The full moon glowed so beautifully across the night sky. Its brightness was illuminated on earth, providing natural light in the silent night.

“Slow down,” Stephenie said as she gulped. She felt a little car sick again.

A trace of fear flashed in her eyes.

Edward glanced at her. “Are you sure?”

Stephenie’s cheeks heated slightly. His question instantly reminded her of their conversations in the hotel bed the night before yesterday.

“Slow down, or I’ll throw up in your car. Your call,” she said like a warning, hiding the embarrassment she was feeling.

The second round of the game ended with 2-0 in favor of Edward.

‘Does he really have to drive so fast? We’re already in the downtown area,’ she thought.

However, Edward seemed to ignore her warning and still went his own way.

Stephenie’s entire face was as white as paper now. Bullets of sweat trickled from her forehead. She couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened earlier.

She felt like Edward would mercilessly hit her earlier. When he stepped on the brake, Stephenie’s legs were only a millimeter away from touching the hood of his car.

For a while, she was already convinced that she would die that time.

The scene from earlier didn’t leave her mind ever since.

The two women, on the other hand, became stressed and panicked. Edward’s distance from Stephenie was so close that the other drivers needed to hit their partners if they wanted to win.

Of course, the other drivers were competitive. However, their female partners were so scared that they ran away before the car could even halt, scared that they would be hit. According to the rules, the driver would automatically lose if the female partner moved during the game.

Stephenie knew that if she weren’t so scared that her body completely went still, she would also run for her life at that moment.

“Are you crying?” A mocking voice entered her ears.

Stephenie turned away and stared at the scenery outside. She took a deep breath, trying to keep her tears at bay.

Silence filled the entire ride. A few minutes later, Edward stopped his car in front of Stephenie’s apartment.

Stephenie hurriedly unfastened her seat belt, grabbed her bag, and opened the car door. She didn’t even say anything to Edward. The latter, however, caught her wrist and made her sit in the car again.

Stephenie’s head snapped toward him. Her piercing gaze met his eyes. Using his chin, Edward pointed at the outside. She turned her head and saw John standing nearby.

Instinctively, Stephenie ducked her head and opened her bag. She took out her phone and saw several missed calls from John.

Edward chuckled and patted her head as if he was comforting her. “I can’t stand women who cry. But since you behaved well and helped me win the game, a little reward from me wouldn’t hurt.”

Edward’s flashy car was difficult not to be noticed by anyone. Of course, John saw it as soon as it arrived.

He stared at the parked car and noticed how it vibrated repeatedly. He cleared his throat, aware of what the people inside the car were doing.

John was worried about Stephenie, so he went to her apartment. He wanted to tell her that she shouldn’t go home since it was already dark outside her apartment, but she wasn’t picking up his calls.

Minutes had already passed, and he had already decided to go to Margin to check if she was working overtime.

John glanced at the car again. The window on the driver’s seat was half open, so he instantly recognized who it was.

“Edward?” John exclaimed as he walked toward the car. “Is this your new car?”

His eyes widened when he realized that Edward wasn’t alone inside. A woman was sitting on his lap, and her arms were encircled around his neck. John couldn’t see the woman’s face since her head was buried in Edward’s neck.

It was dark inside the car, so John could barely see them. Only a small area of the woman’s skin on her nape was exposed. A band-aid was also placed on her neck.

Sensing that he might have caught Edward at the wrong time, he backed away and smiled awkwardly. “Let’s catch up next time, alright?”

“Why are you here?” Edward asked, ignoring his statement.

“Stephenie lives here,” he answered and pointed at the building.

“Oh,” Edward said meaningfully. “What a coincidence.”

John’s brows knitted in confusion. “Why are you here?”

Edward smirked. “Not obvious enough?” He adjusted in his seat, making the mysterious woman groan.

John grimaced. He wasn’t fond of witnessing these things. He gave Edward another awkward smile. “Well, I’ll get going now. I’m going to fetch Stephenie at her workplace.”

John started to walk away until he heard Edward shout his name.

“Are you and Alan going to do this all the time?”

Confusion was etched on John’s face. “What? What’s wrong with us?” he asked.

