Chapter 3

I looked up at him.

Noah took a deep breath, as if fighting to hold back his anger.

"When your friends come over, don't I always prepare wine and dinner? So why is it that when it comes to Selena, you can't even manage basic courtesy?

"You're really embarrassing me."

"Embarrassing you?" I laughed despite myself.

"A woman moving into your place in the middle of the night isn't embarrassing? Her calling you every time she needs something isn't embarrassing? If she needs a man to take care of her that badly, why doesn't she go find a boyfriend of her own?"

"She's a friend I grew up with. What's the big deal about one night?"

Noah rubbed his face in frustration, his voice finally slipping past his control.

"We're about to get engaged, and you're still this paranoid. What, once we're married I'm not allowed to have friends? I have to devote my entire life to you and no one else before it counts as loyalty?"

Right then, Selena's voice drifted from the direction of the guest room.

"Noah, the bathroom's out of shower gel. Bring me a bottle, will you?"

I let out a cold laugh.

Noah frowned. "What's so funny now?"

"You call me paranoid. Then tell me, why didn't she ask me to bring it? She knows full well you have a fiancée, and she still pulls this to prove she can summon you whenever she wants."

Noah faltered for a moment, then jumped to her defense on instinct.

"Selena isn't like that. She only didn't ask you because she knows you have a problem with her. She didn't want to bother you."

The way he looked at me carried a new shade of disappointment.

"Your own mind is in the gutter, so everything looks dirty to you. Don't assume everyone thinks the way you do."

With that, he turned and walked out.

I watched his back and felt my heart go completely cold.

One of them crossed the line on purpose.

The other pretended not to see it.

A perfect match.

If he refused to wake up, then it was time to cut my losses on eight years of love.

I opened my laptop and navigated to the company's internal transfer portal.

Without a moment's hesitation, I signed my name onto the roster for the Barcelona harbor restoration project.

That night, I packed my things and moved out.

When I wheeled my suitcase into the living room, Selena and Noah were both there.

Selena was draped across the sofa in a silk nightgown so thin it left nothing to the imagination, lazily directing Noah to massage her calves.

Noah sighed and called her a nuisance, but his hand was already wrapped around her ankle.

When he noticed me, his brows furrowed again.

"Evelyn, I call you out once and you're running away from home? Seriously?"

Selena laughed out loud and nudged him with her foot.

"That's what you get for spoiling her. I always said you can't just sweet-talk a woman. You need to set rules."

Whether it was her words that got to him or something else, Noah's face turned stony.

He spoke through gritted teeth. "Evelyn, if you walk out that door, don't even think about coming back."

I nodded.

"That's exactly what I had in mind."

I closed the door behind me.

I called a car and headed for a hotel near the office.

My transfer was only days away anyway. There was no point renting a new place.

Noah and I worked at the same international design firm, just in different departments.

Over the next few days, we didn't exchange a single word.

Until I was delivering documents past the urban data department and he cornered me at the stairwell landing.

"Still not over it?"

He trapped me against the wall, dark eyes tinged with something between hurt and resentment.

"You won't come home, you won't answer my messages. Evelyn, you've really taken it too far this time."

He leaned down toward me, the way he had countless times before, trying to melt my resolve with closeness.

"Forget it. I won't hold it against you. Move back in tonight."

I pushed against his chest, but he didn't budge.

All I could do was look him straight in the eye.

"Noah, we're done."