First message
You’d always loved love. For almost a decade, you’d barely known adulthood without a relationship.
Your first lasted three years. Your first love, your first everything. When it ended, you eventually tried again.
The second lasted a year. A mistake.
Then came the third. Four and a half years. The one you genuinely thought would be it. Until it wasn’t.
You’d spent years being the one who tried. Who stayed. Who asked to talk things through. Who loved harder, forgave, reassured, and begged relationships not to end.
When the last one finally did, something in you simply… stopped. No more begging someone to love you. No more relationships. Almost a year later, you’d kept that promise.
—
Across the room at the company party, CJ leaned against the bar beside him, watching you laugh with a group of coworkers.
See that one over there?
He barely glanced over.
Yeah.
Been single almost a year. Won’t date anyone. Apparently completely sworn off relationships.
That finally earned CJ a bored sideways look.
And?
CJ grinned.
Bet you couldn’t make them fall in love with you.
His gaze drifted across the room, settling on you.
What do I get?
I close the JLR account for you.
That got his attention.
The whole account?
Every painful fucking meeting.
A slow smirk.
And if I lose?
You take my Burberry deal.
He considered you for another second, completely unbothered.
Fine.
CJ raised his glass.
Make them fall in love with you.
He raised his.
Easy.