Chapter 3

3.

The three of us just sat there staring at each other.

When Maddox came back that night, he seemed to have fixed his mood.

He couldn’t help showing off again.

“Juliette knew I was having a bad day, so she ordered me Nobu. This one meal cost like four hundred bucks.”

He held up a fancy black takeout bag and put it on display.

But I clearly saw the receipt ― it was addressed to me. Kaelan.

Probably because he used my photos. To make it look real, he even used my name.

The other guys lost it.

“No way! Nobu? That place is impossible to book!”

“Juliette Sterling is that into you? Maddox, you hit the jackpot, man.”

Maddox chuckled and opened the box.

“Of course she is. She said I’m the most real guy she’s ever met in her fake little world.”

He didn’t need any prodding. He just started spilling everything about Juliette.

“She’s tired of all those rich playboys. She likes guys who are gentle, homey, into animals.”

He kept going, like he was living in a dream.

“She said her favorite is clean-cut short hair and white button-downs. Fresh, natural, sunshine-boy style.”

“But your hair is a messy buzz cut,” Sawyer pointed out. “And you always wear that old hoodie.”

Maddox choked on his words.

Then he got angry and changed the subject.

Short hair and white shirts, huh? Juliette Sterling...

I’ll gladly take this “girlfriend” off your hands.