From Clingy to Independent- He Thought I Needed Him Until He Realized I Didn’t Chapter 01
Adrian Hayes noticed that I no longer ran everything by him.
When my company offered me an out-of-state transfer, I signed the paperwork before it even occurred to me to ask what he thought.
When my best friend invited me to bring my boyfriend to her wedding, I went alone and gave a very generous cash gift.
Even when I had to be admitted for surgery, I booked the outpatient appointment and hospital bed on my own.
Adrian, being a doctor, frowned the moment he found out.
“You’re sick. Why didn’t you tell me? Give me your chart. I’ll make the arrangements for you.”
The words slipped out before I could stop them.
“I can handle it myself. I don’t want to trouble you. Thank you.”
The second I said it, we both froze.
Just half a month earlier, I was still the “clingy giant baby” he called me.
I used to text him over everything, from which outfit I should wear on a date to what I should have for lunch.
…
“You need surgery that urgently? Tomorrow?”
My attending physician handed my chart back to me, sounding a little confused.
“I remember Dr. Hayes is almost back from his trip. You could easily wait for him to come back and be here with you.”
I cut her off softly. “It’s my business. I can deal with it myself.”
She looked surprised.
After all, I was known around here for being high-maintenance. Even something as minor as a headache or a fever was enough for me to cling to Adrian and make him stay with me.
The moment I stepped out of the exam room, I ran into a familiar figure.
Adrian had one hand on his suitcase handle, like he’d just gotten off a plane and rushed straight back to the hospital.
Lily Bennett was with him as usual. Over her white coat, she had draped a black cashmere coat, the same one I’d given Adrian for our third anniversary.
Adrian frowned.
“What are you doing here? You’re sick again?”
There it was again, that familiar impatience, as if I were just another nuisance he needed to deal with.
He took my chart from my hands, skimmed it for a few seconds, and then said in a flat, commanding tone, “I’ve got plans tomorrow.”
“It’s nothing serious. Move the surgery to next week, and I’ll go with you.”
Again, the words came out on instinct.
“I can handle it myself. I don’t want to trouble you. Thank you.”
The excessive politeness and distance in my tone caught Adrian off guard.
The old me would run to him to whine and seek comfort over the tiniest paper cut.
I used to bombard him with texts asking him to pick an outfit for me before every date.
From daily meals to major life choices, I used to ask Adrian about everything.
And now I could face surgery on my own without batting an eye.
If we hadn’t run into each other by chance, he, my boyfriend, might never even have known.
I snatched my chart back and accidentally knocked a box of medication out of Adrian’s hand.
The label was impossible to miss. It was a box of birth control pills.
“Don’t get the wrong idea.”
Adrian bent down to pick it up, his voice brisk and impersonal, all business.
“Lily gets severe cramps. This is a common medication for relief.”
Lily pulled the coat tighter around herself and hurried to explain in a soft, nervous voice, “I’m sorry, Jenna. Dr. Hayes was going to go home, but it’s my fault for being so useless. I was in so much pain I could barely stand, so he had to come with me to get the prescription.”
She paused, and when she spoke again, she sounded genuinely envious.
“I wish I could be as independent as you, Jenna. Then Dr. Hayes wouldn’t have to work so hard running around for me.”
One time, when I had stomach pain, I asked Adrian which department I should make an appointment with.
What had the youngest associate head of neurology at one of the country’s top hospitals said to me again?
He said he didn’t know.
When I complained that he was brushing me off, he pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly and looked at me like I was a child who had just caused trouble.
“For something this minor, can’t you just look it up online yourself?”
“You’re an adult. Can you be a little more independent instead of acting like some giant baby who’s always relying on me?”
“I’m not your parent. It’s not my job to teach you basic life skills.”
It was ridiculous. He was stingy with words to his own girlfriend, yet he personally took his junior from med school to the doctor and got her medication.
Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought Lily was the one dating him.
If this had happened before, I would’ve lost my temper and started a fight on the spot.
But now I just let out a quiet “oh,” my tone perfectly calm.
“Medication alone isn’t enough. You could massage the pressure points in her lower abdomen too. Then hold her while she sleeps tonight and keep her hands and feet warm.”
Lily’s face flushed bright red.
“Jenna, that’s not what I meant…”
Adrian took my remark as me lashing out in anger, and his voice turned cold.
“You’re still mad? Over the fact that I didn’t tell you about the trip?”
Half a month ago, it had been his birthday.
I had worked myself to death to finish a project so I could take comp time, cooked a whole table full of food myself, and picked up the custom gift I’d ordered way in advance, all so I could celebrate with him.
I waited until midnight, and Adrian still never came home.
It was only after I saw Lily’s Instagram post that I found out he’d left for an overseas academic exchange program.
But Adrian brushed it off like it was nothing.
“It was just a work trip. There was no need to discuss it with you.”
“Birthdays happen every year. An opportunity like that doesn’t. I thought you’d know what mattered more.”
“Don’t you have your own life to focus on? Why are you always watching my schedule?”
The disappointment I’d been holding back crashed over me like a tidal wave, and I couldn’t stop myself from demanding, “Adrian Hayes, in your order of priorities, am I always the least important, the least urgent, the least worth caring about?”
Compared to my hysteria, Adrian stayed calm.
He said one sentence and hung up.
“You’re not calm right now. We’ll talk when I get back.”