Chapter 3

Sienna's eyes widened, and she hurriedly let go of my hand. "Is it really that bad? I mean, when we first met and hiked that exact trail, I didn't think it was that cold at all."

"Right," I replied flatly. "That's because you got lost the second you stepped onto the mountain, and I rescued you almost immediately. This time, I was stuck out there for a whole day."

She gently touched my hand again, pulling a tube of ointment from her pocket to carefully rub it over my skin.

"Spencer, you've been acting so weird tonight," she said. "What's wrong? Are you really that mad at me?"

I shook my head, keeping my mouth shut.

She cleared her throat and pressed on, "Look, I brought you food, and now I'm doing first aid on you. When has a rich girl like me ever done anything like this for anyone? No matter how angry you are, you should be over it by now."

I pulled my hand out of her grasp. "I'm honestly not mad. I don't care about any of that anymore."

Only love could make a person care.

Once that love was gone, nothing seemed to matter anymore.

Just then, her phone buzzed. It was Declan calling.

"Sienna, have you seen Spencer's Instagram post? What is that? He made all of us look hideous!" he complained.

Sienna scrambled to click on the app and check my profile, only to find the group photo I had taken right before walking out of the bar.

Everyone in the shot was staring blankly toward my camera, but the angle made Sienna and Declan look as if they were locked in a tight, intimate embrace.

Their facial expressions were incredibly tense, like a pair of cheaters caught red-handed.

To top it off, I had captioned it, "Congrats on finding true love again."

After reading it, Sienna furiously lunged to grab my phone. "What the hell is that? Delete it right now! If my parents see this, they'll get the wrong idea!

"Spencer, are you ever going to drop this? You publicly dragged me in front of all those people at the bar, and I didn't even lose my temper at you. I came home and played nice just to make peace, so what exactly do you want from me?"

I smiled and deleted the post right in front of her.

"It was a typo," I said. "I meant to congratulate him on finally getting exactly what he wanted."

Keeping it up was pointless anyway. My friends had already seen it and understood that Sienna and I were finished, which was all that mattered.

Once it was deleted, I lay down on the couch, pulled the blanket over my shoulders, and closed my eyes to shut her out.

"What is your problem?" Sienna roared. "Are you seriously sleeping out here tonight?"

"Yeah. I'm exhausted, and I'm probably going to snore and keep you awake. Just go to bed. By the way, I packed all my things. I'm moving out tomorrow."

As I spoke, I fished the apartment keys out of my pocket and dropped them onto the coffee table.

She froze, clearly wanting to argue, but I had already started snoring, leaving her with no choice but to stomp into the bedroom by herself.

…

The next morning, I left before Sienna woke up.

I first went to track down a short-term apartment rental, then submitted the final paperwork for my travel abroad.

It wasn't until late afternoon that I finally headed back to grab my suitcase.

I never expected the elevator doors to open and reveal the apartment door wide open, with waves of laughter echoing out into the hallway.

"Wow, Declan. This place is incredible! You totally hit the jackpot. You get a free apartment, and some other sucker is paying off the mortgage for you."

"High school sweethearts always have a stronger bond than anyone who comes later. Sure, you two only dated for a year back in the day, but Sienna is clearly still crazy about you."

Then, a bitter, jealous voice chimed in, "Oh, please. So what if he lives here? It's not like his name is on the deed. He's just crashing at someone else's place."

Declan's voice rang out next, oozing with smug satisfaction. "Actually, Sienna wants me to feel at home, so she's transferring the title to my name in a few days."