He was about to get married, yet he had never believed in love. Not once. Not even a little.
For his entire existence, he had stayed single. So much so that people began to whisper that perhaps he was gay—because there was no possible way a woman could capture his attention or make his heart skip a beat.
He was cold, quiet, predictable. Life for him was simple: home, work, home. His days were ruled by routine, not excitement. Friends were few, nights out were nonexistent, and fun was something he didn't bother chasing. He had long stopped expecting much from life.
Loyalty to routine was his religion. Skipping a day? Unthinkable. Adventure? Overrated. Life, to him, was easy: do what you must, go home, repeat.
Every morning, he woke up at exactly six-thirty, made himself a cup of black coffee, and read the news online. Breakfast was quiet, and the clock on the wall seemed to measure the rhythm of his life as faithfully as his heart measured his indifference to romance. He walked to work along the same streets he had been walking for years, nodded politely to the same neighbors, and spent eight hours doing his job without complaint or excitement.
Evenings were his own. No parties, no late-night walks, no sudden invitations. Just him, a warm bath, a simple dinner, and a book or a movie before bed. Sometimes he wondered why people made such a fuss over love or friendship. To him, life was simpler when you didn't rely on anyone else.
Yet, the pressure was always there. His mother—well-meaning but persistent—kept pushing him to marry, to settle down, to start a family. Sometimes it came as casual advice: "You're not getting any younger, you know." Other times, it was more pointed: "Your cousins are married, don't make us wait too long." But he brushed her off. Life didn't have rules, he believed. You simply did what felt right to you. That was it. Easy peasy.
Everything seemed fine… until life decided to throw him off course. Until circumstances changed, and a crack appeared in his carefully constructed walls.
Because sometimes, no matter how much you avoid it, life has a way of finding you.