Chapter 1

Serena's POV

I walked up to Xavier. He'd been smiling when he gave the young woman a helping of the food earlier, but froze when he saw me. His hand paused in midair.

"S-Serena?"

Ignoring him, I turned to face the woman and introduced myself. "Hi, I'm Serena Wilder, Xavier's girlfriend. And you are?"

"H-Hi, I'm Tiffany Lowry. I work for Mr. Harrington." Her voice grew quieter toward the end of her introduction, laced with an imperceptible trace of guilt.

I was about to press further when Xavier interjected, "I think that's enough, Serena."

I watched the rage burning in his eyes and wondered why he was getting all worked up. My boyfriend was dining with another woman, and they seemed suspiciously close, yet I couldn't even question it?

Or was he furious that my unexpected appearance had screwed up his chances with Tiffany?

I said nothing and simply leaned back in my seat as a weariness washed over me.

Xavier saw Tiffany out of the restaurant. It wasn't until he'd seen her get into a cab that he returned and took the seat across from me.

"When did you get here? You could've told me you were coming." He spoke normally, as if nothing had happened. "I could've picked you up."

As he spoke, he made to grab my hand, but I dodged his touch.

"Tell you? If I did, I wouldn't have realized my usually-silent boyfriend could actually be quite the chatterbox!" Before Xavier could argue, I continued with a sneer, "You were always looking out for yourself on the rare days we got to meet up and have a meal together.

"You couldn't care less that there was cilantro in my plate even though you knew I couldn't eat it, or that my glass was empty. And yet, you were fussing over Tiffany like a mother hen just now. You even pulled out the seat for her."

The sarcasm dripped from my words like venom.

Xavier's brows furrowed. He looked a little annoyed. "We were just grabbing a bite as colleagues. Must you get so dramatic?"

"Yes, I must. Because you've never treated me as well as you treat her." I was frank with my grievances, naively believing that Xavier would feel some guilt over it and apologize.

Alas, reality proved that I'd overestimated him. He still rode on his high horse and attempted to gloss things over. "Alright, fine, I'll be more attentive toward you from now on. I'll top off your water and pull out the seat for you, okay?"

Frustration welled up in me. Even my anger seemed impotent.

"Well, since you're here, how about I give you a tour of the area?" Xavier offered a beat later, resuming his normal self like he'd already forgotten about our fight a second ago.

He was doing it again.

Every time we had a fight, he would habitually gloss it over with new, irrelevant questions. Like the time he told me he'd been down with a fever at home, yet his fitness app tracked 30 thousand steps.

I'd grown uneasy and called him for an explanation. "You told me you were at home, but you lied. Where were you, really?"

Xavier had chuckled and humored me with a new subject. "I don't know where you get these wild ideas from. By the way, I heard a new cafe just opened back home. We should check it out when I'm back."

Or the time when he switched his all-black profile picture to one with a cartoon avatar. Worried, I'd called him and joked self-deprecatingly, "Have you really met someone taller, slimmer, and cuter than me?"

Xavier had evaded that question as well, and instead asked me, "Are you working on Memorial Day?"

"Yeah."

"Guess we can't meet up, then. It would be tedious."

When I finally snapped out of my daze, Xavier was no longer looking at me. His gaze was fixed on his phone as his thumbs flew over the keyboard.

I smiled, rose to my feet, and left through the door.