The Summer Heat Was Thirty Degrees And His Lie Was A Hundred Chapter 02

The Summer Heat Was Thirty Degrees And His Lie Was A Hundred Chapter 02

I didn’t text Julian for the next two days.

He didn’t seem to notice.

It wasn’t until later that week, when a sudden torrential downpour hit right at the end of the workday, that our paths crossed.

I was waiting for an Uber under the office awning.

Savannah was standing right next to me.

She was holding her phone, whining cutely to whoever was on the other end.

“Can you pull up a little closer? Hurry, the wind is freezing…”

A car pulled up right in front of us. Entirely too familiar.

Sure enough, the window rolled down to reveal Julian in the driver’s seat.

He hadn’t sent a single text to check on me during this storm, yet he’d rushed over to pick up Savannah.

Julian froze when he caught sight of me.

“Chloe, you…”

Savannah closed her umbrella, opened the door, and hopped straight into the passenger seat.

“Julian, you actually know Chloe?”

She looked out at me from the dry comfort of the car, her smile radiating sweetness.

“Chloe, why don’t you get in? Let Julian give you a ride. It’s impossible to get an Uber in this weather.”

My own boyfriend was offering me a ride, and only because she’d graciously granted him permission.

Julian remained silent, merely looking at me.

I shook my head expressionlessly.

“No need.”

My ride was already confirmed and only three minutes away.

No reason to get in that car just to make myself sick.

Savannah nodded and rolled up the window.

The car lingered for a few seconds before driving off into the rain.

When I finally got home and stepped out of the shower, I found Julian waiting in my living room.

He still had the code to my smart lock.

“Chloe, are you throwing a tantrum?”

“When you refused to get in the car, I thought you were just busy, but the more I thought about it, the more off it felt.”

Julian reached out to grab my hand, but I stepped aside, dodging him.

“Is this about me picking up Savannah today?”

“Or because I didn’t let you stay over the other night and didn’t drive you home?”

He let out a helpless chuckle.

“Don’t be so petty. Savannah’s an old classmate. I only picked her up because I was passing by—and it’s hard to say no when she asks.”

“Not letting you stay over was for your own good. I promise I’ll drive you home next time…”

“Julian, let’s break up.”

Julian stiffened, his face instantly darkening.

“Chloe, over something this minor?”

“Yes.” My eyes were entirely dead. “I can’t stay at your place, but Savannah can. Don’t you find that hilarious?”

He’d never intended to tell me about her because he knew exactly how I’d react.

“You… let me explain.”

Julian’s eyes widened in shock, clearly not expecting me to already know.

“Savannah moved to the city all by herself from a small town, and I’m the only person she knows here.”

“It’s tough for a young girl, and her landlord suddenly kicked her out. If I hadn’t stepped in, she’d be on the streets.”

“Chloe, you’re a woman too—show some empathy.”

Seeing my silence, he let out a heavy sigh.

“It’s just an emergency temporary stay. Besides, there’s nothing going on between us, so we don’t need to overcomplicate things.”

“She’s different from you. She’s just a tenant.”

“Just a tenant?” I laughed.

“Julian, I told you before that Savannah is the new intern in my department.”

“During her first week, she spent every single lunch break on the phone in the breakroom. When people teased her about it, she claimed it wasn’t a boyfriend, just an old classmate.”

“That old classmate was you, wasn’t it?”

Julian’s eyes flickered with guilt for a fraction of a second, but he didn’t deny it.

I used to love sharing things with him, flooding his phone with texts whenever I had a free moment.

But his replies were always agonizingly slow, if they came at all.

We’d fought about it a few times.

Back then, Julian would just look exhausted and say, “Chloe, we’re adults. Work is busy, and I need to rest during lunch. Can you stop making things difficult for me?”

But when it came to Savannah, it was never difficult.

“For the past two days, Savannah started bringing homemade lunches to work. You made those for her too, didn’t you?”

“And you’re still trying to tell me she’s just a tenant?”

Those lunchboxes were a matching couple’s set I’d bought, left behind at Julian’s apartment.

Now, Savannah was using them.

Julian knitted his brows, completely unable to comprehend my anger.

“Chloe, aren’t you reading way too much into this?”

“Don’t be prejudiced against Savannah. She told me there was just a misunderstanding between you two at work…”

He didn’t listen to a single word I said, but he took everything Savannah said as gospel.

I had nothing left to say.

The silence in the room grew suffocating until the doorbell suddenly rang.

Julian turned to open it.

A second later, Savannah poked her head in, smiling warmly at me.

“Hi, Chloe. Sorry to drop by unannounced.”