I Sold My Backup Boyfriends to My Roommate

After my roommate found out I had three backup boyfriends, she gave me a teasing smile. “Honestly, I feel sorry for your future husband. “He’ll drain his savings on an engagement ring and a wedding, only to get a wife who’s already been passed around.” I paused. “Then… want me to sell you one?” Kelsey Vaughn’s eyes flew wide.

Chapter 1 “Buying one of your backup boyfriends… doesn’t feel right.” Kelsey’s gaze slid away. A stream of floating comments appeared in the air. [Girl, don’t hesitate!

The villainess’s three backup boyfriends aren’t ordinary men.] [One’s a buttonedup CEO, one’s a cocky pro racecar driver, and one’s a Manhattan oldmoney heir.

They’re rich, gorgeous, and all have eightpack abs.

I wouldn’t dare dream this big.] [Just thinking about our girl enjoying all three men the villainess worked so hard to reel in makes me giddy.] [I can’t wait for our girl to show up with her whole harem and crush the villainess.

She’ll go insane with jealousy and regret everything!] Shock crossed Kelsey’s face. Then disbelief.

At last, pure delight settled in. “You have three backup boyfriends, right? “I want all of them.” She said it like she was choosing three heads of lettuce at the grocery store.

A laugh slipped out of me. “I doubt you can handle all three at once. “I’ll transfer one to you first. “Once you’ve won him over, we can talk about the other two.” Kelsey hesitated, then nodded. “Fine.

Just don’t regret this later.” “I won’t.” I held out my hand. “One backup boyfriend costs fifteen thousand dollars.

Cash only.” Her eyes bulged. “You’re charging me? “Fifteen thousand? You might as well rob me!” I didn’t blink. “Oh. Then forget it.” The comments panicked. [No, girl!

Miss this chance and it’s gone!] [Those male leads are all billionaires. What’s fifteen grand?

Once you land them, getting a hundred and fifty million will be easy.] [The villainess is so shortsighted. A broke girl will always think small.

If she knew she was letting a billionaire slip away for fifteen grand, she’d bash her head into a wall.] Kelsey swallowed. “Fine. Fifteen thousand.

Deal.” It took Kelsey one week to scrape together the money. That gave me plenty of time to choose which guy I would transfer to her. “Adrian Vale. Twentyone. Six foot two.

Eightpack abs. “He goes to Bellweather College next door. Ordinary family. “We met through a game. “Sometimes he sends me boba.

His gifts are almost always under fifteen dollars. “His parents are divorced, so he’s sensitive and starved for affection. “You need to make him feel secure. “With him, I play the sweet, nurturing girlfriend who always knows what he needs…” I handed Kelsey the gaming login and my anonymous chat handle.

Then I walked her through every detail of my relationship with Adrian. Full customer service. No scams. [This is hilarious.

The villainess still thinks Adrian is some broke college kid.

Our Adrian only pretends to be poor because he hates gold diggers.] [The villainess schemed for months and got a few cups of boba.

Our girl will get everything without lifting a finger. I’m cackling already.] Chapter 2 Kelsey’s lips curved. The second she got the accounts, she changed both passwords.

Then she shot me a challenging look. “Tessa Hart, don’t regret this after I win him over.” I gave her my nicest smile. “I won’t. “I hope you don’t, either.” Kelsey rolled her eyes and ignored me.

She logged in at once and started chatting with Adrian. For the next two weeks, her phone barely left her hands. If she wasn’t messaging him, she was gaming with him.

Adrian kept his microphone off and used text chat even while they played. According to the floating comments, things were going well.

Adrian didn’t seem to notice that someone else was behind the screen. Kelsey erased my traces piece by piece and followed the comments’ advice as she worked to win him over.

Two weeks later, Kelsey walked into our dorm room. A diamond necklace flashed at her throat.

When she caught me looking, she lifted her chin with a smug little smile. “Adrian bought me this. “I looked it up online.

It’s worth more than three hundred thousand dollars.” I nodded. “It’s pretty.” Kelsey sighed. “You know, I really don’t understand men. “You’re gorgeous and smart, and you stayed with Adrian for so long. “But all he ever sent you was cheap boba. “I’m not smart, and I’m not that pretty.

I’ve only talked to him for two weeks. “Yet he bought me something this expensive. “Why do you think that is?” Why else? “Because he spent all that time pretending to be broke with me.” I had known Adrian was rich from the start.

Why else would I have approached him on purpose? We met in an online game that attracted only two kinds of people.

Game whales who spent hundreds, thousands, or even millions without blinking. And paid boosters like me, who farmed gear for cash. Adrian was the first kind. I was the second.

One look at him in the game told me he was no ordinary player. His maxedout gear had to be worth well over a million dollars. Love at first login. I moved in fast.

We ran raids together every day. I sent goodmorning and goodnight messages and asked about every little part of his life.

One night, he opened up about his broken family and the pain it had left him with. After that, I locked in my sweet, caring oldergirlfriend act.

The lonely, gloomy boy walked straight into my hands. Maybe Adrian was afraid everyone who came near him wanted something.

He claimed he came from a poor family, earned average grades, and looked painfully ordinary.

He often put on a wounded little voice and asked me, “Baby, does someone as ordinary as me really deserve you? “I’m scared you’ll meet me in real life and be disappointed. “Then you’ll leave and never want me again.” I rolled my eyes at the fortune he was wearing inside the game.

