FOR SOMEONE whose last name was valentine, you would think that tristan would be good at love. ironically, despite sharing a name with the saint of love, people in his family were just not good with relationships. he thought he had gotten the hang of relationships at one point in his life, but then they ended up breaking up rather horribly and he hadn’t seen madison in years. he’d genuinely thought that maybe they would end up together — a surprising thought that was filled with hope. tristan valentine didn’t do hope. but with her, he had hoped, only to be reminded why hoping sucks when they ended up breaking up. he liked to believe that he had moved on from her since it had been years, but there would be the occasional day or week where he would think about her and wonder what she was up to. little did he know that he would soon find out. his childhood best friend was getting married and he had asked tristan to be his best man, which he agreed to. he hadn’t been introduced to the blushing bride-to-be just yet and he was looking forward to meeting her at the engagement party. he was drinking at the bar when his friend approached him and introduced him to a very familiar face. it was then that he realized that fate and the universe hated him because of course, who else would be his friend’s fiancee, other than madison? tristan pretended like this was the first time he met her, being cordial and polite in front of his friend before dropping the pretense once his friend left the two to get acquainted. “are you shitting me right now? you’re marrying my friend?” he hissed quietly. “does he know that we dated?”