Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English | NEW
Synopsis
On the first day of our relationship, I received a Venmo request from my new boyfriend.
"Just dropped you off. 2.6 miles. Gas was $2.80, so your half is $1.40."
I stared at the screen for half a second, almost bursting into laughter.
I thought he was joking. But before I could reply, his next message popped up.
"Moving forward, we split all expenses fifty-fifty."
"It's not that I'm cheap. I genuinely respect you as an independent woman."
"It's all about gender equality these days. I can't treat you like you need special privileges, right?"
I stared at the words, my mind completely blank.
Then, I sent him two dollars through PayPal.
He accepted it instantly, followed by a refund notification.
"You sent sixty cents too much. Sent it back. We agreed on fifty-fifty—I don't take advantage of people."
Looking at that sixty-cent refund, I couldn't help but chuckle.
Thank God we were only dating, not married.
I accepted the refund, tapped out a text, and dumped him on the spot.
Right after I sent the breakup text, my phone rang.
"What is this supposed to mean? Why are you breaking up with me out of nowhere?"
His voice carried obvious confusion, mixed with a hint of annoyance.
"Look, Chloe, you owe me an explanation."
"We're just not compatible," I said calmly, leaning back against my sofa.
"Just because I asked you to split the gas?"
He sounded as if he'd just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world, his pitch shooting up.
"You're breaking up with me over two dollars? Don't you think you're being way too dramatic?"
"It's not about two dollars."
"It's about your mindset."
"What's wrong with my mindset?" he snapped. "I have principles! I respect you! How many girls out there scream about wanting independence and equality? I actually practice it, and you're mad? What do you actually want from me?"
I took a deep breath, realizing that arguing with him was a complete waste of time.
"Austin, save the lecture. We're just not a match."
"You—"
He paused, his voice suddenly softening.
"Chloe, I'm doing this for your own good."
"I don't want people calling you a gold digger. I'm protecting your reputation, don't you get it?"
I nearly laughed out loud at his twisted logic.
"Thanks for your concern, but no thanks."
"Why are you being so ungrateful?" His tone hardened again. "I chased you for two whole months! We finally made it official, and you dump me on day one? Are you playing games with me?"
Without another word, I hung up.
Before I could even put my phone down, a barrage of texts flooded in, full of accusations and self-righteous lectures.
I muted his notifications, tossed my phone aside, and sank deep into the cushions.
My mind involuntarily wandered back to how he acted when he was pursuing me.
He wasn't like this at all back then.
During those two months, Austin pulled out all the stops.
Morning texts, night texts, random DoorDash deliveries of my favorite iced matcha lattes to my office.
Whenever I worked late, he'd show up outside my office building without me even asking, insisting on driving me home because he "worried about me being out late alone."
Back then, I thought he was generous. A stand-up guy who didn't sweat the small stuff.
I scrolled through our chat history. Since we met, he'd spent at least a couple hundred bucks on me.
He had never once mentioned going Dutch. I genuinely believed he cared about me.
Yet on day one of being an official couple, he charged me for the gas it took to drive me home.
The more I thought about it, the more absurd it felt.
Was he looking for a girlfriend, or was he hiring an accountant?
If he counted pennies like this on day one, what would the future look like?
Splitting dinner down to the cent?
Splitting movie tickets?
Splitting rent, utilities, and grocery bags fifty-fifty after marriage?
Splitting the hospital bill for childbirth fifty-fifty?
I let out a breath, relieved that his mask slipped so early.
At least it had only lasted one day. Nothing shameful about it—just a bullet dodged.
I took a hot shower, ready to sleep early for work tomorrow.
Just as I finished blow-drying my hair, the doorbell rang.
I peeked through the peephole, and my heart jumped into my throat.
Austin was standing in the hallway, holding a grocery bag, looking somewhere between furious and aggrieved.
I hesitated for a moment before unlocking the door, keeping it slightly ajar.
"How do you know my exact apartment number?"
"I drove you home so many times, of course I know."
He sounded totally entitled, already leaning his shoulder in to push his way inside.
"Let me in. We need to talk."
I blocked the doorway, refusing to budge.
"Say whatever you want right here."He looked at me, then thrust the bag in front of my face. It was filled with imported berries and fresh fruit.
"I bought these for you. All your favorites."
I didn't take it.
"Just say what you came to say. I have work tomorrow."
His expression shifted, his tone turning dark.
"Chloe, what are you pulling? I spent two months chasing you, spent hundreds of dollars, and you dump me after twenty-four hours?"
"You're totally playing me, aren't you?"
"I never asked you to spend that money."
"You did that on your own."
"You—"
Choked on his own words, his face flushed red.
"You're an ungrateful brat! Have you forgotten everything I did for you? You only care about that two-dollar gas charge?"
