Chapter 1

Three years into our long-distance relationship, the calendar Julian and I shared was filled with blue events involving his junior colleague, Chloe.

If I wanted to see him, I had to submit an appointment request to Chloe in advance.

Our anniversary? Denied.

I got sick and needed him? Denied.

I asked Julian about it once.

He only said flatly, "Chloe manages my schedule for me. Lena, don't hold me hostage over every little thing."

Later, he won the Best Paper Award at the National Urban Systems Conference.

I sat in the audience with a cake I'd carried through a seven-hour train ride and listened as he smiled beneath the spotlight and thanked Chloe.

"Thank God someone kept all that emotional drama off my plate."

Only after the ceremony did he finally remember I was there.

"Why did you come? Didn't I tell you not to bother me during the competition?"

Chloe smiled.

"Elena, loving someone means supporting his future, not stealing his time."

I nodded and swallowed the congratulations I'd rehearsed for so long.

If he thought I was nothing but a waste of his time, then I wanted no part in his future.

……

That night, I left our shared calendar just as Julian pushed open the hotel room door.

He glanced at the cake box on the table, one hand resting on his tie knot, his tone indifferent.

"You're still here? You missed the last train, didn't you?"

I tucked the plastic knife back into the cake box.

"I changed my ticket. I'm leaving tomorrow morning."

Chloe walked in behind him and set the trophy by the window.

"Elena, don't get the wrong idea. The conference committee added a last-minute interview, and I had Julian's phone, so there was no way to tell you ahead of time."

"It's fine." I closed the cake box. "I booked another hotel."

Julian frowned and touched the back of my hand.

"Why are you so cold? Don't make this harder than it has to be. We'll get a suite tonight—Chloe can sleep in the living room, you take the bedroom, and I'll crash with one of my teammates."

Once, that would've been enough to make me believe he still understood boundaries.

But Chloe had already opened his suitcase. She pulled out a set of men's pajamas with practiced ease and handed them to him.

"I have your ulcer medication too. Take it now so you don't wake up in pain again."

Julian took the water and swallowed the pills.

"You're the only one who remembers."

I lowered my eyes to the five little suns on the cake box.

They belonged to a private set of symbols I'd designed while labeling weather data.

During our senior year of high school, he'd promised to draw me a tiny sun for every year our relationship survived.

I hadn't gotten the chance to ask him to draw the fifth.

Chloe bent down for a closer look.

"That little sun is cute, though the colors look kind of faded. Elena, Julian doesn't eat frosting anymore. Sugar makes him crash, so I'll cut him a small piece."

"Don't."

I picked up the box. "If he won't eat it, I'll throw it away."

Julian caught my wrist. His grip wasn't hard, but he didn't let me leave.

"Lena, stop acting like a child. Chloe is looking after me. Do you really have to turn her kindness into something this ugly?"

"Then take one bite," I said calmly.

Chloe sighed softly and slid the plastic knife out from beside the box.

"I'll eat it for him. At least Elena's effort won't go to waste."

She cut out the fifth sun.

Frosting smeared across the base of the trophy.

Julian released me, pulled out a tissue, and wiped her fingertips clean.

"Be good. Once things calm down, I'll make up for missing our anniversary. Happy now?"

"When?"

"We'll figure it out later."

I opened my work calendar in front of him and deleted the reminder for my birthday next month. Then I deleted the date tickets went on sale for the New Year's Eve train we'd planned to take.

He saw me do it, but only rubbed his forehead.

"Deleting a few reminders isn't going to make me panic. How childish can you be?"

I didn't explain. I picked up the cake and headed for the door.

Chloe suddenly called after me.

"Elena, did you leave the shared calendar? I just got a request to unlink your account."

Julian's hand paused around his glass.

He didn't ask why. He only looked at Chloe.

"Don't approve it yet. Give her three days to cool off."

As Chloe looked down and tapped her screen, I saw another blue event on her calendar.

Nine tomorrow night.

The title was REPLACEMENT.