Contract Marriage: I Will Never Love You

Marcus

She’s gone before I can say another word, heels clicking against the tile.

I don’t move, still feeling mesmerized.

That was supposed to go differently. Charm her, disarm her, give her the flowers, slide the job offer in there like it was no big deal. Maybe let the tension simmer just enough that she’d start to wonder what if?

But instead, Hailey stood there like a flame I couldn’t hold, blazing with something I don’t know how to name.

Conviction. Disgust. Clarity.

It bruised my ego a bit, not gonna lie.

"Disappointed," I mutter to myself.

She said she was disappointed in me. Like I’m some schoolboy who brought the wrong pencil to class. Like I’m not Marcus Winters—media mogul, branding genius, the man who built Luxe from the ground up.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? She didn’t look at me like I was a god.

She looked at me like I was a letdown.