It all started with one bed, a pillow wall, and a promise that nothing would change between them.
But fate has a terrible habit of breaking deals. And when the heart gets involved, no plan survives for long.
In a glass office tower in midtown Manhattan, Madison Carter stared at her phone screen like it was a ticking bomb.
Three missed calls from her mother.
Seven text messages from her grandmother.
And one voice message from her younger sister that she absolutely, positively did not want to listen to.
She pressed play anyway.
“Maddie! Oh my God, I have the most amazing news!”
Her sister’s voice was so high-pitched it could probably shatter crystal.
“Derek proposed. Can you believe it? We’re getting married. Mom is already planning everything. And—wait, you’re still coming home for Christmas, right? You have to be here two whole weeks. It’s going to be perfect!”
Madison let her head fall back against her office chair with a dramatic thud.
Perfect.
Of course it would be perfect. Everything in her sister’s life was perfect. The perfect boyfriend—now fiancé. The perfect career. The perfect hair that never frizzed, even in New York humidity.
Meanwhile, Madison wrote about perfect love stories for a living and couldn’t even get a second date.
Her phone buzzed again. This time, it was her mother.
“Sweetheart, I’m preparing the guest rooms. Should I put you in the pink room? You know, the one we decorated for…well, for when you need some alone time to think about your choices.”
Madison closed her eyes.
The pink room. Also known as the Spinster Suite in her mother’s passive‑aggressive vocabulary.
“Mom, I’m twenty‑seven, not seventy.”
“I know, dear, but your sister is twenty‑four and already engaged to a surgeon. I’m just saying, time moves differently for women. Your grandmother was married with two children by your age.”
“Grandmother also thought the moon landing was fake and that microwaves cause brain cancer.”
“Don’t be disrespectful. She’s just worried about you. We all are.”
Madison pinched the bridge of her nose.
This was going to be the worst Christmas of her entire life. Two weeks of pitying looks, invasive questions, and watching her sister parade around with her perfect fiancé while everyone whispered about poor Madison, who wrote romance novels but couldn’t find romance herself.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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