She’s the Obstacle, He’s the Hero, I’m Just the Plot They’re Skipping Chapter 03

She’s the Obstacle, He’s the Hero, I’m Just the Plot They’re Skipping Chapter 03

The second the door clicked shut, my smile dropped.

I was the one who’d told him to go, and I still wanted to throw something.

My hand found my wrist and squeezed. I had to keep it in check.

If Ethan shipped me off to some awful facility and I started throwing things, the staff would kick me right out. I had no parents, no one to stand up for me.

I’d been on my own since I was a kid — no safety net, ever. So why was Ethan the only person I’d ever felt safe enough to be my worst self around?

I shook my head. I couldn’t afford to spiral like that.

I wheeled myself over to the computer and started searching for nursing homes in nearby cities.

If the comments were right and Ethan really did have someone waiting in the wings for him, I didn’t want to risk spotting them together during some supervised garden walk. That was my one last shred of pride.

I sorted the options into three price tiers and printed everything out. The plan was to start with the middle-tier brochures when I talked to Ethan that night.

I’d watch his reaction and adjust from there.

It was going to be okay, Olivia Hayes.

You might fall apart in front of Ethan, but you’d always held your own everywhere else. You’d handle it.

I was sorting through the printouts when I noticed my phone was dead. Before I could plug it in, the front door flew open.

Ethan crossed the room in three strides. I shoved the papers under my wheelchair. He was breathing hard, but his chest steadied the second he saw me.

“Why is your phone off?”

“…It died. I forgot to charge it.”

He grunted, picked up my phone, and set it on the wireless charger.

[Is the placeholder girlfriend out of her mind? He literally thought she was dead.]

[Our guy has an insane guilt complex. If she’d actually died while he was out with Chloe Bennett, he never would’ve forgiven himself.]

[She’s the one who makes him check in every thirty minutes when he’s out. And now she “accidentally” turns her phone off? Classic.]

[He bolted out of the theater in the middle of the movie, stepping on half the row on his way out — poor Chloe got glared at by everybody.]

Guilt hit me like a wave. Before I could apologize, Ethan made a puzzled noise.

He hadn’t even taken off his shoes. He lifted his foot and peeled a printout off the sole, smudged with a dirty footprint.

“What’s this?”