Chapter 3
762 Words
I froze dead in my tracks, paralyzed, as if I had just been hit by lightning.
The fitting room door was not even pulled shut all the way, and I could hear every single sound leaking out of it crystal clear.
The tinny ringtone tangled with low grunts that grew louder and louder, and my stomach rolled so hard I thought I might throw up.
They did not step out right away. I stood there rooted to the spot, stunned out of my wits, unable to tell how much time ticked by.
Finally, the fitting room curtain scraped open with a soft rustle.
Raina stepped out first. Her hair was a messy tumble, and her lipstick was smeared all crooked across her lips.
She leaned back into Julian's chest as he stepped out behind her, then locked her eyes on me. Her triumph blazed, unhidden, right in her gaze.
But Julian shoved her away hard.
He walked straight to me and curled his fingers around my ice-cold hands. Then, in a voice so soft it was as if nothing had happened at all, he asked, "Why didn't you go sit and wait? Aren't your feet sore?"
A tidal wave of utter absurdity crashed over me, swallowing me whole.
I lifted my hand, slapped him across the face as hard as I could, and then, through streaming tears, I demanded, "Why?"
Raina came lunging at me instantly, ready to hit me back, but Julian caught her and flung her away roughly.
"Get the hell away from her," he snapped. "Do not touch her."
Then he turned back to me, and his voice softened again. "Ivy," he said, "do you really have to make a scene right here in front of everyone?"
Only then did I snap out of my daze. A crowd had started to gather around us, and every eye pinned to us glinted with nasty amusement.
When I stared at the hand Julian held out toward me, I could not make myself push it away in the end.
I had no idea what I was thinking in that moment. My brain was completely blank, just a jumbled chaotic mess.
Maybe it was because I was too shocked, or too mortified. I just followed him numbly toward the exit.
When Raina tried to trail after us, Julian spun around and stabbed her with an ice-cold glare. "Do not follow me," he said. "Get lost."
He dragged me into his car.
The second the door clicked shut behind us, the dam holding back my tears broke completely.
Julian heaved a deep sigh, pulling out a tissue to gently dab at my face. His eyes held that same old doting warmth I had always known, but his next words sent ice shooting straight through my veins.
"We have been together all these years, Ivy," he said quietly. "Haven't you forgotten who I really am, deep down?"
A dizzy haze clouded my mind for a split second.
Of course I remembered.
Back in college, Julian was the boldest, most eye-catching guy on the entire campus.
Street racing, bungee jumping, rock climbing — he lived for every dangerous, adrenaline-fueled thing under the sun.
Girls had always swarmed around him nonstop, right up until the day he met me. He said he had fallen for me at first sight.
He chased me relentlessly for three whole years. When he found out I craved a quiet, steady life, he gave up every single one of his extreme hobbies and turned away every flirty girl that tried to get close to him.
In the end, I could not resist how hard he had tried, and I said yes to being with him.
Later, he got down on one knee and proposed, telling me he wanted to build a calm, stable home with me.
He poured everything into his work, climbing the ladder step by step until he clawed his way up to the position he held back then.
When our daughter Nora was born, he cried, but the first thing he did was rush to my side, not even stopping to glance at the baby first.
When we found out Nora had asthma, he tossed and turned night after night, unable to sleep a wink. He would have moved heaven and earth to get the best doctors in the world to our side.
I thought he had stopped chasing thrills for good, and that I had settled into the soft, quiet happiness we shared.
I was wrong.
He had just found a whole new way to chase that rush.
- Writer
