As Sloane finally lets her boyfriend see her luxurious penthouse, he proposes the next day.

However, when a sudden “disaster” strikes, his loyalty crumbles. What he doesn’t know? It’s all a test… and she’s been watching closely.

I don’t usually play games, especially with people.Cozy couples retreats

Yet, something about Ryan’s timing felt too polished, too sudden… like he’d skipped a few pages in our story and jumped to the part where I say “yes” with stars in my eyes.

Spoiler: I did say yes.

Just not for the reason he thought.

Ryan and I met eight months ago at a dive bar downtown, one of those dimly lit places where the cocktails are all whiskey-based and the bartenders wear suspenders like it’s a religion.

We talked about everything that night, late 20s burnout, startup dreams, childhood regrets.

He was smart. Charismatic. Ambitious in a restless, surface-level kind of way.

And as he kissed me outside under a busted neon sign that blinked like it couldn’t decide what mood it was in, I thought that maybe this could be something.

And it was. For a while.

But here’s the thing about charm, it can start to sound like a script.

By our third month together, I noticed the patterns. We always went to his apartment.

A cramped one-bedroom in a building that smelled faintly of incense and despair.

He called it “charming.” I called it “no hot water after 10.”

Ryan always paid for dinner but only if we ate somewhere cheap. He talked about “materialistic women” and “tired gold-diggers” like it was a rehearsed speech he knew well. I started realizing that he spent a lot of time talking about what he didn’t want in a partner and very little time asking me what I wanted.

What Ryan didn’t know?

2 years ago, I sold my AI-powered wellness startup to a tech giant for seven figures.

I’d spent my early 20s living on instant ramen and building backend code between shifts at a co-writing space that smelled like ambition and burnt coffee.

The acquisition was clean, and I reinvested most of it. Between that, advisory roles, and a few early crypto plays I cashed out of just in time, I was more than fine. Now, I worked at another tech company, helping build them up and keep myself busy.

But I never dressed the part.

I wore clothes that weren’t name brands but fit well on my body. I drove my old car because it had been my father’s and he had passed it down to me. And I hadn’t brought Ryan home because I needed to know who he was before he saw what I had.

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