Page 12 of Knot Your Bridezilla (High Fructose Corn Syrup Verse #2)

DAVID

It felt like I was losing a woman that I’d never had to begin with. She was gorgeous, confident and everything I’d ever wanted—and I was never going to let her go without taking her on a single date… without ever pursuing her… without tasting those plush lips just one single time?

Why? Because she was getting married in four months.

It’s not that I’m opposed to marriage—I’m not.

Marriage was always something that I wanted, and it is really important to me that I make the right choices.

The problem was, I’d never even met a woman who I’d wanted to marry—not until Avril. She was everything that I never knew I wanted.

From the moment I saw her, I craved her.

But both of my parents had always made it clear that their relationship with one another had not been their first. Before getting together, my parents had each gotten a divorce.

They had made it a point to drill into me that marriage wasn’t a joke, and that I should really know my partner before getting married.

Blah, blah, blah… marriage could lead to financial ruin and heartbreak… blah, blah, blah.

None of their advice applied to me because I was never once tempted to seriously pursue a girl. No omega or beta had ever caught my attention—until Avril.

Could I let her slip through my fingers?

It wasn’t as if I didn’t know if I wanted her or not—I had never wanted anyone or anything as much as I wanted Avril.

Watching her come to my bar, night after night… it was pure torture.

Was that why she was only willing to date losers? Was it because she thought that only some pathetic asshole would be willing to marry her within that short of a timeframe?

God, Avril was opening herself up to a world of pain if she decided that one of these losers was acceptable… if she actually went ahead and tied herself romantically and financially to one of them…

Every single guy that she had brought to my bar had been covered in massive red flags. Whenever I thought that it couldn’t get any worse, she went on a new date—and it was.

I had a hard time imagining a worse date than the guy who had brought his mother.

But then there was the one date with the guy who had sat there picking his nose when Avril had gotten up to go to the bathroom.

If that was the kind of thing he would do in public, I had no desire to know what he got up to behind closed doors.

I’d obviously kept my eye on him, because Avril left her fucking drink unattended on a first date.

Who did that?

Why did this girl have zero survival skills? How was she still alive?

Fuck.

I was honest enough with myself to realize that one of the biggest reasons I had a hard time seeing her with all those guys was because it should have been me.

I should be the one sitting next to her, making her laugh…

and instead of going after her like I wanted, I had to watch the poorest excuses for men—men who were scraped from the bottom of the barrel, men who had less sex appeal than pond scum—those were the guys that Avril chose to bring to my bar, night after night.

I really didn’t understand it at all.

Was her taste in men broken somehow? But she was attracted to me. I could tell that she was interested in me. When I’d flirted with her for the first time, I’d never seen her more pleased.

Then all the chemistry brewing between us had fizzled out the moment Avril revealed her wedding plans.

She could tell that I wasn’t on board with marrying someone after four months. It was clear as day that the look on her face had gone from hopeful to hurt in the space of moments.

The worst thing was that I didn’t even think that her idea was that crazy. What the hell would I have done in that situation? If I had spent literally thousands of dollars on a wedding, I sure as hell would want to figure out a way not to lose it all.

I knew enough about weddings to realize that a lot of the deposits were nonrefundable.

I certainly wouldn’t be okay with seeing my life savings go down the drain just because my ex had been an idiot.

Seeing all your dreams die because your partner went and stuck their genitals where they weren’t supposed to go?

No.

That was bullshit.

That would be like letting the ex win. I would rather die than let my ex get one over on me.

But that didn’t mean the answer was for me was to marry her.

It was beyond psychotic to go on a first date with somebody knowing that they had a literal wedding with you planned in a few months.

At worst, my parents would disown me for it.

At the very best, they would quietly watch my relationship with my new wife like a hawk, waiting for any signs that things were going downhill, just so that they could swoop in and tell me that they’d told me so.

God. Damn. That.

So what other options did I have?

I couldn’t marry her. No matter how much I wanted her, that wasn’t how relationships worked.

But why did the responsible choice have to be watching my woman walk away from me and into the arms of some man who was all wrong for her?