Red Room Hours with John Tan

Stressed

You rolled your eyes and pushed past John to walk to your dresser, yanking open the drawers with more force than needed, the protesting squeak echoing across the room. You whipped your head around to glare at him, he looked confused, he clearly thought his little presentation should have pacified you.

"How do I know you didn't change Sean or your brother's contact info to say her name and send that text to them so they'll cover for you?"

"Doesn't that sound slightly over the top Y/N? What is my motivation for making this precarious tower of lies right now?" He was getting frustrated, but you didn't care. You grabbed underwear from the drawer then turned your back to him and stepped into them slipping them up your legs and under your robe. You followed them with a pair of black leggings, maybe if you kept ignoring him, he'd just leave.

"Will you talk to me please? At least explain why you think I'd go to so much trouble to deceive you." You kept your back to him and dropped the robe where it landed with a soft brush of fabric to the floor. You'd heard the sound of clothing falling to the floor under much better circumstances with John and thinking about those times dulled the anger just a little. You pulled your bra on slowly and then an oversized t-shirt before turning back to him.

"I don't know." You frowned and crossed your arms. He was still where you'd left him, probably thinking better of closing the distance this time.

"One text message, that wasn't even an apology, can't erase the last two months. What we've started building between us I wouldn't throw it away for that." He extended his phone to you and shrugged. "Check anything you want. You were barely in the bathroom a couple minutes, I was getting dressed, and talking to you. Open anything, search anything." He'd closed the distance and grasped your wrist and lifted it until he could place his phone into your palm. "002109 is the passcode." When you wrapped your fingers around it he released you and stepped away.

You looked down at the black screen and tapped a finger against it, the screen responded right away, a half-naked anime girl the colorful background, face id blinked and failed so you swiped for the keypad. It would be so easy to type in the code and dig through every detail of his life, but that was crazy. The feeling struck you like a slap. A single week into your relationship and you were going to dig through his private conversations? That was toxic and ridiculous. You locked the phone and extended it back out to him.

"No John, if the trust is ever so bad between us that I have to resort to reading your messages and checking your apps, that's it. You're right, there's no reason for you to create a fake story to trick me. I just want the truth, no matter how messy. Even if it's going to make me mad, nothing makes me angrier than finding out I've been told a lie." He took his phone and bowed his head with a sigh.

"I'll admit her response isn't good. One word answers from a woman is dangerous, and she's no exception." You returned to his side and looked down at the screen, he had it open to their conversation. You realized there were lots of chat bubbles on his side of the screen and only the two recent on hers. Had she really been so cruel as to read his messages for a week and never respond? You knew if you looked at him now and saw the hurt on his face you'd cave and want to take care of him again.

"What are you going to say?"

"What can I say? I'm going to just block her. I was hoping she'd apologize or say she respects my feelings, but that was a fantasy." John tapped the contact info and scrolled down and with a single click she was blocked. The relief you felt was palpable, you hadn't even asked him to do that, he'd come to the conclusion on his own.

"Thank you John."

"For what? Putting you through hell yesterday, lying to you last night, and stressing you out this morning?"