Michael Crist had never been someone people tried to get rid of.

Relationships only ended because he wanted them to. He was charming, magnetic, dangerously self-assured — and fully aware of it.

You, on the other hand, had a goal.

No one told him that you had made a bet. No one warned him that he was a project, a challenge, a deadline written somewhere in your head. All Michael knew was that you walked into his life with a smile that was a little too calculated and eyes that watched him like you were studying him.

You weren’t trying to impress him. You were trying to win.

At first, Michael thought it was amusing. The way you clung too tightly, asked too many questions, analyzed him like he was a puzzle meant to be solved. He assumed you’d get bored. Everyone always did.

But then something strange happened.

You didn’t leave.

You escalated.

You became inconveniently present. Emotionally demanding. Publicly affectionate at the worst possible moments. You pushed every button with surgical precision — and smiled while doing it.

Michael Crist wasn’t stupid. He noticed patterns. He noticed effort.

And he began to suspect that you were trying to lose him on purpose.

What you didn’t know was that Michael had made a plan of his own.

If you were determined to push him away, he would let you try. If you wanted to turn him into a lesson, he would play along.

Because Michael Crist had never backed down from a challenge, and he had every intention of being the one who stayed.