Chapter 1

One week before the wedding, the hotel suddenly notified me that my reception booking had been canceled.

I rushed to open the booking app and swiped to the order page. The status indeed read *Canceled*, and the timestamp showed it was done three days ago.

For this wedding, my fiancé, Ethan, and I had stayed up for three consecutive nights. We compared prices venue by venue and tasted every single dish on the menu.

How could it be canceled? The hotel must have made a mistake.

I dialed the hotel's number, and someone picked up almost immediately.

"Hi, I’m the coordinator for the wedding booked for May 20th."

"I just received a notification saying the reception was canceled. Is there a glitch in your system?"

The receptionist paused for a second.

"Ma'am, our records show that a Mr. Ethan Carter came to the front desk in person three days ago to complete the cancellation. He signed the paperwork himself."

"Maybe you should double-check with him?"

The receptionist’s voice was still echoing in my ear, and my fingers holding the phone went cold.

Canceled three days ago?

But three days ago, Ethan was still discussing the invitation designs with me.

He was still asking if the bridesmaids' dresses were the right shade of blush, and if we should do another makeup trial this weekend.

I hung up, standing frozen in the living room, staring at the wedding itinerary spread out on the coffee table.

The door lock clicked.

I heard the familiar sound of Ethan kicking off his shoes at the entryway.

"Maya, I got those artisan cronuts you love," his voice called out from the hallway.

"I stood in line for half an hour. Managed to snag the very last box."

I didn’t move.

He walked in carrying the bag, a bright smile on his face. When he looked up and saw me, his smile faltered.

"What's wrong? Why are you just standing there?"

I watched him put the bag on the coffee table. I watched him open the box, get out the forks, and hand one to me, just like he always did.

"Try one. They're still warm."

I didn’t take it.

"Ethan."

"Is there something you need to tell me?"

His hand froze mid-air.

Then, he slowly set the fork back on the box. He looked up at me, forced that same smile back onto his face, and said, "Like what? Oh, about my mom visiting this weekend? She just texted me—"

"About the hotel."

He went completely silent.

The living room fell dead quiet.

He stood on one side of the coffee table, and I stood on the other. Between us was a table littered with wedding pamphlets and seating charts.

"The hotel coordinator called me today. She said you walked up to the front desk three days ago and canceled everything."

Ethan looked down, his eyes scanning the papers on the table.

"Maya," he started, his voice incredibly quiet. "I was actually just about to talk to you about this."

"Talk to me? About what?"

"The wedding."

He finally looked up to meet my eyes.

"I just feel like all of this is so unnecessary. It’s a massive waste of money. Look at this catering bill—thousands of dollars for a venue, thousands more for dinner, just for a few hours of partying."

"And the planner, the DJ, the photographer... that’s another ten grand. If we save this money, think of what we could actually do with it."

I stared at his moving lips, barely processing his words.

"But we already agreed on this, Ethan."

"You were the one who said a wedding only happens once in a lifetime. You said it didn't matter if we went a little over budget."

"You said we needed a top-tier photographer so we wouldn't have any regrets when we looked back at the photos."

"I thought about it more, and I realized it's just not worth it."

"Honestly, young couples don’t even do big weddings anymore. An elopement trip is so much better. It saves money and stress. We could go to Napa Valley—you’ve always wanted to go there, right?"