Chapter 2

Julian had come into my life entirely by accident.

We’d both gone to NYU, but I was a full four years older.

When he was nineteen and starting his freshman year, I’d already graduated and joined the working world.

The first time I met Julian on campus, a group of thugs had him surrounded.

I knew charging in wouldn’t do much good. But I called the police, put my phone on speaker, and rushed into the crowd anyway.

Luckily for both of us, the call scared them enough to buy us time until campus security arrived.

Afterward, Julian started following me around, insisting on buying me dinner.

But one dinner turned into another, and another. He kept saying it still wasn’t enough to thank me for saving his life.

“How about I give you my heart instead, Hannah?”

I was an adult. I knew that wasn’t just an innocent joke. Julian was testing the waters.

But I also knew I was four years older. If he only wanted to fool around, I couldn’t afford to waste my time.

I tried to bury the flutter in my chest. He only pursued me more openly.

With no dating experience to speak of, I didn’t hold out for long.

My college roommate and best friend, Lily Parker, warned me more than once.

Julian was young and came from money. If he ever lost interest, I would be the only one who got hurt.

My head knew she was right. My heart kept running back to him anyway.

He clung to me, and I loved it. His need for me felt like proof that he loved me. It was the only thing that could quiet my doubts for a while.

What I never expected was that our sweet, anxious little romance would end after just one year.

That day, my supervisor set me up, blamed me for his mistake, and got me fired.

Furious, I asked Julian to come over to my rented apartment that night and started venting.

But the longer I talked, the more I realized he didn’t seem to be listening.

Throughout our year together, I’d quietly looked to him for reassurance, but I’d never been demanding.

That was what young couples did. I was four years older, and I wanted to keep being the mature, understanding one.

Even though I was only twenty-three, and this was my first relationship.

This time, his attitude upset me. But more than that, something made me want to follow my heart for once—to be like other girls and ask for a little extra affection.

“I had such an awful day. Aren’t you going to comfort me?”

Julian finally looked at me again.

A long moment passed before he answered.

“Why do I always have to comfort you? Because I was the one who asked you out? Why can’t you comfort me for once?”

The one time I asked to be babied, he threw it back in my face. Of course I was angry.

“Julian, do you stop caring once you get the girl? Keep treating me like this, and I might break up with you!”

He shot up from the couch.

“You’re all the same. None of you actually love me, do you?”

I’d never asked about Julian’s dating history. A handsome, sunny, affectionate guy like him must have had girls lining up.

I hadn’t wanted to make myself miserable.

Now that I’d heard it from his own mouth, every part of me recoiled.

When I didn’t answer, he took my silence as confirmation and blurted out, “Then let’s break up!”

The moment he said it, we both froze.

Sometimes I wondered whether I could have had an ordinary, happy life if I hadn’t gone back to campus with my friends to visit our professor that day—if I’d never met Julian.

A sudden pain in my wrist snapped me back to the present.

I looked at Julian, then at the shapely woman beside him. They were traveling together. Clearly, he’d moved on.

I was the only idiot who still remembered every detail of that year.

His grip tightened, and I couldn’t pull free. Something seemed to have set him off. His calm expression finally cracked, leaving a cold look in his eyes.

“Hannah. He’s the better man you were talking about?”