🌟 WATTYS 2026 SUBMISSION 🌟 After her boyfriend cheats and says she's "not good in bed," a type-A psychology student launches a no-strings-attached sex experiment to prove him wrong-only to fall for the one variable she can't control: her ex's best friend. ********* Psychology student Lucy Bennett had her life mapped out with clinical precision: finish her thesis, marry her high-school sweetheart, land a research position, and start the five-year plan they'd been building since senior prom. Then he cheats. And worse, when he ends things, he tells her the reason he strayed was simple: she wasn't good in bed. Reeling from heartbreak, Lucy does the only thing she knows how to do. She turns the wreckage into research. Scrapping her original thesis, she proposes a bold new question: Does sexual satisfaction increase with experience? Determined to prove that sexual desire can be learned, not innate, Lucy becomes her own case study. Enter Mason Reid-her ex's infuriatingly charming best friend, campus jock, and the guy everyone whispers about being very good in bed. With his confidence, rules-free approach to sex, and a surprising respect for boundaries, Mason agrees to help Lucy "test her theory." What starts as an experiment in confidence and control quickly becomes something messier. And as the lines between research and reality blur, Lucy must decide whether proving she's "good in bed" matters more than discovering what and who actually makes her feel whole.

Ava Slora and James Potter have hated each other since they were ten, ever since their fathers-old Hogwarts friends-joked at an annual dinner about them getting married one day. James immediately dismissed the idea, declaring he'd never marry a girl like Ava. She, nursing a childish crush on him, took it badly and has despised him ever since. During their years at Hogwarts, their separate houses-Gryffindor for James, Hufflepuff for Ava-made it easy to avoid each other. But when they did cross paths, their interactions were filled with sharp remarks and thinly veiled hostility. Everything shifts in their seventh year when the Hogwarts gossip account on Instagram stirs the pot. A photo surfaces of James in a heated argument with his longtime love, Lily Evans. Soon after, another picture appears-James deep in conversation with Ava. Speculation runs wild, and suddenly, everyone is watching to see if the long-time rivals are more than they seem. James Potter x OC girl Marauders era AU social media | real life

Lando Norris has a very reasonable theory: Oscar Piastri's girlfriend, Violet, is probably going to murder him. Evidence includes the black clothes, the braids, the lace parasol, the unsettling hobbies, and the snake named Belladonna. Oscar insists she's just shy. Lando remains unconvinced.

Alessandra Lambiase has worked in war zones, triage tents, and disaster relief missions. Nothing prepares her for Formula One. Nothing prepares Gianpiero Lambiase for his driver very obviously developing a crush on his sister either. And nothing prepares the world for Max Verstappen deciding the correct way to ask a woman out is to win Monza.

I died. Came back. Now I'm living in a soap opera-and no, I don't get a script. Transmigrated as the older twin in a wildly rich, wildly dramatic family, I'm surrounded by love triangles, overprotective parents, and the kind of chaos that would give reality TV execs a stroke. My sister's perfect. I'm... not. And while she collects admirers, I collect emotional damage-and maybe one terrifyingly attractive, possibly robotic boyfriend who understands me a little too well. There are secret pasts. Public scandals. Too much glitter. This isn't a romance. It's survival. And I'm done playing the sidekick.

Rosie Moving to New York was my fresh start, a chance to get away from my disaster of a hometown, and maybe learn how to breathe on my own. Romance? Not on the itinerary. So when I meet a charming, overly confident guy at a bar with golden-blond hair and too many dimples than should be legal, and way too much flirt - I don't expect to see him again. Then I do... on the ice, the very next night. Dylan I've met plenty of girls in bars. Most of them know who I am, Rosie didn't. And maybe that's why I couldn't stop thinking about her. She was introverted and blunt and completely unimpressed with my attempt at a pick up line, which was honestly kind of refreshing. Seeing her in the stands at my game felt like fate. Running into her again afterward? Game on. A sweet, slow-burn hockey rom-com about unlikely connections, quiet confidence, and falling for someone who sees past the spotlight.

I died doing what I loved-chasing deadly viruses across war zones and jungles. I was a world-class infectious disease expert, emotionally detached but good at saving lives. My guilty pleasure? BL novels full of angst, smut, and emotionally constipated men. So when I died in a freak plane crash, my guardian angel gave me a choice. I asked to be reincarnated into one of my favorite BL novels. I did not ask to be reincarnated as the illegitimate daughter of the cold, ruthless CEO male lead-a man so awful he literally tried to buy the other male lead's body in chapter three. Now I'm a four-month-old baby in diapers with one goal: fix this terrible love story. To do that, I'll have to: Turn my emotionally stunted, power-hungry father into a decent human being Save the sweet second male lead from being trafficked and destroyed by plot And oh-be the world's cutest, smartest, most manipulative toddler along the way

Caden Connelly is hot. Dumb. And possibly cursed. Every girl he dates ends up falling for someone else-usually one of his teammates-and he's sick of being the universe's personal punchline. So this semester, he's got a new plan: fake date someone completely undateable. Someone so immune to hockey charm, the curse won't stand a chance. Enter Raven Alore. She's too smart to fall for a himbo goalie and way too busy trying to win a cutthroat sports media internship, take revenge on her ex, and survive living with her backstabbing roommate. She has exactly zero time for Caden's golden retriever energy or his abs of distraction. But when fake dating him gets her: a viral PR case study a shot at the internship and her ex shaking in his cleats... Well, she's in. With conditions. No feelings. No flirting. No shirtless selfies. (Okay, maybe one shirtless selfie.) But the longer they fake it, the messier it gets-because Caden's actually... not that dumb? And Raven's not that heartless. And this whole thing? Might not be fake at all. By the time the puck drops, someone's gonna catch feelings. Let's just hope it's not cursed.

❝𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐦𝐞.❞ A hundred concubines lived in Emperor Sylvos' inner court - the heart of his thorned fortress. With a cruel ranking system, only favored concubines had the honor of meeting with His Majesty. And only the woman able to bear him a child could become empress. Raine Stjorme had climbed the ranks to the top. And after praying each night, she was finally with child. Yet all this was rewarded with the cruelest of fates. Murdered by the man she loved, Raine cursed Emperor Sylvos with her dying breath. She cursed his whole court as they snickered at her final moments. And her curse had taken root. Now, Raine awakens three years before her destined death, on the fateful day she first encounters the emperor. Armed with this second chance, she vows to make him fall - and to bring his empire down with him. But when faced with the tyrant who claimed her heart, could she still follow through? ✦✦✦ 𝙏𝙍𝙊𝙋𝙀𝙎 𝙄𝙉𝘾𝙇𝙐𝘿𝙀𝘿: -𝙀𝙣𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 -𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 -𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙭𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙩𝙮 -𝘼𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙜𝙚 -𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚 -𝙑𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 -𝘽𝙖𝙙𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙁𝙈𝘾 -𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙨

Piper Clark married her best friend. And no, not in the way brides always say at their wedding. She married Lucas Vega because he needed a green card. Days before graduation, Piper's college best friend, Lucas, discovered he was being deported. Everything he had worked for, everything he dreamed of, would come crumbling to the ground unless someone intervened. So Piper did. Six years later, they are living separate lives, having hardly spoken to one another since that fateful courthouse wedding all those years ago. But then a call from ICE has her on a plane, heading back to California and her husband, a man who traded his glasses for an Armani suit and his lithe form for a six pack. Now, they've got to put on the show of their lives and pretend the past six years have been nothing but marital bliss. But something new is brewing between these best friends and Piper is starting to wonder if she's acting at all.