I Was The Backup Plan, She Was The Return Chapter 02

I Was The Backup Plan, She Was The Return Chapter 02

He snatched up the scarf and hid it behind his back, looking unusually flustered.

I wiped my face and got to my feet.

“Sorry I got your gift dirty.”

“There’s something I need to talk to you about, actually. We…”

Julian’s phone rang.

I could hear Sloane on the other end.

“Julian, my stomach really hurts. Could you take me to the hospital?”

The words caught in my throat. Instead, I smiled as if it didn’t matter.

“Go ahead. We can talk when you get back.”

I went to my bedroom, shut the door, and collapsed onto the bed.

Maybe it was the alcohol, but I fell asleep before I knew it and forgot we were supposed to talk.

I went to work in a daze the next morning.

I wasn’t brave enough to keep working alongside my soon-to-be ex-husband and his first love.

Julian ran our branch, and Sloane’s father sat on the company’s board. If anyone was going to leave, it had to be me.

I spent the morning drafting my resignation and applying for jobs.

At lunchtime, someone tapped my desk.

“Come on. Lunch is on me.”

It was Tyler.

I pressed my lips together, deciding to clear things up.

“Tyler, everyone was drunk and messing around last night. Don’t take it seriously.”

“I’m not interested in…”

He scoffed before I could finish.

“Oh, spare me. Sloane told me exactly what kind of girl you are.”

“Some rich kid chased you for a few days in college, and you went out with him, didn’t you?”

“So I’m just not rich enough for you.”

Coworkers passing by stopped to watch.

The way they watched me, eager for a show, took me straight back to five years earlier.

Sloane had thrown a party and insisted that the rest of us, her less glamorous roommates, come along.

She wanted us there to make her look even better in front of Julian.

Sloane suggested Truth or Dare. A rich kid with a lousy reputation was dared to tell the girl he liked best at the table how he felt.

No one expected him to come over to me, drink in hand.

“I’ve had enough of the glamorous ones. Thought I’d try something plain for a change.”

Everyone joined Sloane in egging him on.

I fled the party, but afterward he kept pestering me to go out with him.

I told him more than once that I wasn’t interested. He ignored me.

Within days, everyone was saying we were together.

People smirked at me, pointing and whispering as I passed.

I moved off campus to escape the gossip, saying I needed to focus on studying for my exams.

Only later did I find out Sloane had started the rumors.

This time, I wasn’t going to hide.

When I stood, I was a little taller than Tyler.

“Let me be clear, Tyler. I’m not interested.”

“It has nothing to do with how much money you have. I just don’t like you.”

“Stop harassing me, or I’ll take this further. Do you understand?”

Tyler stared at me, stunned.

He went red, then pale, and ran off after snapping, “You’ll regret this.”

I ignored him and started packing up my things to have them shipped home before I left the company.

One book stood out on the shelf: a computer science text called The AI Wave.

I opened it to the title page, where [Julian Mercer, Computer Science] was written in faded ink.

When I’d first found his book, I’d thought returning it would give me an excuse to ask for his number.

But when I got back to the dorm that day, Sloane was bragging to our roommates that she was about to start dating someone.

She meant Julian.

I never returned the book.

Beneath his name, I’d added a note in small handwriting: [You’re the one I want but can never have.]

For years, it had been a private reminder of everything I’d been too shy to tell him.

I let out a breath, pushed down the hurt, and put the book in the box.

I was carrying the box out of the building when I saw Sloane.

Still looking at the coworker beside her, she walked straight into me as though she hadn’t seen me.

I couldn’t move out of her way in time, and the contents of my box scattered across the floor.

I scrambled to collect my things, but I wasn’t quick enough.

Sloane spotted The AI Wave and snatched it up.

She opened it and laughed.

“Nora, you’ve been keeping quite a secret.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t he my boyfriend back then?”