Chapter 3

I'm not really one to bring up the past, especially since I was planning to break up anyway.

But his righteous accusation, as if I was truly rude, made me fire back sarcastically.

The passenger seat had briefly belonged to me once.

After Lydia moved, Julian started "conveniently" giving her rides to and from work.

She got terrible motion sickness. Julian shot me a look:

"Scarlett, you don't get carsick. Go sit in the back."

I felt a lump in my throat, my nose stinging. "Why should I? I'm not going."

From then on, he left early every day to avoid me, afraid I'd try to catch a ride.

I took a breath and closed my eyes again.

"If you're not driving, unlock the door. I'll get a cab."

I heard a helpless sigh, and the car started moving.

After we got home, Julian rubbed his temples, looking exhausted. "Scarlett, can we stop this?"

All I wanted was a hot bath. I answered absently, "Fine."

But he suddenly became agitated. "Lydia and I really are just friends. She said she'd never tried racing, so I took her."

"I know."

I stood in front of the closet, internally debating whether to use a bath sponge or bath salts this time.

He seemed lost.

"Then why haven't you been replying to my messages?"

I pretended not to hear and walked into the bathroom.

It turned out that after I'd learned from him and muted his notifications, he'd sent me so many messages.

[I went to the bar because you locked your bedroom door. I can't exactly sleep on the floor, can I?]

[I've decided—I'm never giving up my love of racing for you again]

[I was joking, Scarlett, don't take it seriously]

[Not replying to my messages now? That's real mature]

[I'm waiting to pick you up after you're done. Scarlett, I give up...]

Thinking back to the day at the movies, waiting endlessly without a single message from him, I suddenly understood.

When he cared about me, he couldn't bear to miss a single message. He'd watch the chat window all day, just waiting for one reply from me.

Julian used to find me annoying and muted my notifications.

But he couldn't bring himself to mute that very active gaming group.

No wonder when Lydia messaged him in the group, he could reply instantly.

After my bath, I felt a bit awkward.

There was only one bedroom with a bed in the apartment.

If I broke up with him right now, I'd have nowhere to sleep tonight.

Julian seemed even more conflicted than me. He looked at me, opened his mouth, hesitated.

His phone rang. It was Lydia calling.

He anxiously answered, and the girl's crying voice came through faintly.

After hanging up, he pressed his lips together.

"Lydia's in trouble, right? Don't waste time—go ahead."

His tense nerves relaxed.

"Scarlett, it's her first car accident. She doesn't know how to handle it. I'll just go help out."

"Really, don't overthink it, please. I'm begging you, okay?"

He naturally reached out to hug me.

I froze in place, barely stopping myself from pushing him away hard.

Fortunately, his mind was entirely on worrying about Lydia.

He didn't notice these small details and left immediately.

Before bed, I removed Julian from my pinned conversations.

He kept sending messages intermittently.

The latest one read: [The hospital won't let me leave, says I need to be the guardian. I'll go shopping with you tomorrow...]

I didn't read the rest.

I tossed my phone aside and fell asleep.