Chapter 1

On our eighteenth attempt to get married, Miles Corbett stopped the ceremony again because I began my vow a fraction too late.

He looked completely disappointed in me. "You know I'm a perfectionist. Why can't you follow the wedding schedule exactly?

"If you miss the timing again, maybe you should let your best friend take your place."

My best friend, Audrey Sloan, was famous for always being perfectly on time, so Miles used her as the standard I was expected to match.

If I reached the curb one minute after Audrey at the end of the workday, he drove away with her and left me behind.

If I entered the restaurant half a step later than she did on Valentine's Day, he gave her the candlelit dinner that was supposed to be mine.

If I reached the airport twenty seconds after her before our annual vacation, he canceled my ticket and traveled with Audrey instead.

Even at our wedding, he had stopped the ceremony seventeen times and used Audrey to rehearse my role seventeen times.

To make the eighteenth attempt succeed, I filled the venue with more than a hundred synchronized countdown clocks and practiced every cue for over two hundred nights.

But ten seconds before my vow was due, Audrey jumped the cue and said "I do" first.

Miles ignored both me and the synchronized clocks and canceled the wedding for the eighteenth time.

The problem had never been my timing; the problem was that the bride was not her.

So I finally decided to give his perfectionism what it wanted.

Miles took Audrey's hand again. "Watch carefully. We'll demonstrate it one more time."

I smiled and slid the wedding rings onto their fingers.

"No demonstration needed. I wish you both a lifetime of happiness."

Chapter 1

The ballroom went silent for a moment before Miles Corbett's voice cut through it.

"That line isn't in the program. Remove it."

He glanced at me as though I had committed some irritating mistake by adding a sentence of my own.

I froze, my eyes stinging.

Even now, he thought I was still playing along with his game of creating a perfect wedding.

To him, my ideas and opinions were nothing more than glitches he could delete whenever he wanted.

And it was not only that one sentence.

He had removed my favorite tulips and replaced them with the white roses Audrey Sloan preferred.

He had cut my closest childhood friend from the wedding party and made Audrey's coworker my bridesmaid instead.

Even the heirloom wedding dress passed down through three generations of my family had been replaced by a gown Audrey liked better.

Whenever I objected, Miles said Audrey's choices suited his wedding theme better.

He chose perfection and discarded everything I loved.

Yet whenever Audrey made a mistake, he was perfectly willing to abandon perfection for her.

When Audrey saw me standing there, she smiled as if trying to smooth things over.

"Don't be so rigid. Celia was only trying to help.

"And honestly, I think adding that line wishing us a lifetime of happiness makes the wedding even more perfect. Don't you?"

I almost told her not to bother. Once Miles decided something, he never changed his mind.

But the next second, one look from Audrey was enough to make him surrender.

"Fine," he said helplessly. "Keep the line."

My fingers curled slightly.

It felt as though a tiny thorn had lodged in my chest.

Across a thousand disappointments, it was not as though I had never fought back.

Miles simply never compromised with me.

Our worst argument came when I insisted on wearing the bracelet my mother had left me on our wedding day.

I wanted the parents I had lost to feel, in some small way, as though they were there to see me become happy.

No matter how much I pleaded or argued, Miles refused to bend.

Even when I pretended to agree and put the bracelet on only after the ceremony began, he canceled the wedding five separate times just to force me to yield to his rules.

Yet the door I had never managed to open swung wide because Audrey said one sentence.

So it was not that Miles could never break a principle. I simply had never been important enough to become the exception.

While I stood lost in thought, Miles guided Audrey through a perfectly timed staged kiss.

The entire ballroom erupted in cheers.

Someone laughed. "Come on, Miles. Everybody knows you're in love with Audrey. Do you really have to throw another wedding every few months just to rub it in our faces?"

"Seriously, we've watched this bride-swap routine enough times. Change the act next time."

Miles did not answer, but amusement clearly warmed his eyes.

He silently accepted another joke that was nowhere in his precious schedule.

