He Wouldn’t Let Me Touch His Door, But She Wore His Shirt Chapter 02

He Wouldn’t Let Me Touch His Door, But She Wore His Shirt Chapter 02

Two days later, the rain finally cleared.

I went to wait near the medical center around the time Julian usually clocked out.

To be precise, I wanted to see the truth with my own eyes.

From a distance, I watched him walk out of the main entrance with Alyssa walking right beside him.

She was holding an insulated lunch bag, looking up at him and laughing so hard her eyes crinkled into bright lines.

Julian took the bag from her.

Then, with a natural fluidity that suggested he had done it a hundred times before, he slipped off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

I stood across the street, watching through the rushing traffic.

Last month, when I came to pick him up from work, he had frowned at me.

“Don’t come to the hospital anymore,” he had said. “I don’t like mixing my personal life with my job.”

I had told him okay.

Across the street, Alyssa tilted her head, her gaze sweeping toward my direction.

She saw me.

Then she smiled, naturally slipping her arm through Julian’s as she pointed toward a pastry shop on the corner.

The two of them walked in together.

Julian never looked toward me once.

My hands gripped my purse strap so tightly that my nails dug into my palms.

I didn’t chase after them.

I just turned around and went home.

I opened my laptop to work, but I couldn’t process a single word.

Valerie’s call broke the silence.

“What’s going on with you lately? Alyssa said she ran into you at the office and that you looked terrible.”

I gripped the phone, pausing for a few seconds.

“Did you know Alyssa is living at Julian’s place?”

The line went dead silent for three seconds.

“What?” Valerie gasped.

She didn’t know either.

At 9:00 PM, Julian called.

His voice was warm and gentle, exactly like any other ordinary night.

“Exhausted today? Tomorrow is the weekend, want to grab dinner?”

“Sure,” I said.

I didn’t mention a thing.

The next day, we met at a restaurant on the third floor of the mall.

When I arrived, Julian was already seated.

But sitting across from him was someone else.

Alyssa.

Seeing me, a flicker of something crossed her eyes before it was quickly replaced by a sweet, innocent smile.

“Hi, Joanna! Dr. Sterling offered to take me out to clear my head. I’m new to the city and don’t really have friends, so he was worried I’d get lonely.”

I looked at Julian.

His expression was entirely calm, as if this were completely reasonable.

“She was on the way, so I figured she’d join us. You don’t mind, do you?”

I smiled and sat down.

Throughout the entire dinner, Alyssa continuously pelted Julian with various medical questions.

Whenever she reached for food, her fingers accidentally brushed against his.

Once, twice, three times.

Julian never pulled away.

I kept my head down and ate, cutting and swallowing every single bite of my steak.

After dinner, Alyssa politely excused herself to head back first.

Julian and I walked through the mall alone.

After a few paces, I stopped.

“Julian,” I called out.

He turned around to face me.

“I couldn’t enter your apartment, I couldn’t use your bathroom, and I couldn’t touch your kitchen. But Alyssa can.”

He froze.

“What are you talking about? She’s just staying there temporarily.”

“Does staying temporarily mean she gets to wear your pajamas? Use your tub? Eat the breakfast you make for her?”

I pulled out my phone, pulling up the screenshots of Alyssa’s Instagram posts and scrolling through them right in front of his face.

“What happened to your neat-freak rules? What happened to your boundaries? Where did that ‘I can’t stand anyone touching my things’ go?”

Julian’s face shifted, but the first words out of his mouth were defensive.

“Why are you digging through her social media? Joanna, have you been under too much pressure at work lately?”

He was questioning my sanity.

The person who uncovered the betrayal was being treated like the one with the problem.

I put my phone away.

“Julian, let’s break up.”

He stood frozen in his tracks.

“It’s been three years, and you never even had the desire to let me inside your life. I’m done playing this game.”

He reached out to grab my arm, but I stepped back.

“I said, we’re done.”

I turned and walked straight into the elevator.

Just before the doors slid shut, I saw him standing there, his expression changing from shock to a slow, irritated impatience.

He didn’t chase after me.