Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Something finally shifted on Elias's usually expressionless face.

My parents looked at me, shocked and thrilled.

Because I knew myself very well. Once I set my mind on something, I never let go. And once I threw something away, I never picked it back up.

But Elias clearly didn't realize that.

He rubbed his brow wearily. He thought I was having another one of my jealous fits.

"Vivian, you'd better mean it this time."

He said that because every time I'd threatened to break up before, I'd come crying back to him within two days, begging to get back together.

He assumed this time would be the same.

A few days later, I was discharged.

He'd spent those days in the lab and hadn't contacted me once. When he finally finished his tedious experiment and came home and pushed open that heavy oak door, all that greeted him was silence and an empty, cold apartment.

Elias's foggy brain suddenly stalled.

He frowned and thought about it for a few seconds, then took out his phone and called me.

"Vivian, I'm hungry."

I froze when I picked up. I hadn't expected that to be the first thing he'd say to me since our cold war began.

When I thought about it, I let out a bitter laugh.

Elias was hailed as a genius in the physics world. He could solve the most complicated equations with ease.

And yet he had zero life skills.

Back then, I'd been too young and too naive.

I moved right into his apartment and took over almost all the housework, like a live-in housekeeper who didn't get paid.

I naively believed that if I just put his chaotic life in perfect order, one day his cold heart would melt.

But not long ago, Chloe's Instagram, which she'd always kept hidden from me, suddenly became visible.

Day 100 of bringing the Boss lunch! Today: American pot roast!

The photo showed a pretty glass container, and I recognized the long-fingered hand at the edge of the frame at once. It was Elias's.

He said it was so good, he ate every bite!

When I read that, my eyes stung so badly I nearly cried.

Because the food Elias hated most in the world was pot roast.

I pressed my finger hard against the screen and zoomed in. That was when I saw it: the organic, nutritionally balanced lunch I got up at six every morning to make for him was lying untouched in the black trash can in the corner.

I forced down the nausea churning in my chest and said into the phone, word by word, "Elias, do you think I'm just that easy to push around?"

When he heard the tears in my voice, his breath caught.

He was about to say something else, but I'd already hung up and blocked his number.

I figured he was a smart man. He should understand that when an adult refuses to talk to you anymore, it means the relationship is over.

But Elias was clearly missing a wire that normal people have.

It was pouring rain in New York.

He stood on my parents' porch with a beautifully wrapped cake.

"Chloe said when you upset a girl, you should bring her something sweet. I drove all the way to that place in Manhattan—"

"Enough!"

I knocked the cake out of his hands, and eight years of bottled-up feelings finally burst through.

"Elias, you're a fucking idiot who lets Chloe lead you around by the nose!"

"I've had it! Go be with Chloe! You two are perfect for each other!"

I screamed it and slammed the door.

Through the glass, I saw rain hanging from his long lashes. He looked dazed.

Only then did it slowly dawn on him that I was angry in a way I'd never been before.

Before he could think about it any further, his phone rang.

It was someone from the lab. They said there was a fatal problem with the data.

Elias had no choice but to turn and hurry away.

This time, we didn't speak for two whole weeks.

From the bits and pieces my dad let drop, it sounded like he was gearing up for a run at this year's Nobel Prize in Physics.

Then one night, very late, he called me.

"Vivian, what are you doing?" His tired, hoarse voice came through the line.

I paused, then told him the truth. "I'm trying on wedding dresses."