Breakup Fee

Word on campus was that breaking up with the bad boy, Ryder, came with a massive payout. All four girls in our dorm took turns dating him. I was the last one in line, but Ryder caught on to our little scheme. Suddenly, he flipped the rules on us: “You want my money? Marry me, and every last cent is yours.” 1 It all started when my roommate Sierra picked up a wild piece of gossip. Word was, every girl who dated Ryder and got dumped ended up with a gorgeous golden parachute. Ryder usually ignored girls from our university. He preferred micro influencers and aspiring starlets, the ridiculously glamorous type. After the breakup, those girls would suddenly upgrade their cars, move into luxury apartments, and sport designer bags. Sierra was easily the hottest girl in our dorm. At a campus event, she casually struck up a conversation with Ryder and somehow bagged him. Their relationship lasted less than a month before he cut her loose. True to the rumors, Ryder wired her fifteen thousand dollars on the spot and told her to keep all the designer clothes and handbags he had bought her. Faced with such an absurdly generous guy, Sierra did what any good friend would do. She handed us her battle strategy on a silver platter. “Keep it in the family, girls,” Sierra declared. “Ryder is actually easy if you just stay persistent. He loves girls in white sundresses with long black hair, ideally smelling like fresh roses.” She paused, adjusting her gloss. “He loves mint scent. Sprays mint cologne on himself every single day.” I winced slightly. I absolutely hated mint. “Whatever you do, do not wear mint perfume,” Sierra warned. “That is literally why he dumped me today. Oh, and he is a total germaphobe. Anyone within three feet of him basically needs to be sanitized first. Plus, his favorite hobby is spending money. If he does not buy something for a day, he gets restless.” Sierra rambled on about his likes and dislikes. My other two roommates, Paige and Fiona, took notes like they were studying for finals. Sierra glanced up and caught me staring. “Brooke, why aren’t you writing this down?” “Go ahead,” I said softly. “I will just copy your notes later.” 2 Armed with Sierra’s playbook, my other two roommates moved fast. Paige went next, though she lasted even shorter than Sierra. When Paige returned, she added a crucial update to our rulebook. “Do not touch his shoes. Especially his slippers.” Sierra gasped. “You were only together for two weeks and you got close enough to see his slippers?” Sierra had barely gotten within three feet of him in a whole month. “No, he was driving me back to the dorm today, and his shoes were uncomfortable, so he wanted to change in the car,” Paige explained. “His assistant handed a pair of slippers through the window. I casually reached out to take them, and Ryder immediately wired me fifteen grand and told me to get out.” Paige shook her head in disbelief. “He seems obsessed with those slippers. They were bright pink, too. Probably a souvenir from some ex.” A slipper obsession? I owned a dozen pairs of adorable slippers back home. Buying cute footwear was my secret addiction. If Ryder saw my collection, would he try to snatch them from me? 3 Next up was Fiona. She lasted exactly seven days. “Never drink the bottled water in his car,” Fiona warned us, dropping her designer bag on her bed. “I twisted the cap off today and took one tiny sip. He transferred the breakup fee on the spot and pulled over.” I shuddered. I drank water like a fish. I was doomed. I would probably get dumped in less than five minutes. “Maybe I should just pass,” I muttered. My three roommates were currently sitting on their beds, counting the zeroes in their bank accounts. Ryder had filled our shared wardrobe with luxury clothes and bags. We always shared our accessories, but my corner of the closet was looking painfully empty. Fiona was more anxious than I was. “If you do not go, another girl will snatch him up. The day he kicked me out of his car, three girls were literally pretending to get hit by his ride just to talk to him!” She had a point. Ryder was practically a walking ATM. If he was handing out cash anyway, why shouldn’t I get a cut? Encouraged by my roommates, I waited at the campus gates after class and blocked Ryder’s motorcycle. 