"I haven't forgotten how nice you were," I said, looking right into his eyes. "But I realized we have fundamentally different values when it comes to relationships. Cutting my losses early makes sense. What's wrong with that?"
"What different values?" His voice grew louder. "It's just because I asked you to split the gas! I told you, I was protecting you! Why can't you understand that?"
"Do you know how many guys trash their girlfriends behind their backs, calling them freeloaders just because they bought dinner? I didn't want anyone saying that about you!"
His mental gymnastics almost gave me a headache.
"Austin, you split a two-dollar-and-eighty-cent gas bill down to the cent. Name one person on this earth who would call a girl a gold digger over a dollar-forty."
He opened his mouth, completely speechless.
"It's just two bucks, was it really worth breaking up over?" he finally sputtered out.
"I don't think it's worth it either," I agreed. "So why didn't you just let it go?"
"Because I can't!" He shook his head aggressively. "Principles are principles! You don't break the rules just because the amount is small!"
I was completely done.
Fine. If you love your principles so much, go marry them.
"I've made myself crystal clear. We're done. Please leave."
I reached out to shut the door, but he slammed his palm against the frame, holding it open with shocking force.
"Don't you dare close this door."
He glared at me, his gaze suddenly turning predatory and unsettling.
"Let me tell you something, Chloe. You can't treat me like this."
"I literally just told my mom today that I have a girlfriend. My entire family knows about you now! You want to dump me now? How am I supposed to save face?"
I froze. "You told your family?"
"Of course I did!" He sounded thoroughly justified. "I pursued you for so long, we finally made it official, why wouldn't I tell them?"
"My mom was thrilled! She even offered to cook dinner for you this weekend. Now you want to break up? What am I supposed to tell her?"
I took a sharp breath, feeling my blood pressure spike through the roof.
"Telling your family is your business, not mine. We've been dating for literally one day and you're planning family dinners? Don't you think that's unhinged?"
"Unhinged?" He scowled. "We've known each other for two months! We have a solid emotional foundation. How is that too fast?"
A solid emotional foundation?
A foundation built on a dollar-forty Venmo request?
Communicating with him was an impossible task.
"Austin, I'm saying this for the last time. We are not compatible. We are broken up. Leave."
"No."
He pulled his hand off the door frame, took a step back, and plopped himself down flat on the hallway floor.
"If you don't take me back, I'm not leaving."
My eyes widened as I watched a grown man sit on the concrete floor outside my apartment. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
"What are you doing? Get up right now!"
"No."
He crossed his arms over his chest, wearing a defiant, shameless smirk.
"I'm staying right here until you agree. You're my girlfriend. I have every right to pursue you."My brain short-circuited.
Was this guy genuinely insane?
"Austin, how old are you? Sitting on the floor like a toddler? What happens when my neighbors see you?"
"I don't care," he said, jutting his chin out. "I want you to see my determination."
I took a deep breath, stepped backward, and slammed the door shut.
Looking through the peephole, he was still sitting there. He even pulled out his phone and started scrolling TikTok, occasionally glancing up at my door.
I stood there for two solid minutes. Seeing that he had zero intention of leaving, I pulled out my phone and dialed 911.
Ten minutes later, two police officers arrived.
Seeing the uniforms, Austin scrambled to his feet, putting on an innocent, victimized expression.
"Officers, I was just trying to talk to my girlfriend. She locked me out and wouldn't listen, so I had no choice."
The officers glanced between him and me. "What's the relationship here?"
"Ex-boyfriend," I stated firmly.
"She's my girlfriend," he blurted at the same time.
The officer frowned. "Which is it?"
"We broke up today," I said. "He refused to leave my doorstep, and he's trespassing. I want him off the property."
The officer turned to Austin. "Sir, she said it's over. You can't loiter here. Head on home."
Austin parted his lips, wanting to argue, but the stern look on the officer's face intimidated him. He turned and stormed toward the stairs, furious.
Before stepping into the stairwell, he threw a glare back at me—a cold, resentful glare that sent a chill down my spine.
I thanked the officers, locked the deadbolt, and latched the safety chain.
After all that chaos, I lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.
I couldn't stop wondering how on earth I had gotten involved with someone like this.
At first, he seemed passionate, attentive, considerate. Looking back, were all those favors just tactics of control?
He acts lavishly generous while chasing you, making you believe he's the ultimate gentleman.
The second you accept him, the ledger opens, charging you down to the drop of gas used to bring you home.
This wasn't a romance; it was a transaction.
I let out a heavy sigh, reminding myself that I had work in the morning, and forced my eyes shut.
At seven the next morning, my alarm went off.
I got dressed, grabbed my purse, and headed out.
The elevator doors opened to the lobby, and I froze.
Austin was standing right by the glass exit doors, holding a paper bag and a cup of Starbucks.
