.

But Asher was super into it, acting all confident: "Bring it on, who's scared? I could recognize Chloe with my eyes closed."

The friends, always up for some drama, immediately got a blindfold from a waiter and handed it to Asher.

After the game started, Asher passed right by me.

He paused for a moment but didn't recognize me.

He walked a couple of steps further and pulled his childhood friend, Jenny, into his arms.

Everyone wanted to tell him he was kissing the wrong person, but he was kissing her so passionately.

Seeing my lack of reaction, everyone shut their mouths and said nothing more.

The kiss lasted for three whole minutes.

Jenny broke free from Asher’s arms, gasping for air.

Asher took off the blindfold, looked at the person in front of him, and a look of shock flashed across his eyes.

"Jenny, why is it you?"

"It's me." Jenny looked at me aggressively: "I thought your feelings were deeper, turns out you guys aren't that close."

Everyone started teasing: "Asher Vance, sister-in-law is angry, you better go comfort her."

Asher looked me up and down and said indifferently: "It's just a game, if we took this seriously, we would have broken up dozens of times already."

After saying that, he walked over to me and explained: "I didn't mean to recognize the wrong person, blame it on the fact that you and Jenny wore the same perfume today."