MC happily chooses the "second choice" / secondary character / not the first love interest introduced

Title. If this has already been answered in a thread, I'd be thankful if someone points me to its direction. I realized this is my favorite MM novel of all time's set-up and I haven't read this trope again. Think Maurice-Clive-Alec.

Unimportant context: I just watched the film Anora and fell in love with a secondary character (Igor, iykyk) so I'm in the mood for an underdog win lol