Edward’s cold brown eyes flickered with something, but John wasn’t able to notice it. “Nothing. I hope you and Stephenie will have a happy and healthy relationship.”

“Thanks, man. Our relationship’s great. You know what I went through just to be with her, right? She’ll be happy as long as she’s with me. I promise.”

Edward didn’t reply. Instead, he rolled up the window before John could see the sarcasm in his eyes.

The woman in his arms silently kissed his ear. Edward turned to her and smiled. He saw the car shake more violently. The woman’s palm was pressed on the window, which was already fogged by the sweat of the people inside.

The image of the woman’s nape popped into his mind again. He didn’t know why but he felt like he had already seen it before.

Stephenie groaned as she put on her clothes. Her legs would hurt tomorrow, for sure. She quickly buttoned her top, wanting to get out of the car as soon as she could.

Her body was covered with sweat, and the smell of the car and Edward stuck to her skin like a magnet. She badly needed a shower. Now.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Edward asked with a frown.

Stephenie sneered at him. Unlike her, he obviously enjoyed the little stunt they pulled earlier.

“What do you want me to do? Hang out with you inside this car a little longer? Besides, you badly need to shower.”

Edward chuckled grimly. The darkness inside the car didn’t do justice to his handsome face.

“Isn’t it too late to think about my hygiene now? Hmm?”

“What are you talking about?” Stephenie batted her eyelashes innocently. “I’m just worried about your health, okay?”

Edward pursed his lips as he stared at her. Without any word, he stretched out his hand, grabbed her waist, and pushed her back to the passenger seat.

“Why would I look for somebody else when this beautiful woman is already sitting in my front seat?” he teased.

The two stared into each other’s eyes and didn’t say anything.

After a while, Edward finally let her go. Stephenie felt her legs tremble as she climbed out of the car, probably from all the things they did today.

Edward stared at her while she limped her way to the apartment. “Are you sure you’re going to make it to your place with that pace? I can carry you upstairs,” he said.

Stephenie turned her head and glared at him. The man only shrugged his shoulders.

As soon as she arrived at her place, Stephenie’s phone rang. She answered John’s call and explained that she had a meeting with Monica at the coffee shop to revise some plans.

“You scared me there, Stephenie,” John sighed.

“I know. I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“I’m glad you’re safe and okay,” John replied. “I was just worried because you told me you just had your period, and Mom asked me to bring some medicine for you.”

Stephenie smiled. “Periods are a normal thing for us, you know. Tell your mother I said thanks.”

“You know my mother, Stephenie. She’s always worried about your health. She’s scared that a small illness can affect your body and chances of getting pregnant in the future,” John muttered quietly.

Stephenie fell silent.

Although he couldn’t see her expression, John thought Stephenie probably felt shy about his statement. A faint blush also appeared on his face. “I-I mean, I’m not insinuating anything. Don’t drink the meds if you don’t feel like it. It’s totally up to you.”

Well, this was not the first time that John’s mother hinted to them about having a baby.

A few years ago, she convinced the couple to get married, but John told her that Stephenie was still studying. He also didn’t want to pressure his girlfriend.

But recently, John’s mother always advised them that having a baby before marriage was okay.

With eight years of being in a relationship, no one would think that the couple had not done it yet.

Stephenie was a sophomore in college when she started dating John.

Stephenie was willing to be intimate with him, but it was John who insisted that they should wait until they got married. Not to mention that Stephenie was too shy to initiate things like that.

One time, they went on a trip with friends. They had to share one room, so Joyce, her not-so-good-influence friend, encouraged her to tempt her boyfriend a little bit. So, Stephenie went out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel around her body.

However, the brute didn’t do anything.

They spent the rest of the night just lying in bed and talking about random things.

“I want to be a responsible and honest man,” John told Stephenie once. He really treated such activity as sacred and promised himself that he would only do it on their wedding night.

Of course, Stephenie respected his belief. She even felt touched when she learned about this.

Unlike her, Joyce was not convinced of John. She warned her friend that no sane man would say no to temptation and desire. So, it’s either John was not interested in her or had some manhood issues. And his belief was just a made-up excuse.

Stephenie thought that Joyce was being ridiculous. She told her that she was just being judgmental and she believed her boyfriend.

For her, if there was only one good man in the world, it must be John.

