Chapter 44 Waiting for her
Julian sat on the edge of his bed, his back slightly hunched forward and his elbows resting on his thighs, his phone held loosely in his hand as he stared down at the screen like it might give him an answer if he looked at it long enough. The room was quiet, almost too quiet, and the silence only made his thoughts louder.
The events of the day kept replaying in his mind in small pieces, like broken clips that refused to settle into one clear picture, and no matter how many times he went over them, he kept coming back to the same moment, Adeline’s face.
The look in her eyes when she asked him if he had anything to do with what happened at the press conference.
His jaw tightened slightly as he thought about it again. He shifted where he sat, leaning back just a little before letting out a slow breath through his nose. He still couldn’t believe she had actually said that to him, couldn’t believe that after everything he had done to stand beside her, she had looked at him like he was capable of setting her up like that. It wasn’t even just about the accusation. It was the way she said it, like she had already made up her mind before he even answered.
He lifted his phone slightly, his thumb hovering over the screen as if he were about to do something, but he didn’t. He just stared at it for a few more seconds before lowering it again.
Should he call her?
The thought had been circling in his head for a while now, coming and going every few minutes, and each time it came back, it annoyed him even more. He didn’t like the fact that he was even considering it. He didn’t like the fact that part of him wanted to hear her voice, wanted to clear the tension between them, even though he knew he had done nothing wrong.
He leaned back fully this time, resting against the headboard of the bed as he ran a hand through his hair. The room around him was barely lit, the light from the bedside lamp throwing shadows along the walls, but he barely noticed it. His attention was still fixed on the phone in his hand.
“If anything, she should be the one calling me,” he muttered under his breath, his voice low but firm, and he meant it.
Adeline had been the one who crossed the line. She had been the one who threw accusations at him without thinking, the one who refused to listen properly, the one who practically pushed him out of her office like he had no right to be there. If anyone should be reaching out, it was her.
He let out a quiet scoff at the thought, shaking his head slightly, but then again… this was Adeline Carter.
Stubborn didn’t even begin to describe her. If anything, he knew there was a higher chance of something impossible happening before she decided to swallow her pride and reach out first. The woman would rather stay angry than admit she might have been wrong about something, and that was something he knew very well about her.
His grip on the phone tightened slightly as he thought about it. Still, that didn’t mean he was going to be the one to give in.
He sat there for a few more seconds, the silence stretching again as he weighed his options, even though deep down, he already knew what he was going to do. His pride wouldn’t let him make that call, not when he knew he didn’t deserve the treatment she gave him earlier.
After a moment, he let out another breath and made a decision. “No,” he said quietly to himself, shaking his head once as if to seal it. “I’m not calling her.”
He lowered the phone and placed it on the bedside table beside him, the screen going dark as soon as it left his hand. He leaned back again, letting his body relax slightly against the bed as he stared up at the ceiling.
Just because he wanted to marry her, just because he had plans that involved her, didn’t mean he was going to start chasing after her like he had done something wrong. He wasn’t going to beg for her attention or try to fix something that wasn’t his fault. If she wanted to talk, she knew where to find him. And if she didn’t? Then so be it.
He closed his eyes for a brief moment, letting the silence settle around him as he tried to push the thoughts away. He told himself that he didn’t care whether she called or not, that it didn’t matter, that he had better things to focus on, but even as he told himself that, a small part of his mind refused to fully agree.
It was annoying, very annoying.
He shifted again, this time lying down fully on the bed, one arm resting behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling again. He tried to think about something else, anything else that would distract him from the situation, but it didn’t take long before his thoughts drifted right back to her.
The way she looked during the press conference, the way she stood her ground despite everything, and the way she got angry. He let out a breath, his lips pressing into a thin line.
“She’s so annoying,” he muttered, and yet…he didn’t hate that side of her right now as much as he probably should have.
That thought alone made him frown slightly, and he pushed it away just as quickly as it came. He wasn’t about to start overthinking something that didn’t matter. She was still his enemy, no matter how things looked on the outside, and nothing about today changed that.
He shifted again, reaching over to turn off the bedside lamp, deciding that the best thing he could do right now was get some rest and deal with everything else later. As his fingers brushed against the switch, just as he was about to turn the light off, a notification sound broke the silence in the room, and Julian paused.
For a second, he didn’t move. He just stared at the dark screen of his phone on the bedside table, the faint glow lighting up the surface around it.
Another message. He let out a small breath, already feeling a slight pull in his chest that he didn’t want to acknowledge. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he reached over and picked up the phone again.
He told himself it was probably nothing important. Maybe it was Lisa with an update or some random notification that didn’t matter. He wasn’t expecting anything else. He had already convinced himself that he wasn’t going to hear from Adeline anytime soon, not after the way things ended earlier, but the moment the screen lit up and he saw the name, his brows lifted slightly in surprise.
Adeline.
For a second, he just stared at it, like he needed to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. His thumb hovered over the screen again, but this time, it wasn’t hesitation. It was something closer to disbelief.
“She actually texted,” he muttered quietly.
That alone was unexpected. He quickly opened the message, his eyes scanning the short line of text.
‘Can I call you?’
That was it. Simple and straightforward, but it was enough to shift something inside him. The tension that had been sitting in his chest for the past few hours eased almost instantly, replaced by something lighter, something he didn’t bother to name. The anger he had been holding onto didn’t disappear completely, but it faded enough for him to breathe easier.
He let out a breath, leaning back slightly as he read the message again, just to be sure. She wasn’t telling him she changed her mind, and she wasn’t pushing him away. She was asking to talk.
A small, almost amused smile touched his lips before he could stop it. “Well, that’s new,” he said under his breath.
He hadn’t expected this, not from her. For a brief second, his mind flickered with the thought that maybe this was about something else, something serious, and that made him sit up a little straighter. He didn’t want to assume anything, but he also couldn’t ignore the fact that she was the one reaching out first, and that alone meant something.
Without wasting any more time, he typed out a reply.
‘Sure thing.’
He sent it almost immediately, not giving himself time to overthink it, and then he set the phone back down beside him, but this time, he didn’t lie back down.
Instead, he stayed sitting upright on the bed, his eyes fixed on the phone as he waited. The room was still quiet, but now it felt different. There was a sense of anticipation in the air, something that hadn’t been there before. He tapped his fingers lightly against his knee, a small habit he had when he was waiting for something, and for the first time since he walked into his room, his mind wasn’t clouded with frustration or irritation.
It was focused on her.
He told himself he wasn’t nervous, and there was no reason to be. It was just a phone call and just a conversation, but even as he thought that, his eyes stayed glued to the screen, waiting for it to light up again and waiting for her call.