Chapter 2

Willa sighed.

"Stuck in traffic. Won't be back for a while. What's happening on your end?"

I told her the truth.

"I told him to change his profile picture or photoshop the same hat for me. He refuses."

Willa hung up without another word.

Less than two minutes later, she sent me a picture.

It was a photo of me, with an identical Santa hat photoshopped onto my head.

Willa sounded furious over text.

That bastard. He couldn't spare two minutes. He's definitely hiding something.

I forwarded the picture to Ryan.

"Willa managed to do this from the back of a cab. And you? You can't even do this one small thing for me."

His mother glanced at my new profile picture and urged impatiently.

"There. Picture's changed. Can we get on with the engagement now?"

Then she muttered under her breath, "Such a fuss over nothing. Spoiling her rotten."

My mom pulled my hand, urging me to apologize.

"Look at this mess. Thank goodness Ryan is a good man and isn't making a big deal."

"A woman doesn't have many ten years to waste. Just take the win and move on."

I felt a pang of irony.

Right. A woman doesn't have many ten years.

So should I spend them with a man who won't even give me two minutes?

Before I could reply, Ryan refused, looking horrified.

"You can't use that Santa hat from my picture!"

My gaze sharpened, my tone turning brittle.

"Why not?"

Ryan's eyes darted around. He stammered.

"That hat… a colleague drew it for me. It's her original design. If you use it, you might get sued for copyright infringement."

The crowd seemed to understand.

"Must be a female colleague. Sienna's jealous."

"But why be jealous over a hat? It's almost Christmas, lots of young people put Santa hats on their pics."

"If a female colleague drew it, I get the jealousy. But calling off the engagement is too much. Sienna's just being a spoiled, dramatic brat."

Ryan huffed and puffed, then sent me a new picture.

"Here. I put a Santa hat on your picture too. Are you happy now?"

I opened the image and zoomed in.

It was clearly a cheap stock image he'd found online, slapped onto my carefully taken portrait.

The hat looked tacky, making my lovely photo look garish and awful.

My mom tried to smooth things over.

"Alright, alright. The picture's changed, problem solved. Let's continue the engagement."

I looked up sharply, not backing down.

"No. I want to call it off."

Just then, Willa called.

"Babe! I got it! And guess what? None of the data was lost!"

"Wait for me. I'm gonna slap that cheater's face with the truth!"