Balance
Author
FouFou16
Reads
16.5K
Chapters
32
Sebastian stands polished, proud, and utterly convinced that letting anyone close is a losing game. One reckless lie meant to soothe his mother suddenly ties him to Sophia, a woman whose honesty hits sharper than any truth he’s dodged. Their fake relationship starts as a simple plan, but every shared moment knocks another crack into his perfect armor. Sophia isn’t looking to fix him—she just refuses to play pretend with her own heart. As sparks turn real, old wounds rise, and both must decide if the leap toward something tender is worth the risk. Under all the heat and stubbornness, a rare balance begins to bloom.
Chapter 1: When Zeus Takes Back the Heavens
SEBASTIAN
At the sound of the door closing behind her, I finally exhaled, relieved to hear those stilettos clicking away from my apartment. Another nightmarish setup date my mother had forced me into.
For months now, she’d been arranging these so-called “professional dinners” with the enthusiastic cooperation of my secretary, who had clearly joined forces with my mom, plotting against me behind my back.
Tonight’s candidate was Veronica, the daughter of a very important business associate who came highly recommended. If she needed that much advertising, then the product was surely either faulty or cheap. And boy, was I right!
After what felt like an endless dinner, I found myself wondering why I kept agreeing to these…“meetings.” Veronica was so shallow and empty. Every conversation circled back to money, her father’s business, or tearing down people we knew in common, and it became painfully clear that there was nowhere deeper to go. Nothing to discover.
No connection whatsoever.
She was undeniably beautiful, but the longer I sat across from her, the less I saw it. Of course she ordered a quinoa salad, like every other pretentious woman trying to impress a man on a first date with her supposedly “healthy lifestyle.” Ten minutes later, she was leaning across the table, helping herself to my leftovers.
“I don’t get it!” She laughed, dragging her fork through my plate. “Yours tastes so much better.”
I watched her chew. Greedily. It was oddly repulsive.
“Maybe it’s because it has your flavor in it,” she continued, licking her lips, which was somehow even more repulsive than her actually eating from my plate.
When she finally pushed my empty dish aside, I paid the bill and told her I was heading home since I had an early morning, having decided I’d seen enough.
“Come on,” she said, caressing my arm with her pointy nails and giving me the chills. “We could have a quick drink somewhere more private. Maybe at your place.”
She suggested this when, clearly, alcohol was the last thing on her mind.
Some might wonder why I didn’t just say no and call it a night, especially if she bored me that much. Well…because a man’s needs can’t always align with genuine interest, and thank God for that, because if they did, I’d never get laid.
It had been too long since I’d even felt the slightest emotional attraction to any woman, so, without much guilt, I got used to using them as objects of sexual release.
But the second I was done, I wished I could be fucking Houdini and make them disappear without another word or touch. And to think my mom actually believed this person was girlfriend material. What a joke.
She only looked decent on the outside and had all the standard required boxes checked, which might have tricked my mom, but she was so slimy and so full of herself, even during sex, that I had a hard time cumming after fucking her brains out for longer than I’d hoped.
Neither her perfect curves spotlighted in her sexy designer lingerie nor her expensive perfume could mask the dirt inside her soul. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one to like prudes, but she wasn’t just a free spirit; she was a cheap spirit, so superficial and fake.
The kind that leaves you with a nasty taste afterward and gives you a bad hangover the next morning.
I had long since given up on women. If they were nice on the inside, they were ugly on the outside—ugly by my standards and taste, not in general. I realize I’m no saint myself, but that doesn’t make a difference to my demands.
I knew what I wanted from a woman and I wouldn’t settle for anything less, even if that meant I’d remain single for the rest of my life. Which…sounded pretty good to me!
The next day I simply blocked her number, as she kept calling and texting me over and over again. She can go tell Daddy if she wants to. I really regretted taking her to my bed after all, as sex with her wasn’t worth any more than fucking the palm of my hand.
I had to talk to my mom. This obsession of hers lately, to pair me up with some woman, had to stop. For fuck’s sake, I was a grown man, and although I didn’t want to upset her or hurt her by ruining her dream of seeing me settled down, that was simply not something I saw happening for me.