To a rich guy, dropping a million dollars on a game probably felt like an average person spending a hundred. No wonder Adrian hadn’t noticed the giant hole in his poorboy act.

Still, I fed him the words he wanted. “How could I leave? “You’re my favorite puppy in the whole world. “I could never stop wanting you.” Chapter 3 Adrian seemed determined to play the brokecollegeguy role to the bitter end.

He ordered offbrand boba and sent gifts that cost $1.99 with delivery. But he had a sweet mouth.

He carried me through every game, too, and every so often he sent me shameless pictures of his abs. For a while, I genuinely liked him.

Then one day, I was rushing to a shift on my ebike and crashed into a roadside barrier. I broke my right leg. A stranger took me to the hospital.

Between the scans, the hospital stay, and followup treatment, the bills came to more than twentyfive thousand dollars. I didn’t have that kind of money.

So I took a picture from my hospital bed and sent it to Adrian. “Baby, can you lend me some money? “I’ll pay you back as soon as my leg heals!” He gave me nothing.

Not one reply for an entire month. Luckily, I found another guy during that time, and he paid my medical bills. Without him, I might have lost full use of my leg.

Only after I had recovered and left the hospital did Adrian return to sending goodmorning texts, goodnight texts, and little updates about his day as if nothing had happened.

Bastard. Why not wait until I died and send goodmorning texts to my grave? I wanted to dump him right then. I just couldn’t find a safe opening.

Rich men like Adrian weren’t easy to offend. If I cut him off without warning and he chose to retaliate, I would be the one paying for it.

So I kept him happy while shifting my attention to the other men on my roster. Maybe Adrian noticed me pulling away. His possessive streak exploded.

He hounded me every day, asking to meet in person. No chance. Online dating was fine. It did not get to touch my real life.

I was still looking for an excuse when Kelsey stepped forward and took the rotten thing off my hands. Perfect. If she could get money out of Adrian, good for her.

I didn’t envy anyone else’s profit. Besides, my fifteen thousand dollars was real.

When bragging failed to bother me, Kelsey finally stopped. “By the way, Adrian wants to meet in person. “He asked me to bring my roommates, too.

He wants to buy everyone dinner and get to know you.” Kelsey glanced at me and took her time with the next question. “Tessa, you’re free the day after tomorrow, right?” [Is it finally time for the humiliation scene I’ve been waiting for?] [The villainess thinks Adrian is average.

When she sees how hot he is in person, she’s going to fall apart.] [But what if the villainess regrets giving him up and tries to steal him from our girl?] [Why worry?

Our girl has clearly won him over.

Even after he learns the truth, he’ll choose her without a second thought!] [If the villainess tries anything, Adrian will protect our girl and crush her!] I wanted to refuse.

Then Kelsey told me Adrian had prepared a gift for each roommate. A gold chain apiece. My feet stopped working. Damn capitalism.

On the day of the dinner, I wore no makeup, pulled on a plain Tshirt and jeans, and took the seat farthest in the corner. I made sure not to steal a drop of Kelsey’s spotlight.

Chapter 4 When Adrian walked in, I looked up without meaning to. Pale skin. Fine features. A cool, distant face and the quiet ease of someone used to being obeyed.

Of course the man who could drop millions on a game looked expensive. Observation complete, I went back to my phone. Adrian’s gaze rested on me for a moment before moving away.

Kelsey hurried to greet him. “You’re late. Your punishment is peeling my shrimp for me later.” She reached for his hand.

Adrian slipped away without making a scene. “Sorry I’m late.” His smile barely warmed his face. “I brought a few gifts for everyone. “Thank you for taking care of my girlfriend. “Kelsey, would you introduce me to your roommates?” “Of course.” She went around the table.

When she reached me, she paused. “This is Tessa Hart, the prettiest girl at Hawthorne. “She’s gorgeous, she’s smart, and men line up for her. “She even kept three backup boyfriends at the same time.

Impressive, right?” Adrian went still. “Three…?” I lifted my eyes to his dark stare and smiled. “Small correction.

I’m down to two.” He stared at me so hard the air around the table cooled. The server arrived with our food at exactly the right moment, breaking the silence.

Throughout dinner, Kelsey put on a full relationship show. She asked Adrian to serve her food, then made him peel shrimp for her.

I stayed tucked in my corner, eating without much interest while answering messages on my phone. The phone vanished from my hand. I looked up.

Adrian held it, his face giving nothing away. “Why have you been on your phone all night? “Don’t you like the food?” What a stunning lack of boundaries.

I frowned and held out my palm. Give it back. Adrian ignored the obvious.

He glanced at my screen instead. “What’s so interesting? “Can I see?” Something had gone wrong at the table. Kelsey looked from him to me. “Tessa never eats much.

Don’t worry about her. Let’s enjoy our dinner.” Adrian didn’t even turn toward her. His eyes stayed on me as he asked, one word at a time, “Who are you talking to?” Uhoh.

Even the slowest person alive would have noticed by now. Kelsey’s voice shook. “Adrian, what is this supposed to mean? “You’ve been staring at Tessa since you walked in.

You ignore me every time I speak. “Do you even want to be with me?” Adrian gave her one cold, scornful glance. “Do you really think I’m stupid enough not to know who I’ve been talking to all this time?” [What?

He figured it out