The Chosen — 2026-01-20 (Patreon)

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Chapter 52: SPLIT THE BILL by Emma Knox

I fell asleep early last night and had a good night’s sleep. When I woke up, I had a thought I couldn’t shake.

I messaged Merritt and asked if we could go get dinner tonight. We’re at a place close to the apartments that looks a lot fancier than it really is. He was coming from meetings and work, so I put on a dress so as our outfits would match.

I didn’t waste time getting to the point. “I wanted to get out from the ’partments and talk. And I don’t want to be dramatic, so I’ll just say what I’m thinking.”

By then I suppose he could guess where I was going. “Okay. You know I’m not very dramatic.”

“Merritt, do you think we’d ever get married?”

“Married?” He leaned his head back a little.

“We’ve been together for a few months, and I don’t think that’s in our future.”

He let that sink in and then smiled a little. “We talked about your Granny saying, ‘Every day you date the wrong man is a day you won’t find the right one.’”

I smiled, too. “You remember that?”

He nodded, then said, “Is this because you’re mad that I teamed up with Hannah in Africa?”

I shook my head. “It’s ’cause I wasn’t mad. We did our work, then at the end of the day, I looked around. ‘What now?’ I said to myself. ‘You ought to go hang out with Merritt.’”

He didn’t seem to see the point, so I explained. “I said ‘ought to’ like it was a duty.”

Then, I guess, our whole relationship washed over him. “We’re just comfortable and happy. We’re convenient…”

“Is,” I asked, “a relationship where we say ‘this is fine’ good enough for forever? I really do care about you, but I don’t want to wake up a year from now and realize I just… stayed.”

We talked a lot for a long while then, eventually got around to what next, and he said, “So, how do things look going forward?”

“Well,” I replied, “let’s just go on with hanging out when it’s convenient, but no more kissing and cuddling.”

He let that sink in, and then I said, “And we split the bill when we go out. Starting tonight.”

I know things will change a lot. But we both agree that “it’s fine” really isn’t.

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