It happened at the bachelor party, during a game of Truth or Dare.<\/p>\n
Eva looked straight at me and announced to the room, “I’m pregnant. The<\/p>\n
baby is Miles!”<\/p>\n
The whole room erupted in laughter. Everyone except Miles.<\/p>\n
After the party, he explained, looking melancholy. “What Eva said is true.<\/p>\n
Don’t overthink it. We are just good buddies.”<\/p>\n
“It only happened because we blacked out drinking at the class reunion.”<\/p>\n
“Her family situation isn’t great, and she doesn’t plan on getting married,” he<\/p>\n
continued. “She just wants to keep this child for companionship.”<\/p>\n
I nodded and asked calmly, “And so?”<\/p>\n
“I am the father, after all; I have to take responsibility. From now on, I’ll stay<\/p>\n
at her place weekdays to help her, and come home on weekends.”<\/p>\n
He added, “Let’s cancel the wedding for now. Once she gives birth and<\/p>\n
things go back to normal, I’ll make it up to you properly.”<\/p>\n
I pulled the corners of my mouth into a smile. “That sounds good. You’ve<\/p>\n
thought it through thoroughly.”<\/p>\n
He visibly sighed in relief, grabbed his suitcase, and left without looking<\/p>\n
back.<\/p>\n
I wiped the tears from my eyes and began packing my own luggage.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, my phone rang.<\/p>\n
The person on the other end was heavily drunk, shouting with a crying tone.<\/p>\n
“Bianca, I’ve liked you for so damn long! Don’t get married\u2014marry me<\/p>\n
instead, okay?”<\/p>\n
I paused, then responded softly, “Okay”<\/p>\n
I packed my luggage in one go and gently placed the engagement ring on<\/p>\n
the vanity table.<\/p>\n
Looking at the room filled with festive wedding decorations, an<\/p>\n
indescribable bitterness surged in my heart.<\/p>\n
Three years of secret unrequited love, five years of companionship.<\/p>\n
We were supposed to walk down the aisle in three days, yet I was caught off<\/p>\n
guard by his betrayal.<\/p>\n
My tears were about to burst forth again, so I squeezed my eyes shut,<\/p>\n
forcing them back.<\/p>\n
Just as I was dragging my luggage out the door, Miles sent a text: “I forgot<\/p>\n
my bath towel. Bring it over for me.”<\/p>\n
“It’s at Eva’s place. You know the address, right?”<\/p>\n
I curled my lips. Of course I knew.<\/p>\n
Every month, he and a few classmates went to Eva’s apartment in the<\/p>\n
suburbs for dinner to “bond.”<\/p>\n
I’d had the “honor” of being brought along a few times.<\/p>\n
Every time, I saw men sprawled on the sofa playing video games and<\/p>\n
drinking beer.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Eva wandered among them wearing spaghetti straps and hot<\/p>\n
pants.<\/p>\n
I had been jealous and asked Miles not to go anymore.<\/p>\n
But he had retorted with disdain, “I need my social circle. Just because we’re<\/p>\n
dating doesn’t mean we have to be stuck together every day.”<\/p>\n
“We don’t even have common topics; staring at each other all day is boring”<\/p>\n
he’d said.<\/p>\n
“Relax. In my eyes, Eva is one of the bros. Even if she stood naked in front of<\/p>\n
me, I wouldn’t react.”<\/p>\n
Thinking back now, those words were nothing but lies to pacify me.<\/p>\n
Seeing that I didn’t reply, Miles sent the address again.<\/p>\n
I wanted to reply “No,” but my fingers strangely typed out “Received.”<\/p>\n
My heart was full of bitterness, but ultimately, I wanted to see it with my<\/p>\n
own eyes.<\/p>\n
He had been pampered since childhood. He found peeling an orange too<\/p>\n
troublesome\u2014how could he possibly take care of a pregnant woman?<\/p>\n
When I arrived at Eva’s door, I clutched the bag containing the towel tightly.<\/p>\n
Eva opened the door quickly.<\/p>\n
She was wearing a tight tank top and hot pants as always, pulling me into<\/p>\n
the room with a bright smile.<\/p>\n
Before I could react, she had already taken the bag.<\/p>\n
“Sit down first. Miles is showering; I’ll take the towel to him.”<\/p>\n
The sound of water in the bathroom suddenly stopped.<\/p>\n
“Eva, hand me the towel,” Miles’ voice called out, carrying a familiar laziness.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, Miles walked out with a towel wrapped around his<\/p>\n
waist.<\/p>\n
He shook his wet hair, shouting naturally, “Eva, help me blow-dry my hair.”<\/p>\n
Eva stood on her tiptoes and ruffled his hair messily, scoffing.<\/p>\n
“Miles, who exactly is taking care of whom? Don’t get it twisted, I’m the<\/p>\n
pregnant one!”<\/p>\n
He clicked his tongue and pretended to tickle her waist. Then, his gaze<\/p>\n
landed on me, sitting in the shadows.<\/p>\n
He casually handed the hairdryer toward me, his tone dismissive.<\/p>\n
“Eva, I won’t trouble you anymore. Save you from clumsily ruining my hair.<\/p>\n
My wife knows how to take care of people better than you!”<\/p>\n
Wife? To anyone watching, Eva looked much more like his wife here.<\/p>\n
I avoided his gaze and stood up briskly. “I don’t have time. I’m leaving.”<\/p>\n
He grabbed my wrist, his face showing displeasure. “Can’t you give me some<\/p>\n
face?”<\/p>\n
“Face?” I laughed coldly.<\/p>\n
“Miles, she is carrying your child. You moved into her house. And now you<\/p>\n
want *me* to give you face?”<\/p>\n
“When you ‘family of three’ were having a good time, did you ever consider<\/p>\n
my feelings?”<\/p>\n
Eva smilingly pulled Miles away and winked at me. “Bianca, I really treat<\/p>\n
Miles as a biological brother.”<\/p>\n
“My personality is just like this; I’m carefree. Don’t take it to heart,” she said.<\/p>\n
“He’s just here to take care of the baby. It’s pure brotherhood. Even if we<\/p>\n
slept in the same bed, nothing would happen.”<\/p>\n
As she spoke, she hooked her pinky around Miles’ pinky and shook it.<\/p>\n
“Why don’t you go back with Bianca? I can manage alone; this little thing<\/p>\n
won’t stump me.”<\/p>\n
“I don’t care,” Miles said. “Once the baby is born, you just have to be the dad.”<\/p>\n
As soon as the words fell, Eva covered her mouth and began to dry heave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It happened at the bachelor party, during a game of Truth or Dare. Eva looked straight at me and announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-one-side-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23147,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23137\/revisions\/23147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}