My Boyfriend Gave Me A Fake Handbag

To save money for a house, I had been living a frugal life with my boyfriend, Desmond Wood.

When Desmond received a twenty-thousand-dollar bonus, he bought me a branded bag.

I was delighted, but I felt that he did not need to spend so much on me.

Hence, I brought the receipt and the bag to the shop for a refund.

The shopkeeper told me that my bag was fake.

However, the receipt was real.

“How is it possible that the bag’s fake? Please have another look. The receipt is here.” I was puzzled by the shopkeeper’s words.

“The receipt is indeed from our shop, but this bag is fake.” The shopkeeper glanced at me and seemed to have a whole load of stuff to say. “Would you like to check with the person who bought the bag?”

I left the shop with my friend, Christy Smith.

Christy scrutinized the receipt. “If the receipt’s real, that means Desmond did buy a bag here. So, what’s with the fake bag?”

This left me puzzled until dinnertime.

However, I needed to pull myself together, as Desmond and I were having a gathering with some friends.

Since we wanted to save money, we had not gone out for a meal with our friends in a very long time.

Recently, Desmond said he had finally secured a good deal and received his bonus. So, it was fine for us to eat out.

When Christy and I arrived, Desmond’s friends were already in the private room.

We had just taken our seats when Desmond walked in with Nova Anderson. She was dressed in a long, light-colored dress.

Christy tugged at my elbow. “Look. Nova has the same bag as you.”

I looked, and they were indeed the same bag. I frowned.

Nova was Desmond’s childhood best friend. She was married a few years ago, but her husband was violent. As such, she ended up in the hospital a few times.

After a long battle, Nova finally divorced her husband.

However, she was traumatized from the experience. It took her a long time to get back to her usual self.

While she recovered, Desmond took good care of her.

Nova was immensely grateful toward him. She would always meet up with Desmond, with the excuse of thanking him.

It was not clear when she started to mimic my appearance, but her look and attire had grown increasingly similar to mine.

Whenever I brought this up to Desmond, he would indifferently say, “That’s not true. She probably just feels that you have a good fashion sense.”

Christy always disliked how Nova would copy me, so she asked, “Nova, your bag looks nice. Where did you get it?”

Nova glanced at me cautiously and grabbed her bag. “I bought it online. It’s a dupe, so it’s not worth much.”

I carefully scrutinized her bag—it was the real thing.

I put my bag on the table. “What a coincidence. I also have a fake bag.”

Everyone went quiet, as the atmosphere became awkward.

Desmond cocked an eyebrow in dissatisfaction. “I bought yours from the shop. It’s the real deal.”

I crossed my arms. “I brought this to the shop and asked about it. It’s fake.”

Desmond put down his fork. “That’s impossible.”

“Nova, which online shop did you purchase your bag from? The quality’s great. It looks better than the fake one that Paige has,” Christy asked sarcastically.

Nova immediately retorted, “What are you implying? Are you saying that I switched my bag with hers? Desmond, they’re slandering me.”

She pulled out the receipt from her online purchase and showed everyone. “I just really like this bag. I don’t have that much money to buy the real thing, so I bought a fake one online. Is that wrong?”

Christy became less angry when she saw the online purchase record.

“Ahem,” Desmond’s friend broke the awkward silence. “No one said you changed the bag. Let’s eat. Otherwise, the food’s going to go cold.”