Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Julian Mercer narrowed his eyes and stared at the man across from him for ten full seconds.
Then he rubbed the bridge of his nose before asking, bewildered, “Wait. Are we talking about my love life?”
Adrian Vale nodded. “Yes.”
“You said the Matchmaker’s Office doesn’t have a red thread for me? Not even— not even a damn loose end?”
“That’s right.”
“Oh, screw you!”
Julian slammed his hand onto the table, knocking over the empty beer bottle beside him. He caught it before it hit the floor and swore, “Adrian, unless I’m remembering wrong, you teach philosophy. Since when did you start working as a matchmaker?”
Adrian smiled faintly, putting on an air of profound wisdom. “The end of philosophy is theology.”
“Give me a break! I got rejected by Claire today. I’m heartbroken, and I came here because I needed someone to vent to. Instead, you tell me I don’t even have a loose end to work with!”
Hearing that, the man across from him finally lost his composure. He burst into laughter that sounded like a crow cawing.
Seeing how delighted Adrian was by his misery, Julian really wanted to swing the bottle at him and knock him into next week.
Fortunately, he wasn’t drunk enough to do it. He glanced at the looks they were getting from the other customers in the barbecue joint, realized how embarrassing he was being, and slumped back into his chair. All he could do was roll his eyes at Adrian and let out a contemptuous snort through his nose.
Once he had laughed himself out, Adrian picked up two skewers of grilled kidney and held them out. “All right, all right. So you got rejected. It’s not the end of the world. It’s hardly your first time. You’ll get used to it. Here—eat these and cool off.”
Whether Adrian had said it thoughtlessly or had deliberately chosen the one subject guaranteed to hurt, he had certainly found the sore spot.
He wasn’t wrong. Ever since Julian had suddenly figured out what romance was at nineteen, he had been confessing his feelings to one girl after another.
Seven years had passed. Aside from his first love—who had accepted his confession and dated him for half a year—his romantic life had been one long disaster.
Luckily, Julian had a large heart, an almost ridiculous amount of confidence, and a remarkable talent for forgetting pain as soon as the wound stopped hurting.
Honestly, anyone with a slightly less resilient mindset would have started questioning their entire existence by now.
Chapter 2
“Old Adrian, do you know how they reject me?” Julian hugged two beer bottles to his chest and complained tearfully, having abandoned both dignity and self-respect. He was genuinely drunk by then. “Their excuses are unbelievable. You could twist your brain into knots and still never guess them!”
Adrian remained perfectly calm, washing down each bite of food with a mouthful of beer. “I can’t guess, then. Why don’t you tell me?”
“They all say, ‘I’m sorry. I’m not good enough.’” Julian pointed drunkenly at the air. “Listen to that! Is that supposed to be a nice thing to say? If one or two girls had said it, I could’ve ignored it. But I’ve confessed to almost twenty women, and every single time, it’s ended with ‘I’m not good enough.’ Even my first girlfriend used those exact three words when she broke up with me. Tell me! Tell me, is there something wrong with my character?”
He mumbled and complained while continuing to pour beer into his mouth. It ran down his neck and soaked into his shirt, but he didn’t seem to notice.
Professor Vale had clearly grown accustomed to Julian in this state. He simply ordered another plate of edamame and ate with great enjoyment.
When Julian realized he was being ignored, he kicked the leg of the table. “I’m asking you a question! How can you still be sitting there eating edamame?”
“No, no. There’s nothing wrong with your character. Relax.”
After dismissing him with practiced ease, Adrian picked up two peeled soybeans and reached across the table. “Want some?”
Apparently Julian was drunk enough to have forgotten what food was. He stared at Adrian’s hand. “What is that…?”
“Edamame. The after-dinner ‘dessert’ we order every time we get skewers. You love it.”
Julian took two slow seconds to process that. Then, still clutching the beer bottles, he leaned across the table like a child waiting to be fed and opened his mouth.
“Ah…”
Adrian shook his head helplessly, then placed the soybeans in Julian’s mouth. He even steadied Julian’s chin with one hand. “Don’t forget to chew, you drunk.”
Julian settled back against the chair and chewed. Before long, he started rambling again.
“What do they even mean? What are they trying to do? What’s wrong with me? If they have something to say, they should just say it! Why dance around the point? Do women really never say what they mean?”
Adrian didn’t take the bait. He let Julian carry on with his drunken rant while picking up a skewer of grilled chicken hearts. With a few light taps, he knocked the bits of chewed edamame Julian had sprayed from his mouth off the table—and then calmly went back to eating.
Chapter 3
Once the hangover had finally cleared, Julian Mercer took a long, hard look at his situation. This time, he was determined to figure out exactly how much information was hidden behind the words “I’m not good enough.”
So he arranged another meeting with the woman whose confession he had failed to win over last time. To his surprise, Claire Sterling agreed without the slightest hesitation.
They met at an outdoor café, where Julian asked the question that had been bothering him with complete sincerity. Maybe there was something wrong with his character. Maybe she simply hadn’t known how to say it outright.
Claire waved a hand. “Stop overthinking it. You’re a great guy! You’re good-looking, you have a good personality, and your income isn’t bad either. You’re perfectly qualified to be someone’s boyfriend. You don’t need to doubt yourself.”
“Then why did you reject me? And why say something as impossible to figure out as ‘I’m not good enough’? You weren’t the only person who said that to me, either. I want to know why.”
Claire suddenly covered her mouth, her eyes lighting up with delighted amusement. Seeing how completely he was being kept in the dark only made her laugh harder. Her shoulders shook as she tried to contain herself.
Julian stared at her, utterly baffled.
“All right, I’ll tell you,” Claire said at last.
She took a sip of coffee and forced down another laugh before continuing. “Someone came to me and asked me not to date you.”
“Someone did what?” Julian needed a few seconds to process that. Then his eyes widened. “I get it. That person was one of your other admirers, wasn’t he?”
A spark of hope flashed across his face. He leaned toward Claire, suddenly animated. “That doesn’t matter. I can compete with him fairly! In the end, whoever you choose, I promise I’ll respect your decision. Just give me a chance.”
“No, you misunderstood. He wasn’t pursuing me.”
He wasn’t one of Claire’s admirers? Then why had he gone out of his way to ruin Julian’s chances?
The more Julian thought about it, the more likely it seemed that this person had been targeting him from the beginning—working against him from the shadows for years.
An enemy hidden in the dark while he stood fully exposed. The situation couldn’t have been worse.
A chill crept up Julian’s back. He quickly searched his memory, thinking all the way back to kindergarten and running through everyone he had ever fallen out with. But he couldn’t think of a single bastard who could hold a grudge for that long.
“Did someone threaten you and tell you not to date me?” Julian asked.
Claire blinked and carefully considered her wording. “Threaten me is a bit strong. It was more like a very sincere request.”
“Do you know who it was? What did they look like? Why are they targeting me?”
Claire shrugged apologetically. “I’m sorry, but the details… I don’t really… um…” She hesitated, then gave up. “Anyway, I don’t know.”