She emphasized the words “just the two of us.”
I looked at Adam. He didn’t seem to think anything of it. “You’re always so hostile towards Chloe, so I just didn’t tell you.”
“Alright, alright,” Chloe said, tilting her chin up. “You should head home. A woman who only stays at home should focus on housew ork. If you meddle in other things too much, you’ll just become annoying.”
“Right, Adam?” She shot him a playful smile.
Adam smiled back, a silent affirmation of her words
The other grad students, sensing the tension, started trying to diffuse the situation, insisting on tagging along for the free dinner. Chloe’s face darkened, but she didn’t refuse.
In the days that followed, she became even more brazen
When I brought Adam lunch, she’d open the container and start picking at the food.
“The flavor is so bland. No taste at all. If you’re going to be a stay–at–home wife, you’d better work on your cooking skills. Otherwise, you won’t have any skills to speak of.”
I snatched the lunchbox from her hands, but Adam took it from me and handed it back to her.
“Let her have some. Chloe doesn’t eat much anyway. She doesn’t mean any harm; she’s just giving you constructive criticism.”
Before leaving, I used a sanitizing wipe to clean Adam’s desk.
Chloe pursed her lips. This is a laboratory. We have very strict hygiene standard cleaner than whatever product is in that
wipe of yours. Are you implying one of us is dirty?”
Her words hung in the air. The other students, who had been awkwardly navigating our bizarre dynamic, now looked at me with
unfriendly eyes.
I’d rarely encountered such blatant malice in my twenty–odd years of life. For a moment, I didn’t know how to react. I looked to Adam for help.
a
He glanced up at us and said flatly. “That’s just how Jenna is. Always making a fuss over nothing.”
Chloe giggled. “Oh, it’s fine. She just needs more practice. See? Her cooking has already improved so much lately. It just goes to show, you have to be open to other people’s opinions.”
Adam nodded in agreement.
In that instant, a chill ran from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet.
I brought Adam lunch every day because he had a sensitive stomach and needed a carefully managed diet of light, soft foods. I
carried sanitizing wipes because he’d always been more particular about cleanliness than other boys. Although I often brought
homemade cookies and snacks for everyone, he was the only one in the lab who got a personally delivered meal every day. To
avoid troubling anyone, I always cleaned up everything before I left, including tidying the office.
But now, in his mouth, all of that was just me “making a fuss over nothing.”
My face hardened. I turned to leave.
Chloe suddenly called out, “Jennal Remember to make tempura with ketchup tomorrow. I won’t eat anything else.”
I spun around in disbelief. “Are you ordering food from me?”
She giggled. “What’s the big deal? The last few days, Adam told you what I wanted to eat, and you made it all, didn’t you?”
I looked at Adam. It was true, he had started requesting specific dishes lately, which was unusual. He’d never said who they were
for. I just thought his appetite was finally improving.
just gave me a slight nod. “You’re cooking anyway, so I didn’t see the point in telling you.”
Adam just
“Since Chloe has spoken, just make tempura tomorro
“Oh, and one more thing.” Chloe said, waving a hand in front of her nose. “Don’t wear makeup tomorrow. The smell is overpowering.
Don’t you know we can’t have strong scents in the lab?”
I walked towards thern, Adam’s face was blank. He clearly didn’t think anything Chloe was saying was insulting to me.
At that thought, I felt something snap inside my chest. A button, suddenly undone.
It was my obsession with Adam. My lifelong affection for him.
I pulled a large bottle of makeup remover from my bag, twisted the cap off, and violently splashed its contents onto Chloe’s face.
“AH!” she shrieked, stumbling backward.
The remover dripped from her hair, her makeup streaking into a grotesque mess of red and black
I sneered. “Don’t you know you can’t have foreign substances in the lab? False eyelashes, double–eyelid tape, eyeshadow, eyeliner…
you’ve got more products on your face than a beauty blogger.”
The other students rushed to separate us.
Chapter 1
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bind
“What’s the big deal? Calm down, calm down.”
“Don’t get the professor involved! Adam, you have a girlfriend, you need to be more mindful of your boundaries!”
But Adam didn’t hear them. He took a step forward and slapped the bottle out of my hand.
“Jenna. Apologize.”
I stared at him, my eyes burning red, my voice trembling with suppressed rage. “She insults me, you agree with her. I stand up for myself, and you tell me to apologize?”
“What, is she your girlfriend now?”
Adam’s face was cold. “Stop changing the subject like a child. When you do something wrong, you apologize!”
“In your dreams!”
The words had barely left my mouth when a sharp slap landed on my cheek. The others didn’t even have time to intervene.
SLAP-
My head snapped to the side. I saw Chloe, her makeup ruined but a triumphant, pitying smile on her face.
I lifted my head and looked at the man I had grown up with.
“Adam,” I said softly. “We’re done.”
