He Cancelled Our Future for Her Anxiety novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Five O'Clock Friday

Corinne finds the $6,200 London savings spent on Arizona housing. Dylan arrives with tulips and a smooth excuse, and she sets a Friday deadline in front of Hallie. Piper texts the exact amount Corinne never told her.

I opened the savings account at eleven that night, with my coat still on.

We had opened it together our sophomore spring.

It was called LONDON in capital letters because Dylan thought that was funny.

The balance was zero.

I scrolled up.

On September 4, the same day he left our flat booking, there was one transfer out.

$6,200.00. ASU Housing Deposit. Tempe, AZ.

That was every dollar.

Most of it was mine, from two summers of waitressing and a semester of grading papers at six dollars over minimum.

I put the phone on the blanket.

Then I picked it up and took a screenshot, because Hallie had taught me to keep receipts.

Hallie came in at eleven forty with her seminar bag and a bag of fries.

She looked at my face and dropped both on the floor.

"Who died?"

"Nobody." I held the phone out. "I just found out where our savings went."

She read the screen, and then she read the line under it.

"Cor," she said slowly. "Is this Arizona State?"

I told her all of it, from the candle to the text.

She said a word that her mother would not have liked.

The buzzer rang before she could finish saying more.

Dylan stood on the landing with a bunch of white tulips and his best face on, the one with a small, sorry smile.

"Hey, babe. Phone's been off? I tried to call you from the restaurant."

"I was in the hallway," I said.

His smile stayed where it was.

I watched him count backward in his head to see how long I had been there.

"Cor, listen, I was going to tell you this weekend."

"Which part?"

He looked at Hallie, who had folded her arms in the doorway of her room and was not going anywhere.

"Piper's in a bad place," he said. "Her mom called me in August. She can't start the semester alone. I'll go out for a few months, get her settled, and come to London at Christmas."

"You cancelled your ticket in September."

"Because it was a better price to rebook later."

"And the six thousand two hundred dollars?"

For the first time he stopped smiling.

"It's a deposit. It's refundable. You're being dramatic about money."

"Dylan. It's the money for our flat."

"For my half of the flat, which I'm not taking," he said. "So it's mine."

"It's about four-fifths mine."

Hallie made a small noise in her throat that I would call encouraging.

He set the tulips down on my desk very gently.

"I knew you would say no," he said. "That's why I didn't ask. You'd have made it a fight and Piper would have heard about it."

I looked at him.

He believed that.

He really believed it was a kindness.

"You put my phone number on your Phoenix booking," I said.

"It was a backup." He rubbed his neck. "In case you changed your mind. I was trying to leave you a way in."

"You said she would see it and book her own seat."

His face did something quick and flat.

"Who told you that?"

"The door was open four inches."

Hallie said, to nobody, "I want it on record that I love that for her."

Dylan ignored her.

"Cor. You're strong. You'll be fine in London without me. Piper isn't."

I had thought I knew what it would feel like to be told that.

I had thought it would feel like a slap.

It felt like being handed a bill.

"What's the arrangement with Piper's mother?" I asked.

He blinked.

"What arrangement?"

"You said you had one."

"It's nothing." He waved a hand. "Her mom helps with housing. It's what you do for a friend's kid."

I let that sit.

Then I walked around him and held open the door.

"The money goes back in that account by five o'clock Friday," I said. "Every dollar."

"Or what?"

"Or I send these statements to the group chat from your farewell dinner. Fourteen people ate calamari on your goodbye. I'd like them to see where it went."

He laughed.

It was the same warm, easy voice I had heard through the door.

But he picked the tulips up again on the way out, and he didn't hand them to me.

I shut the door and put the chain on.

Hallie slid down the wall beside the fries.

"Five o'clock Friday," she said. "I'm setting an alarm."

My phone buzzed.

Another text from Piper, a long one this time.

Cor, I'm SO sorry. I begged Dylan not to do this and he won't listen. Please don't be mad at him, he's the kindest person I know. I'll make sure you get the $6,200 back. I promise xx

I read it twice.

It was polite, and it was careful.

It also had the exact amount in it.

I had not told her the amount.

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