The Fish I Couldn’t Eat At Home, The Fish He Ate With Her Chapter 05

The Fish I Couldn’t Eat At Home, The Fish He Ate With Her Chapter 05

It had been three days since Vivian had stormed out of the house, and she still hadn’t replied to

lian.

He hadn’t texted her, either.

But every now and then, on his way to work or driving home, he would instinctively open their chat.

He remembered how Vivian used to excitedly tell him about everything she’d seen and done that day, no matter how trivial.

Now, her chat thread was terrifyingly silent.

A soft ping broke the silence.

Julian immediately checked his phone.

It wasn’t Vivian.

It was Sierra, asking why he still hadn’t come home.

Irritated, he typed back without thinking.

[Traffic.]

The sunset outside the windshield was blazing red, almost like the sky had caught fire. It was

beautiful.

If Vivian were sitting beside him, she would have opened the sunroof, stuck both hands through it, and shouted with delight.

[The sunset is gorgeous! Baby, I love you!]

The thought brought a faint smile to Julian’s lips.

But when he caught sight of his own reflection in the rearview mirror, he immediately wiped the smile away.

His eyes drifted toward the passenger seat.

It was empty.

A strange, suffocating fear began creeping through him.

Julian drew a deep breath, forcing himself to suppress the uneasiness tightening in his chest.

Following the dinner list Sierra had sent him, he drove to the organic farmers‘ market in their

neighborhood to pick up groceries.

The stall they frequented belonged to a kindly elderly woman.

The moment she saw Julian, she smiled and greeted him.

“Where’s Vivian? Why are you doing the grocery shopping alone today?”

Julian’s heart jolted.

He had never felt anything like this before.

He didn’t understand what the feeling meant. All he knew was that the panic inside him was growing stronger by the second.

It felt as if something incredibly important was slipping away from him.

The old woman’s casual question only made that fear more real.

Julian said nothing. He paid for the groceries and hurried home.

When he knocked, Sierra quickly opened the door and greeted him with a kiss.

After Vivian left, Julian had let Sierra move in because he wanted to keep her from leaving, too.

Now, three days had passed.

And the house had already begun to change.

Sierra’s presence was like another layer being added to a photograph, slowly covering everything

that belonged to Vivian.

Every trace of Vivian was being erased, little by little.

The sight of it left Julian with a permanent crease between his brows.

Several times, he had caught Sierra taking down the artwork Vivian had hung on the walls.

Each time, he had almost called out and stopped her.

But then his eyes would fall to Sierra’s slightly rounded belly, and he would freeze.

He had wronged Vivian.

But he owed Sierra even more.

He hadn’t deliberately driven Vivian away..

Still, he had to take responsibility for one of them.

Sierra took the groceries into the kitchen and started cooking, just like Vivian used to.

Every day, she prepared something different for him, always making sure he had a good meal

waiting.

The food tasted perfectly fine.

Sierra’s smile was sweet.

Yet something felt wrong.

Deeply wrong.

Julian just couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

And whenever he tried to think about it, Sierra’s playful smiles and affectionate teasing somehow

distracted him before he could get anywhere.

After they made love, Sierra fell asleep beside him.

Julian quietly got dressed.

The night had grown darker.

He couldn’t sleep.

He got out of bed and went to the living room for a glass of water.

The clock on the wall ticked away in the silence.

Julian pulled out his phone.

The wallpaper was still the photo Vivian had secretly changed it to.

Looking at the picture, he could almost imagine the mischievous grin on her face when she had

sneaked his phone away and replaced the wallpaper.

But when he looked up, he realized her presence had been gone from this house for a long, long

time..

Julian didn’t know what had happened to him.

But deep down, he already knew the truth.

He missed Vivian.

He missed her more than he wanted to admit.

He was going to end their silent treatment.

Vivian might curse him out. She might cry and demand an explanation.

But she would come back to him.

He wanted Vivian back.

Even if it meant paying a price.

He pulled out his phone, the glow from the screen illuminating the secret excitement on his face.

He spent a long time trying to find the right words.

He typed out a long message, deleted half of it, rewrote it, then changed it again.

When he finally looked at the clock, more than an hour had passed.

He read over his message.

Every line was filled with what he believed was a sincere apology and a reasonable solution.

Surely things could go back to the way they were.

After all, there had been a reason for what happened.

Compared with the mistakes other men made, his was hardly unforgivable.

At least, that was what Julian told himself.

Then he hit send.

A red exclamation mark appeared on the screen.

[Not Delivered]

Julian stared at it in disbelief.

The long message he had spent an hour carefully crafting suddenly looked ridiculous.

Vivian had blocked him.

For someone like Vivian, that meant only one thing,

She had cut him out of her life completely.