“But the good news?” he said, a small, knowing smile forming on his face.
“There’s a way to turn this around. You just need to understand what’s really going on—and how to fix it.”
“That’s exactly what I need,” I said, my voice trembling with hope.
“How much? I mean, I don’t have a lot of money, but if you could do a payment plan or something, I…”
“No,” Michael said, cutting me off gently. “That’s the thing.”
He paused, his expression shifting, almost like he regretted what he was about to say.
“I don’t sell it. Not to anyone.”
I froze. “What do you mean? Why not?”
He leaned back, sighing. “I created it years ago. I put everything I had into it—everything I’d learned about why relationships fall apart, why attraction fades, and how to fix it.”
“For a while, I thought it would change lives. I shared it with a small group of people, thinking it would help them…”
He stopped, staring off into the distance, his jaw tightening.
“But it didn’t go well,” he continued. “It wasn’t what they wanted to hear.”
“They got mad. Really mad. Some even accused me of being cruel. Of not understanding what they were going through.”