But now, everything she believed in shattered in front of her.

She was crushed to the bone. Exhaustion had already conquered her system.

After she hung up the call, Stephenie sat on the sofa and started removing her clothes.

She stared at her reflection in the long mirror in front of her.

A small bruise formed on her forehead. She remembered how her head hit the window earlier when the taxi driver suddenly stepped on the brakes.

Then, earlier, Edward thought it was fun to poke her bruise, in which he earned a bite mark on the shoulder from Stephenie.

She turned on the shower. The warm water drizzled on her body like rain. Stephenie closed her eyes and recalled the conversation between Edward and John earlier.

‘Well, it’s really true that they were not exactly friends,’ she thought.

Stephenie spent the next few days busy with her drawings and designs.

But despite all the things she had been doing, the nagging feeling about her boyfriend didn’t leave her mind ever since.

Joyce had always seen Stephenie as the calm and trusting girlfriend. She was obedient and didn’t even think about flirting with other men. Sometimes, Joyce would even complain about her being too prudent and lame.

Joyce believed that women should have fun from time to time and not stay too faithful or clingy to their boyfriends. Or else the men would quickly lose interest in them.

According to her, Stephenie and John’s relationship was dull. They seemed like an old domesticated couple who acted like they had been married for years. Joyce sometimes asked her friend if she ever got bored of her relationship with John.

Stephenie, on the other hand, would answer the same thing over and over again. She would defend their relationship by saying they were comfortable with each other and simply going with the flow.

Unlike Stephenie, Joyce’s relationships had been eventful. She had witnessed her friend suffer from heartbreak and exhaustion, which made her feel sad and scared at the same time.

Although she admired Joyce’s fearlessness and courage, Stephenie felt like this type of thing was not for her.

One of the things that she learned from her parents was to be sure and careful with whatever she did.

Still, John cheated on her. And all she wanted was to give him a taste of his own medicine.

If he cheated on her with his best friend, she would cheat on him with his so-called friend.

‘You want to be with Alan? Well, I won’t make it too easy for you,’ she thought.

Later that night, Stephenie asked John to fetch her to the office. She told him he should do it every night since she didn’t feel safe going home alone.

She also asked for some popular snacks from Rita and then asked John to buy them for her.

Just like what Stephenie had expected, Alan was with John every night.

They worked together in the same company, so it wasn’t a surprise that they both leave from work at the same time. She also heard that Alan didn’t know how to drive, so John would always give him a free ride.

Before, Stephenie was cool with the idea. Of course, there was nothing wrong with helping a friend.

But recently, she would always notice things about the two. For one, John and Alan had the same phone model. Their clothes would also come from the same brand or wear the same color of shirts on the same day.

Alan always sat in the passenger seat. But for the first time, Stephenie wanted to sit beside her boyfriend.

Before, every time John would pick her up, she would automatically sit in the backseat.

“Thanks for warming the seat for me, Alan,” Stephenie said with a smirk. Alan only smiled at her.

The car slowed down as the traffic light turned red. Stephenie bit the snack she was eating before offering it to John.

“Try this, babe.”

John leaned closer to her and opened his mouth. While chewing, Stephenie suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled up on his chest.

John chuckled at her girlfriend’s sudden clinginess. “Hmm… You’re suddenly clingy these past few days.”

“Why? Can’t I hug you?” Stephenie pouted her lips. She secretly glanced at Alan over John’s shoulder. “I’m just stressed from work, that’s all.”

John listened to her talk about work. He softly rubbed her back and said, “I’ll talk to Edward later, okay? I’ll ask him if he can do something about your co-workers.”

“Is that okay?” Stephenie softly asked.

“Of course,” John answered and smiled. “Edward’s a playboy. His father thought it would be best if he trained him in that real estate subsidiary to tame him. So, Edward’s eager to finish his job as soon as he can.”

Stephenie chuckled. “You better work hard and marry me, Mister. That way, I can quit my job and depend on your money,” she joked.

John snorted at her statement. Knowing how workaholic Stephenie was, he doubted that she would really stop working.

“Are you willing to resign, though?”

“Of course! Why not?” Stephenie sat up properly and stared at him.

“I want to get married, John. I mean it.”