Paid in full. As of yesterday.
Tae couldn’t understand what happened.
“If you need anything...”
What Julia had said to him yesterday before leaving the hospital. Julia was the one person who could afford to do it. And the one person who kept offering to help if he needed it. He couldn’t imagine her doing this without asking him first. She wouldn’t, would she? But he hadn’t been in his right mind yesterday. And it was like her to do anything she could to help. And she was the only one he could think of that had the means to do it on short notice.
She was a CEO. She made spur-of-the-moment decisions about money without asking anyone else all the time. And money, to people who had a lot of it, didn’t mean the same to those who didn’t.
“Did you need anything else?”
Tae shook his head. “No. No, thank you.” He turned and walked away, stunned.
How could she? He’d specifically told her he didn’t want her involved. This was his problem. The last thing he needed or wanted was her trying to take care of things for him. He didn’t want her feeling sorry for him or his family’s predicament. Why would she do this? It felt like a complete invasion of privacy. They weren’t even officially dating.
She basically just Dr. Joshua Parked him.
“No job. No pay.”
Tae fumed as he walked back to his parents’ hospital room... feeling about as small and helpless as he’d ever been.
26
Confession. Rejection.
Julia
He was avoiding her.
Julia was sure of it.
It had been three days since the car accident. Julia tried to text and call Tae to check in, but got only a couple one-word answers back. She didn’t want to bother him. He was clearly busy with other things. But she couldn’t help but think that he was purposely not talking to her.
“It’s my fault,” he’d said. The date. Not being home for his parents. Julia knew that it was an impossible burden for Tae to take on. But she didn’t trust that Tae could see that too.
She would never ask him to choose time with her over time with his parents. She wasn’t that selfish or cruel. She wasn’t the villain Julia had made his ex, Kari, out to be in her head.
But she also knew that Tae couldn’t live his life hovering over his parents on the off chance that something could happen to them. And put his life entirely on hold to do so.
She pulled the blankets back over her head and closed her eyes. She held her phone to her heart and willed it to ring.
Julia jumped back as the phone vibrated. She was a mess of arms and legs flailing with sheets, struggling to answer the call.
“Hello,” she said, out of breath. She needed to get back on her Peloton at some point, that was for sure.
“Open the door. We’re on our way up.” This wasn’t the call she was hoping for.
Not Tae. Rachel and Sonia.
She responded to a few of their texts.I’m okay. Don’t worry.But she didn’t have it in her to tell them the truth.I’m broken. I miss him so much it hurts.
“I’m not in the mood for company right now,” Julia said.
“No shit. You’re probably hiding under your covers, getting lost in your head, while your greasy bangs stick to your forehead, a bag of Doritos on your nightstand,” Rachel responded.
“SunChips. I didn’t have any Doritos.”
“Open up. We’re here. Oh, wait forget it, I still have the code. You need to change that thing by the way. Like anyone who knows your birthday can break into your place.”
