Chapter 3

Matt came back twenty minutes after Juliette fell asleep and tried to open the door because he thought it was locked. He figured she must've gone to bed early till he noticed the door was not locked.

When he came in, he hoped she was not awake because of him but he noticed she had fallen asleep on the couch. He thought about waking her up but he saw used tissue paper all around her.

"Ew" he murmured in disgust till he noticed her face, it looked like she had been crying.

He knew instantly that she must've been crying so he closed her laptop and threw the used tissue papers into the garbage disposer. He heard someone knocking at the door when he looked at the time, it was very late. He was not expecting anyone, so he thought it must be her visitor.

When he opened the door, a man stood on the other side of the door -a tall white guy in his early thirties with brown hair and green eyes, he wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a visible lipstick stain by the collar but he didn't notice it- he looked worried but immediately he saw Matt, his expression changed to that of confusion.

"Who the hell are you?" The stranger asked getting upset.

"I should be asking you that. You're literally in front of my apartment."

"I'm Nathan, Juliette's boyfriend. Is she in? I need to speak to her."

"Did you try calling her first?" Matt asked as he came out of the apartment to avoid waking her up and closed the door behind him.

"I did, she's blocked me and- what does it matter, she's my girlfriend and I can see her whenever I want."

"Interesting, she's not here and if she blocked you, shouldn't you wait till she decides to contact you before running up here?"

"Don't fucking tell me what to do in my relationship."

Matt rolled his eyes and scoffed.

"I don't care about your relationship, I'm telling you what a reasonable person does."

"A reasonable man doesn't share an apartment with a woman he's not dating." He yelled then with his hands on his hip and almost immediately, he had an expression that looked like a sudden realization and then he asked, "Are you screwing her? Is that what this is? A revenge? Did she tell you to answer the door? Where is she?"

"Look, I'm not going to argue with a stranger by this time of the night, I don't know who let you into the building but don't come here again without calling." He said with finality in his voice.

The two men glared at each other for ten seconds till Nathan walked off and yelled "This is not over!"

"Yeah, real mature!" Matt murmured as he walked back into the apartment. He saw that Juliette was almost awake from the noise he and Nathan were making.

"Who was that?" She asked.

"Why are you sleeping out here?" He asked her without answering her question.

"Why are you avoiding my question?"

"Why didn't you lock the door?"

She threw her hands in frustration as she sat up.

"I didn't know if you had your keys with you and you don't have my number."

"It was nobody." He replied as he walked off to get a glass of water.

"I literally heard two voices from the door. You were not alone."

"There was someone out there but it was a nobody." He insisted as he handed her the water.

"I don't want water."

"Forgive me for being thoughtful." He said and took the water back to the kitchen. "You didn't lock up at all. The place was open. For someone who wanted to fight with a cute flips earlier, the least you could have done is lock up and let me worry about getting in." He continued.

She didn't say anything. She couldn't. She was too tired to argue. She remembered what Nate did and was about to cry again but she was determined not to do it in front of Matt.

Noticing that something seemed off, Matt asked, "Juliette, are you okay? Do you want to talk? Did I say something mean?"

"I'm fine. It's fine, it's not you." was all she said as she stood up, carried her laptop and her phone and walked to her room.

Back in her room, she cried into her pillow till she couldn't cry anymore.

As Matt watched her leave, he guessed the stranger was cheating on her and she found out. What he couldn't understand was why she was crying over him. She was a beautiful and attractive woman who clearly was not aware of her charm, or she wouldn't be here crying over "green eyes". She seemed funny and caring, too caring. "Who waits up for a stranger?" He thought. She needs an extra confidence boost. "I hope her friends help her in that department. He thought.

His phone beeped and when he checked, it was a text, it said "I've made the arrangements, you start tomorrow."

He turned off some of the light and decided to retire to bed, he had a long day tomorrow and besides he hadn't rested well since the party from last night…