Page 8 of The Love Haters

His brother was too awesome.

This guy had the coolest nickname in the world, for one: Hutch.

And things went downhill from there.

“He’s a total badass,” Cole explained, making me write it all down. “He’s morally upstanding and physically unstoppable. He does two hundred push-ups a day. He can hold his breath underwater for three minutes. He has never had a cavity. He’s more of a machine than a human. He just goes around all day doing good deeds.”

“So he’s… too likable?”

“He’s the opposite of likable! He’s perfect.”

“Not sure those are opposites.”

“He’s totally serious all the time. And he’s not a talker. He never talks. He never has fun. His main hobby is frowning.”

“Hishobbyis frowning?”

“He has no inner life,” Cole went on. “He’s all exterior, no interior.”

“Everybody has an inner life,” I argued.

“Not Hutch,” Cole said, likeTrust me. “He just works out, drinks water, eats healthy, and rescues people all day long. He never drinks. He won’t even have one beer. And he hasn’t dated anyone in a year.”

“So?” I said. That could happen.

“Wait till you see him.”

“What?”

Cole shrugged. “He’s good-looking, okay? A guy that good-looking doesn’t stay single unless he hates love.”

“You think hehateslove?”

“I’m just saying,” Cole said. “His life choices speak louder than words.”

Huh. “I haven’t dated anyone in a year. DoIhate love?”

“I don’t know,” Cole said. “Do you?”

It was a good question.

Maybe.

A year. I hadn’t noticed until I said it: I’d been single for a year.

But I hadn’t thought Ihated love. I’d thought I was just recovering from it.

You couldn’t hate love, could you? Was that even allowed?

But, actually… what had love ever done for me? Other than frustrate, exhaust, mislead, and disappoint me? Hadn’t it just been a waste of time and energy? Maybe I’d been too gullible. Watched too many Disney movies. Imprinted on too many nineties rom-coms.

Maybe I should have been a little more discerning.

“I don’t think I hate love,” I finally said to Cole. “But that’s actually not a bad idea.”

I PERSONALLY HADbeen jilted one year ago by my fiancé, the now-very-famous Lucas Banks. Who had been a perfectly nice unsuccessful musician for years—until one of his TikTok videos blew up on the very same night he asked me to marry him.

Truly: the ring had been on my finger about three seconds before his phone started buzzing with notifications that a song he’d posted that morning had hit 100,000 views. People were sharing it. And duetting it—adding instruments and harmonies. At first just ordinary people—but then, suddenly, Noah Kahan jumped in, and before dinner was done, it had over a million.Views.In one day.

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