Chapter 24

Jade

I didn’t sleep a wink.

I mean, that was to be expected.

The moment I locked myself in my own room, I jumped into my bed and pummeled the pillows over and over, bemoaning my shitty fate and cursing whoever was up there that had written it.

I couldn’t understand how I kept sabotaging myself whenever Julian was involved. It felt like whatever I did was somehow destined to either piss him off or make me look like a wanton idiot.

He wasn’t supposed to be there so how the hell had he materialized out of thin air the exact moment I lost myself in the fantasy I’d created of him?

I abruptly shot upright with my hair a tangled mess spilling across my shoulders when I realized I had come in his bed and left the sheets behind.

Bloody hell, that had to be the cherry on top of this entire mess of a night.

How the fuck do I face him in the morning to apologize? For the vomit and now this—a thorough invasion of his privacy; even though I was his fiancée and it shouldn’t really matter in the first place.

I collapsed back onto the bed and smothered a frustrated scream with one of the pillows.

Churning thoughts of what I would say to him when I saw him kept me awake.

Hours passed, and before I knew it, my ears were perking up at the sound of a running shower coming from the direction of his room.

When I grabbed my phone to check the time, I saw it was only 5am.

He was planning on avoiding me this morning again, I was sure.

Feeling a sudden burst of courage, I climbed off the bed and walked into my bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face.

It was obvious I hadn’t slept when I stared at my reflection in the mirror but I overlooked the eyebags and packed up my hair into a sloppy bun.

Then I hurriedly changed into shorts and a sports bra before grabbing my yoga mat and quietly slipping out of the room.

Trying to seem like I didn’t have a hidden agenda, I spread out the mat in front of the large sectional sofa in the living room downstairs then searched for the TV remote to turn it on.

I was browsing through my favorite routines on YouTube when Hazel walked in and spotted me right away.

“Good morning, Jade.”

“Hi, Hazel.” I glanced her way with a smile. “Why are you up this early?”

She paused before giving a slight shrug. “It’s something of a habit. Do you want coffee?”

“Oh, no thanks. I hate it. Prefer hot chocolate, but after I’m done with my stretches.”

She nodded then headed into the kitchen.

I clicked on one of the videos then settled into a cobbler’s pose on the mat, my spine straight and knees open with my bare feet drawn in close to my body.

I frequently practiced yoga so the poses came easily to me, even though my attention wasn’t entirely on what I was doing.

My eyes kept straying towards the hallway where Julian would be walking out from any minute now.

I had deliberately positioned my mat so there was no way he wouldn’t notice my presence. Then I would corner him so he had no chance of escape and he would have no choice but to listen to me while I apologized.

Yes, as easy as that.

The real thing didn’t go quite as planned.