And just as silently accepted that I had become the clown replaced eighteen times in his show.

I looked around the ballroom and realized nearly every guest belonged to Miles's or Audrey's circle.

The relatives and friends who truly cared about me had stopped coming after years of watching me be humiliated again and again.

No wonder almost no one here even seemed to recognize the actual bride.

What Miles did not understand was that even the most committed clown eventually gets tired.

Eventually, she unties the ropes, steps off the stage, and leaves the perfect performance behind.

Chapter 2

Back in the bridal suite, I took off the wedding gown.

The moment I changed into ordinary clothes, I finally felt as though I could breathe again.

I was packing my things when Miles and Audrey walked in.

Miles looked at me and immediately began his usual lecture.

"You left the stage five minutes early, and your vow timing was off. That's five points off your wedding score.

"Learn from it. Before the next ceremony, practice another five months on your own. Stop making the rest of us pay for your mistakes."

Miles measured the perfection of our wedding through scores.

One point lost meant one more month of practice for me.

Month after month after month.

Across eighteen canceled weddings, I had waited seven full years for him.

If seven years had not produced a marriage, the eighth would not be different.

I did not have many seven-year stretches to waste, and I no longer wanted to wait.

When I stayed silent, Miles took it as agreement.

Audrey, however, looked genuinely curious. "You can lose points? I thought Miles only gave bonus points."

"So what's Celia's score now?"

My throat suddenly felt dry. "Negative five. What about you?"

"I'm over six thousand."

I went completely still.

Thinking I did not believe her, Audrey eagerly opened her social-media feed.

Photo after photo of Miles and Audrey filled the screen, each one captioned with an ever-growing score.

Perfect cookies: plus ten.

Perfectly clocked out on time: plus twenty.

Knew to ride home in my passenger seat and didn't get a drop on her: plus fifty.

The newest post, uploaded three minutes earlier, read: Perfectly cleaned up Celia's wedding disaster: plus one hundred.

The post came from a man's account I did not recognize.

But I recognized the profile picture instantly. It was the watch I had given Miles.

I'd known for years that Miles used a different account to follow Audrey, and I had comforted myself by assuming it was his rarely used secondary profile, that keeping it separate was its own kind of restraint.

Now I understood that the silent account sitting in my own contacts might have been the secondary one all along.

I stared at those glaring scores until my eyes burned and I could not look up.

Seven years of struggling for a negative score suddenly looked ridiculous.

Audrey finally seemed to realize how ugly the situation appeared and punched Miles lightly on the arm.

"This is your fault. Celia is your fiancée. How can she only have negative five?"

They began bickering over the scores.

I quietly took out my phone and messaged Nathan Delaney, one of my biggest clients.

"Mr. Delaney, is your offer to recruit me to the overseas branch still open?"

"Absolutely. My flight leaves early the day after tomorrow. Want to come with me?"

I looked up and met Miles's dark eyes.

My heart skipped a beat.

He only frowned and clicked his tongue.

"Fine. I'll give you five points back so somebody stops complaining that I'm too demanding.

"But if you wear that dress again next time, that's another two points off.

"How many times have you worn it now? It's old. You should have thrown it away already."

His eyes settled on the corner of the wedding gown showing from my suitcase.

My hand tightened around the phone, and I pressed send firmly. "See you the day after tomorrow."

Then I pulled the gown out.

Together with every piece of jewelry and clothing Miles had chosen for his perfect wedding, I dropped it into the trash.

"You're right. Old things should be thrown away."

Miles stared at the pile, uncertainty flashing across his face.

Before he could say anything, one of the bridal-suite clocks chimed again.

I cut him off. "It's time for the reception toast. If you wait any longer, you'll miss the schedule."

Audrey looked at him expectantly, and Miles turned to leave with her.

At the door, he paused. "You reminded us about the timing on your own. That's three points back. One more week of practice should be enough."

"Relax. The next wedding will definitely work."

I kept packing, completely unmoved.

He did not know there would be no wedding a week from now.

And I no longer wanted an exception that arrived this late.