The moment he saw me, a broad, practiced smile spread across his face.
"Morning, Chloe! I brought you breakfast—bacon and egg bagel and an iced latte, just how you like it."
He thrust the bag toward me, acting as if nothing had happened.
As if he hadn't thrown a tantrum on my floor the night before.
I didn't reach for it.
"No, thank you."
"Come on," he insisted, shoving the bag into my hands. "You get an upset stomach if you skip breakfast, I know that. Look, I made sure they used oat milk, just like you prefer."
"Austin, I don't want anything from you."
"Why not? You used to take my treats all the time!"
"That was then, this is now." I pushed the bag back. "Back then, I thought you were a friend. Now, you're a stranger. Why would I accept anything from you?"
His smile cracked, but he quickly forced it back on.
"Don't talk like that. We only spent one night apart; the feelings are still there. Eat breakfast first, and we can talk things through calmly."
"There's nothing to talk through. I made that clear last night."
"So you're really not going to eat it?"
His tone shifted instantly. His hand holding the bag dropped to his side.
"I went out of my way to buy you breakfast, and you won't even look at it? Do you have any idea when I woke up? Six a.m.! I drove three miles just to hit that specific bakery, and this is how you treat me?""I never asked you to do that."
"You—" He sucked in a breath. "Fine! If you don't want to eat it, fine! But you owe me for your half of the breakfast! The bagel was eight bucks, the coffee was six—that's fourteen total. Just Venmo me seven dollars."
I looked at him, completely dumbfounded, almost amused by his sheer audacity.
"Weren't you just offering to treat me? Now you want to split it?"
"I offered, but you rejected it!" he barked with absolute conviction. "You not eating it is your problem! I bought it, so you pay your share. If you'd eaten it, it would've been my treat. That's fair!"
I was floored by his warped, predatory logic.
"Austin, do you honestly think the entire world owes you something?"
"I'm just being reasonable!"
"Oh, reasonable? Sure, let's talk reasonable." I nodded slowly. "Then let me ask you: over the past two months while you chased me, what about all those DoorDash orders, coffees, and that dinner? Should we calculate all of that too?"
He blinked, his eyes darting around. "Those were voluntary gifts. Those don't count."
"And this breakfast wasn't voluntary? Why should I have to pay half for something you voluntarily bought without asking?"
His mouth opened and closed, producing no words.
"Austin, do your principles change whenever it's convenient for you? When it benefits you, you preach principles. When it doesn't, you throw them out the window. That's not a principle—that's a double standard."
His face cycled through shades of red and pale white. He stammered before spitting out:
"You just don't want to be with me anymore, so everything I say is wrong!"
"You got that right. I do not want to be with you." I said every word with icy clarity. "Now move. I need to get to work."
He blocked the lobby door, standing stiff.
"Just tell me what I have to do for you to take me back!"
To my shock, his eyes welled up with tears, his voice cracking.
"I truly love you! I just... I'm just bad at dating! I can change, okay? I'll change!"
"Austin, don't bother changing."
"Go find a girl who shares your mindset. It's a huge world—there's bound to be someone willing to split every single penny with you. But that person will never be me."
I walked around him, pushed open the door, and stepped out onto the street.
He watched me walk away, his lips trembling, unable to form another sentence.
As I glanced back, I caught the exact moment his expression melted from pathetic longing into raw, toxic fury.
I sighed internally.
This was only day one. God knew what other psycho stunts he had planned.
I hailed an Uber to my office, resting my head against the cool window pane, utterly drained.
Between the sleepless night and his morning ambush, a dull migraine throbbed behind my temples.
My phone buzzed. A text from Austin:
*Chloe, you are truly heartless. I treated you so well, and you threw me away over nothing. If you keep acting like this, no one will ever love you genuinely. Don't come crying to me when you regret it.*
On the ride to work, I cursed my rotten luck.
I thought I'd finally met a decent guy, only to discover a manipulative, hypocritical stalker.
Next time, I'd keep my guard up. Actually, forget dating entirely.
Being single was fantastic. At least nobody was going to send me a Venmo request for gas.
At the office, I forced myself to focus, trying to bury the chaos under work tasks.
My coworker Maya asked why I looked so pale, and I just claimed I hadn't slept well. She didn't pry.
The rest of the day passed quietly. I foolishly thought the nightmare was over.
At five p.m., I packed up my desk to go home.
Just as I stepped out of the office tower, my phone rang from an unknown number.
Hesitating, I answered.
"Chloe."
It was Austin's voice. He was using a burner number.
I hung up immediately without saying a word.
He called again. Declined.
Again. Declined.
Then came a text: *Just wanted to let you know, I'm waiting outside your apartment door. Don't panic.*
I stared at the screen, a cold sweat breaking out across my palms.
Chapters (4)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Watch & Promotions
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