I got in the car and headed over to my parents’ cabin. Once a month, it was a tradition for my brothers and me to gather at the lake cabin where we grew up and spend the day together, just bonding. It used to be fun, but lately it had been turning into torture.
My two brothers, one of them actually younger than me, were both married and already had kids, so naturally I was treated as the typical problematic middle child, with relationship and attachment issues that everyone seemed to think they could fix. Who said I needed fixing?
Today was particularly hard, as my mom was on full offense mode, striking every chance she got.
“Did you know Veronica called me crying?” my mom scolded me.
“Oh, I wonder why. What could possibly be wrong with such an innocent angel?” I mocked.
My brothers both laughed, and Liam, the youngest, actually managed to choke on the delicious soup my mom had made for us. I’d previously told them about the night from hell with Veronica, not skipping any of the spicy details from the stunts she tried to pull, which was obviously too much information for my siblings to swallow.
We were casually chatting and catching up with everything and everyone when my younger brother suddenly walked away smiling, only to shortly return holding a bottle of good aged bourbon from my dad’s well-known collection. Anthony, my older brother, also had a big smile plastered on his face and obviously already knew the reason behind this.
“Okay, spill the beans,” my mom requested in a serious tone.
“This is one of my finest, so this better be good, son,” my dad said, half smiling.
“Weeell…I’ve got two good things coming up!” Liam said in a chirpy voice. “We are expecting a baby,” he declared with eyes shining with happiness.
“Ahhhhhh, a baby! And…?” Mom encouraged him to continue in a high-pitched voice, barely able to contain her excitement, her face looking like it was ready to joy-explode.
“And…we are expecting a baby,” he repeated.
“Aren’t you a little too young for Alzheimer’s?” I teased.
My mom suddenly gasped and screamed in excitement, clapping her hands. “You are having twins!”
The smile on that smug face was priceless. Just great. I was expecting the comment any time now, somewhere between the back pats and the hugs. I knew it was coming…
“Sebastian!”
Yep. There it was. And I knew there was more on the way.
“When will the day come when we hear such amazing news coming out of your mouth?” she disappointedly pointed out.
“When Zeus takes back the heavens!” I joked, and her face dropped with disappointment. “Never, Mom!” I answered sincerely, annoyed, making no effort to hide it. “Don’t get me wrong, brother. I’m happy for you, but this is not anything I ever see happening for me.”
My mom sat on the lounge chair and hid her face in her palms. Was she crying?
“Darling?” My dad put his calloused hand on the back of her head in a comforting way, looking worried.
“Oh, come on, Mom! Don’t make a big deal out of this. Not everyone’s dream is to get married and have kids. I’m a successful, incredibly good-looking, amazing son. What more can a mother ask of her child?” I made an effort to joke, raising my eyebrows up and down and smiling smugly.
“Family is everything, and if you opt out of the greatest gift life can offer a man, then you have lived in vain!” my dad said disappointedly in a dead-serious tone, while my mom didn’t even bother to react to my clearly failed attempt at humor.
Great. Now my dad was onboard with the whole settle-down craze my mom had been into these past few months. He had never forced me into anything, so this was completely unexpected of him.
I tried to reason with them, explaining that my life was perfect the way it was. I didn’t know who I was trying to convince more, them or myself. My face dropped as the realization hit me. No matter how much I tried to deny it, the truth was that I was disappointed with how life had turned out, at least when it came to women and relationships.
I wasn’t always like this. I used to believe I could maybe find love at some point if I worked hard and made myself a successful man. That way I could maybe attract more interesting, ambitious, and smart women. What a delusion that was. I mean…my brothers were the exception, not the norm, and my parents were from a whole different era.
True love? That only existed in rom-coms and novels.
After some more discussion and arguing about the matter, I left the cabin feeling furious that this time none of my brothers had supported me. We were very close as a family, and theoretically they should have had my back on the matter. Especially after all the juicy details I shared with them about my sex life.
I mean…did they even have one anymore? None of them talked about it. All they talked about was their jobs, the kids, and everything concerning their Little House on the Prairie life.
The little one was obviously having sex, but after two more crying-pooping machines were added to the routine, I doubted there would be any time left for anything else besides diapers and errands. God! Three kids! How would they manage? Poor Liam.
I was so glad I was single, and I swore to myself never to let any woman do that to me.
