Eight Years Of Silence Ended When I Saw Him Talk To Her Chapter 02
“Claire!”
He chased after me and grabbed my wrist in a rush, forcing me to stop.
“Why didn’t you call out to me?”
“This city is huge, and you don’t know your way around here. What if you got lost?”
So he did know the city was huge.
He did know I was unfamiliar with the place.
Then why, on his birthday, when I had come all this way clutching the surprise I had prepared for him, had he brushed me off with one line about being too tied up with work?
That day, I stood at the exit of the Amtrak station, lost and completely at a loss.
I had taken three days off on purpose and sat through an eight-hour Amtrak ride, only to never even see him.
I had come alone and gone back alone.
Looking back now, maybe it was because someone else had already been by his side then.
When I snapped back to the present, I quietly pulled my hand free and put some distance between us.
“You’re busy. I won’t bother you.”
“What are you upset about now?”
In Evan’s eyes, my resistance had become another random tantrum.
“Fine. I didn’t handle the boundaries between coworkers properly just now. I apologize.”
“But can we please stop fighting? I’ll show you around. Whatever you want, I’ll buy it for you.”
“If you need to vent, I’ll stay with you through it.”
After saying that, he hugged me from behind.
He rested his chin on my shoulder and nuzzled against me.
“Stop making a fuss. You’re the only one I care about, okay?”
I was silent for a moment.
In the end, I swallowed the bitterness in my throat and said softly, “Okay.”
A smile finally appeared on Evan’s face. He took my hand and led me down the street.
He seemed almost pleased with himself.
No matter how terrible things got, I would always be won over by one tiny gesture from him.
Even when I was sexually harassed at work and he deliberately ignored my calls for help because he claimed he was too busy, I still forgave him.
Even when we had already made plans to spend our anniversary together and he suddenly told me he could not make it after I had done my hair and makeup, I still forgave him.
Without exception, I always chose to let it go in the end.
Because I loved him, I was willing to swallow every grievance on my own.
But now, I only felt tired. I did not even have the energy to keep arguing.
When we passed a bridal boutique, I instinctively stopped in front of the window.
I could not stop imagining what it would be like to marry Evan.
“You wouldn’t fit into that. You’re too fat.”
All of a sudden, his half-mocking, half-joking words cut sharply into my ears.
“And you’re short too. You’re not suited for that kind of long train.”
I froze there, remembering the two lines he said every time we met.
“You gained weight. And somehow, you look shorter too.”
“True. I’m not as skinny as Sophie, and I’m not as tall as her either.”
Suddenly, I no longer had the heart to picture any future with him.
I only felt that Evan was deliberately trying to make me feel awful.
“If you like her that much, go find her.”
“Why stay here and take shots at me?”
The smile on his face faded, and the look in his eyes said he thought I was being difficult.
“When did I mention her?”
“Claire, even if you don’t want to walk around with me, you don’t have to pick a fight on purpose.”
“I’m already exhausted from work. On the rare day I get to rest, I still have to be tortured by your unreasonable attitude.”
Tortured?
So my anxiety and my sadness were torture to him.
“Fine. I’m picking a fight.”
“Then let’s not walk around.”
After saying that, I strode forward without looking back.
Evan had just started to follow me when his phone rang.
He stared at my retreating figure, clearly torn.
After struggling for a moment, he still chose to answer the call.
“Don’t be scared. I’m coming right now!”
From the gentleness in his voice alone, I did not even have to guess that it was Sophie.
He could snap at me and say the cruelest things to me.
But he could not even bring himself to use a strictly professional tone with her.
Were they really just boss and subordinate, or was there something else between them?
I no longer wanted to ask.
I was too tired to ask.
I found a random hotel and checked in.
I had just brought my luggage up to the room when Evan’s message came in.
Evan: [Find a hotel first and send me the address.]
Evan: [I’ll come see you later and bring you some disposable toiletries.]
For a dazed moment, it felt as if we had gone back to when we were madly in love.
He remembered my obsession with cleanliness.
He remembered that I hated using hotel toiletries.
So he used to prepare everything for me in advance.
But when my eyes landed on that cartoon profile picture of his, a wave of nausea suddenly rolled through me.
I skipped over his message, opened my boss’s chat thread, and typed a few words.
Me: [I’ll accept the assignment, even if it’s overseas.]