Chapter 3

When I got home, I booked my flight and packed everything I truly needed.

Then I took down all thirty-six clocks Miles had installed throughout the apartment to announce the time.

I threw those away too, along with the clothes and jewelry he required me to wear.

All those things I had put on to satisfy his definition of a perfect girlfriend felt like restraints I would never need again.

I zipped my suitcase and let out a long breath.

I was about to call Miles and end the relationship when my phone rang.

"Is this Mr. Corbett? Building 3, Unit 501 at Cedar Ridge Residences. Your hangover-food delivery is here, but security won't let us upstairs. Could you come down for it?"

My stomach tightened as doubt rose inside me.

That was the condo Miles and I had bought seven years earlier as our future marital home.

But because of his obsession with perfection, he refused to let either of us live there until the wedding succeeded.

So for seven years we had remained in a rented apartment and promised not to cross that boundary.

When I drove there, the condo door had not fully closed.

Through the gap, I heard Audrey complain drunkenly, "This is all your fault for deducting points from my best friend. You made Celia so mad she left before we even got a photo together."

There was a flurry of kicking and movement, and Miles laughed. "You little drunk."

"Fine, fine. It's my fault. I won't deduct points for her forgetting the photo schedule."

He caught Audrey's kicking foot and began rubbing it carefully.

There was more tenderness in his face than I had seen in seven years.

So he did know how to take care of someone.

When I once got drunk and leaned against him, he had thrown me out of the rental apartment.

He told me not to act drunk and ordered me to sober up outside before coming back in.

It had been ten degrees below freezing, and the experience frightened me so badly that I never wanted to get drunk again.

Now he had broken his own boundary and brought a drunken Audrey into the home that was supposed to belong to us after marriage.

He let her make a mess of the place.

I pushed the door open, and Miles looked toward me.

Panic flashed through his eyes, then turned to irritation when he saw the delivery bag in my hand.

"Perfect Girlfriend Rule Three: respect privacy boundaries before marriage.

"Looking at someone else's delivery without permission costs ten points."

No explanation. Only blame.

The whole thing suddenly felt absurd, and exhaustion settled over me.

When two people are never on the same wavelength, every conversation eventually turns into noise.

"Miles, we're breaking..."

Before I could finish, Audrey stumbled toward me.

"Don't deduct Celia's points!"

She bumped past Miles and clung tightly to my hand.

"Bestie, you didn't take a picture with me today. Are you mad at me?

"I didn't mean to steal your wedding. I'll give the ring back. Let's make up."

She pulled off the wedding ring but could not line it up with my finger.

The smell of alcohol washed over me, and I tried impatiently to free my hand.

A sharp pain suddenly pierced my fingertip.

Miles shoved me away and grabbed Audrey's finger.

He looked at me as though I had done something monstrous.

"Celia Monroe, what is wrong with you?"

My own cry of pain caught in my throat.

He kicked the bloodstained ring away, settled Audrey on the couch, and opened the first-aid kit.

The blood had come from my hand and could have been wiped away easily.

Still, he wrapped Audrey's finger in layer after layer of gauze.

Then, as though remembering something urgent, he lifted Audrey into his arms and rushed for the door.

"I'm taking Audrey to urgent care to have the wound assessed. Go back to the rental apartment and think about what you did.

"Until she forgives you, the wedding is postponed indefinitely."

He hurried away before I could finish the quiet sentence behind him.

"Miles, I'm the one who's hurt."

Chapter 4

When I went downstairs, the car I had driven there was already gone. Miles had taken it to urgent care.

He had not bothered to think about whether I needed transportation or how I was supposed to get home in the middle of the night.

The rideshare app searched again and again, but no driver accepted.

My injured finger had already begun to swell.

I gave up on the hospital and walked into a small twenty-four-hour clinic nearby.

After checking the wound and my vaccination history, the doctor recommended a tetanus booster. The injection stung badly enough to drain the color from my face.

Without thinking, I opened social media, and Audrey's latest post appeared first.

