You Only Loved The Version Of Me That Needed Nothing Chapter 03

You Only Loved The Version Of Me That Needed Nothing Chapter 03

News traveled fast. By the next day, half of Riverton seemed to know I was back.

The old high school group chat blew up for the first time in months — someone tossed out the idea of a welcome-back dinner. It wasn’t really about me. People just needed an excuse to get together.

They picked a riverside bistro with a private room. More than a dozen people showed up. I couldn’t put names to half their faces.

But that’s the thing about people you went to school with — nostalgia does the heavy lifting. Before long, it felt like no time had passed.

The conversation bounced around for a while — jobs, gossip, who got married, who’d let themselves go — until eventually, inevitably, it found its way back to me.

“So Hazel — three years out of town. Are you seeing anyone?”

Before I could answer, Toby Miller leaned back in his chair across from me and let out a low laugh. Maybe it was the alcohol. Maybe it only gave him permission.

“Come on, after Julian? Good luck finding an upgrade.”

That broke the seal. Suddenly everyone had something to say, and every word landed on me.

“Honestly though, someone like Julian? Anyone after him is a downgrade.”

“When you two first got together, we literally had a bet on how long you two would last. Three months, tops.”

“No offense, but nobody saw it coming. And then you lasted longer than every girl before you.”

“Five years. We all thought you were gonna be the one who actually got him to settle down. A real-life Cinderella story.”

“I literally had a wedding gift picked out. And then out of nowhere, you just — vanished to Northridge.”

“Gone for that long — what, were you hiding out with a broken heart?”

The whole table burst out laughing, drunk, careless laughter bouncing off the walls. Chloe’s fork went still. The smile she’d been forcing was already gone.

She opened her mouth to say something — and then a voice cut through the noise from the doorway. “I heard my name. What’d I miss?”

Julian was leaning against the doorframe, one hand braced against the wood, his voice cutting easily through the noise.

Light gray cashmere coat, sleeves pushed up, every inch of him loose and unbothered. He didn’t look like someone who’d come here looking for me.

The room froze for a heartbeat before Toby called out to him. A chair scraped across the floor. Someone waved down a waiter for another setting.

Julian had that kind of pull — the kind you’re either born with or you’re not. Every room rearranged itself around him. It had been that way since the day I met him.

He never had to go to anyone. People went to him.

I used to be one of them.