4 I gathered every ounce of courage I had and asked Ryder for his contact info. He flipped open his visor, took off a spare helmet, and tossed it to me. “Get on. One lap around the block, and you get my number.” I had seen him ride before. He rode fast. Terrifyingly fast. Remembering Sierra’s warning about his germaphobia, I asked timidly, “Can I hold onto you?” Ryder slid his visor down. “Suit yourself.” I strapped on the helmet and climbed onto the back seat. The moment he pulled away, the engine roared, and the wind whipped past us. I panicked, gripping his jacket tightly, terrified of falling off. The bike eventually pulled up outside an amusement park. Ryder took off his helmet and looked back at me. “Want to ride the pirate ship?” I shook my head rapidly. “No way. I am terrified of heights.” My roommates made it sound so easy. A simple confession and he said yes. Why was getting his contact info feeling like an obstacle course? “Ferris wheel, then,” Ryder said flatly. It was not a question. He pulled out his phone and bought two tickets on the spot. The local Ferris wheel was famously nicknamed the Relationship Killer. Supposedly, every couple who rode it ended up breaking up. We were not a couple yet, but a breakup was my ultimate goal anyway. Breakup meant money. We sat opposite each other inside the glass cabin as it slowly ascended. Neither of us said a word until the cabin reached the very peak. Ryder leaned back, dark eyes locking onto mine. “Brooke, what exactly does your dorm take me for?” 5 Oh, no. He knew. No wonder he was pushing my buttons today. The terrifying height combined with his stern voice made my heart drop. “I… I am sorry.” He pulled out his phone, unlocked it, and displayed his QR code. “Add me.” My hands shook as I reached into my purse. “Too slow,” he grumbled, snatching my phone out of my hand. He scanned the code himself, typed something, and handed it back. I looked at the screen. He had saved his contact name as Hubby. “Isn’t this nickname a bit much?” I asked carefully. “The other girls from your dorm saved me the exact same way,” he said smoothly. Wait. The girls definitely never mentioned that. When we got down from the Ferris wheel, Ryder tossed the helmet back to me, mounted his bike, and rode me back to the dorm. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the wind felt much gentler on the way back. He was riding significantly slower. I handed the helmet back and practically bolted up the stairs. At least I hated mint. He was wearing his slippers on his bike, and there was no bottled water in sight, so at least I had survived day one. The moment I stepped inside, my three roommates swarmed me. “Brooke! How did it go? Did you pull it off?” I opened my phone and showed them his contact card. Paige gasped in disbelief. “Hubby? Brooke, you are bolder than all of us combined!” “Didn’t you guys save him like this too?” “Of course not!” They shoved their phones in front of my face. Their saved contacts read: Dumb ATM Oddball Moody Rich Kid None of them were even close to Hubby. That liar. 6 Early the next morning, my phone buzzed repeatedly with messages from Ryder. “Come downstairs. Breakfast.” “My favorite date activity is eating. Breakfast counts. Get down here.” “Eat up before class.” “Brooke, are you awake yet? Are you ditching your boyfriend already?” I rubbed my sleepy eyes and turned to my roommates. “Did you guys find him this needy when you dated him?” All three of them gave me bewildered looks. “Needy? He barely spoke two words to me!” Sierra exclaimed. “If he were needy, I would have extracted way more intel from him!” “Our chat history was literally just adding each other and transferring money,” Paige added. “He never replied to a single text I sent!” “I must still be dreaming,” Fiona mumbled, rolling over in her bed. “Going back to sleep.” Ryder’s messages kept flooding in. Reluctantly, I sent back a sticker of a running puppy. Bad news: he had zero patience. Good news: he had zero patience. My roommates had all been dumped within a month, two weeks, or a single week. Watching them count their money every night made my mouth water. I deeply regretted not paying closer attention when Sierra shared her advice. I put on a simple white sundress and headed downstairs. When I reached the main entrance, I saw Ryder standing with his back to the building, talking on the phone. As I walked closer, I accidentally overheard his low voice. “It is Brooke. She is the only girl I actually want to date, okay?” He was remarkably sharp. Hearing footsteps behind him, he cut the call immediately and turned around. “You did not hear anything, right?” he asked, his dark eyes narrowing slightly. “Nope! Heard nothing!” I squeaked. A faint smile touched his lips as he slid his phone into his pocket. “Let’s go. Breakfast is on me.” He pulled a bicycle out from the rack. Odd. My roommates insisted he rode around in luxury sports cars with