"First tetanus shot of my life. It hurts so much!"

"Good thing somebody is helping distract me from the pain."

The attached picture showed a bite mark on Miles's cheek.

He was still smiling at her with obvious indulgence.

Miles always said a perfect girlfriend needed to learn independence.

So when my cramps once got so bad I nearly fainted, he ignored me when I asked him to take me to the hospital.

He simply sent me a delivery link for pain medicine.

After years under his rules, I had thought my tolerance for pain must have become unusually high.

Apparently not. Tears still slipped down my face.

The doctor paused, eased up on the needle, and asked me to stay a while for observation.

I nodded, but my eyes drifted helplessly toward the comments under Audrey's post.

"Perfectly stayed still for the shot: plus one hundred."

"Bonus reward: the trip you've wanted most."

The screenshot beneath his comment showed two tickets for a guided tour through the Scottish Highlands.

My fingers froze over the screen.

Those were the honeymoon tickets Miles and I had originally chosen for ourselves.

Because our wedding had failed for seven years, the honeymoon had also been postponed for seven years.

Miles always said that if the tickets expired he would buy new ones, but the order of things could not be broken.

No one, he said, should let private emotion ruin the structure of a perfect marriage.

Yet now he had turned our honeymoon into a reward for another woman.

Could secondhand happiness still be perfect?

I did not know.

I wiped away my tears and replied beneath the post.

"Have a good trip."

"We're breaking up."

I only knew I did not want a secondhand honeymoon.

And I did not want a secondhand man either.

My phone began ringing almost immediately.

I declined the calls, and Miles started sending messages one after another.

"Making a scene under Audrey's post is childish. Have you reflected on what you did at all?"

"Audrey was generous enough to forgive you. Giving her a trip to make up for it is reasonable. Stop turning everything into a crisis."

"Perfect Girlfriend Rule One: always respond promptly. Minus five points."

At last he seemed to compromise by half a step. "Be there at ten tomorrow morning. If you're on time, we'll let you come with us."

I ignored his assumption, blocked both him and Audrey, and deleted them from my contacts.

Then I opened Nathan's message.

"The flight was moved up. We leave tomorrow morning."

I replied, "Okay."

I spent the rest of the night at the clinic, then took a cab to the rental apartment at dawn.

I collected my suitcase and went straight to the airport.

While waiting to board, I suddenly saw Miles staring at me in surprise.

I checked my watch. It was only seven.

He opened his mouth, but Audrey's delighted voice came from behind him. "Celia! Are you traveling with us too?"

She hurried over dragging a suitcase, clearly having just arrived herself.

Miles swallowed whatever he had been about to say and answered stiffly, "No. She's late again."

See? His clock only ever ran on time for Audrey.

From the meeting time he had pushed three hours later just for me, to the open favoritism standing right in front of me now.

He had never intended to let me anywhere near their trip for two.

After a moment, Miles let out a helpless sigh.

He took the cleaned wedding ring from his pocket and gently slid it back onto my ring finger.

"Be good. We'll be back in seven days. Get the wedding ready, and I'll be there exactly on time.

"Now stop making trouble. I won't even deduct points for being late, okay?"

He was certain I was still the Celia who would wait forever, become jealous whenever he and Audrey crossed a line, and calm down the moment he offered one promise.

But he was wrong.

Once I had truly decided to leave, even explaining myself felt unnecessary.

I watched the two of them walk away, pulled off the ring, dropped it into a trash bin, and headed toward a different gate.

Toward a future without him.

Seven days later, Miles landed and went straight from the airport to the wedding venue, arriving at the exact scheduled minute.

The moment he stepped inside, he stopped.

The ballroom was empty. There was no wedding and not a single guest.

Unease tightened in his chest.

He caught the venue manager, Gwen Halloway, by the arm. "Isn't Celia's wedding supposed to be here today? Where is everyone?"

Gwen looked genuinely confused.

"Ms. Monroe? She canceled every future wedding reservation a week ago. I heard she moved overseas."