a personal driver. Why was I getting motorbikes and bicycles? I sat sideways on the back seat and instinctively reached out to grab his waist, then remembered Sierra’s warning about his germaphobia and pulled my hand back. We hit a speed bump. Ryder didn’t slow down, and I bounced right off the seat. “Could you ride a little slower?” I yelped. “Hold on tight then, or you will get thrown off!” I reached out with one hand to grab his jacket. We hit another bump, Ryder tapped the brakes, and I slammed right into his back. My hand slipped forward, sliding from his spine around to his ribs, resting flat against his stomach. Solid, defined ridges. Abs! 7 I pulled my hand back immediately, my cheeks burning hot. I didn’t mean to touch him! I still wanted to keep my hand! Ryder tapped the brakes again. “Another bump coming up. Hold on to me.” The hand I had just pulled away went right back around his waist. When we arrived at the campus cafe, the university forum was already exploding with a fresh picture of Ryder. Everyone was asking what had put him in such a good mood. The photo was taken from the front. Ryder had a subtle, lingering smirk on his face. I was sitting behind him, my hair blowing wildly in the wind, completely hiding my face. Our dorm group chat went wild. “Why was he always scowling or sighing when he was with me? Since when does he smile like that?” “Brooke, what did you do to him? Did you turn him into some smirking simp?” Ryder walked back to our table carrying a tray of food, and I quickly locked my screen. In front of me sat a hot bowl of pork porridge, a salted egg yolk pastry, juicy steamed buns, and warm black sesame milk. All my absolute favorites. For a second, I could not tell who was investigating whom. “You are too thin. Eat more,” Ryder said, placing the dishes in front of me one by one. Back in high school, the stress had caused me to put on twenty pounds. Once I got to college, I relaxed a bit and started dieting. Long term dieting had left me with a mild aversion to food, and I had even fainted twice from under eating. I had not seen a breakfast this delicious in months. After we ate, I met Sierra near the campus gate while saying goodbye to Ryder. He went to drop off our tray, and the forum comment section was already obsessively trying to identify the girl on his bike. If they figured out it was me, I was dead meat. 8 “Why wasn’t he this high profile when he was with you guys?” I groaned, rubbing my temples. Sierra browsed a shopping app on her phone, casually comforting me. “People change, Brooke. Besides, he used to refuse to date anyone on campus altogether.” She flipped her phone toward me. “It is getting chilly with all this rain lately. What do you think of this jacket?” A denim jacket. Five hundred dollars. Damn rich people. Damn Ryder. I needed to break up with him immediately. I opened my chat with Ryder. A new notification popped up instantly: Transfer received: $5,200. “I have stuff to handle at lunch. Get yourself something nice to eat. I will come find you tonight.” Sierra, who was standing right next to me, saw the unlocked screen. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. “He sent you cash? Fifty two hundred dollars?” I stared at the screen, equally shocked. “Didn’t he send you money too?” Sierra shook her head vigorously. “Never! He only bought gifts. The first couple of times, he invited me along to shop, asking what girls liked and what my dorm mates were into. He claimed he was doing market research and needed multiple opinions.” She shrugged. “Later on, he would just leave random items in his car whenever we met. Sometimes designer bags, sometimes jewelry. Free stuff is free stuff, so I never complained.” Sierra kept typing rapidly on her phone, chatting with someone unknown. When class ended, she waved at me. “Bye sweetie, I have a date!” “A date? You just broke up!” Sierra flipped her dark hair over her shoulder. “Darling, a girl like me is never short on options.” Right. I forgot. Sierra was that girl. Gorgeous, smart, confident, and outgoing. Every guy she ever approached ended up falling for her. That was precisely why she had been brave enough to hit on Ryder in the first place. Before leaving, Sierra leaned in and whispered mysteriously, “By the way, my new guy has incredible abs. So nice to touch. Not like your master Ryder, who won’t even let anyone lay a finger on him.” Actually, Ryder had abs too. I had just touched them this morning.

🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MotoNovel” app 🔍 search for “587991”, and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel