Julia, I Love You, by Jelena Dunato

On Monday morning, Hicks stormed into Julia’s office. “You’re responsible for this!” he barked.

“Excuse me?” Julia was responsible for many things, but none were supposed to make her boss fume.

“You haven’t seen it?”

She shook her head and Hicks dragged her to the parking lot, where half the firm was already sipping from their mugs, having a field day. Three-foot red caps on the white facade of their building proclaimed JULIA, I LOVE YOU.

Blood rushed to her head as she prayed for the earth to swallow her.

“Have it removed immediately,” Hicks said.

“I’ll call the cleaners. I swear I don’t know what happened.”

“How humiliating,” Sarah from Accounting sniggered behind her back. And Nick, who dated Jenny, but tried to snog Julia at their Christmas party said, “She probably wrote it herself.”

“I hear you have a secret admirer,” Julia’s mum said when she came home in the evening. “The whole town is trying to guess who it might be.”

Julia picked at her microwaved lasagne, feeling raw. “It’s just someone’s idea of a joke.”

“Yes.” her mum agreed, fingernails knocking on the formica table. “It can’t be for real, right?”

“Yes, mum. What fool could ever love me?”

Mum scrutinized Julia’s pale face. “If only you’d try harder.”

On Tuesday morning, the message was there again.

JULIA, I LOVE YOU.

Julia stood in the parking lot, shaking with humiliation and rage as the rest of the firm gathered around her. It had cost her an arm and leg to have the sign removed. She wanted to strangle the culprit.

“Stubborn fucker,” Nick said, putting his hand on her lower back. “What did you do to make him this mad about you, Jules?”

“Bugger off, Nick.”

Then Hicks barged in, fuming. “I’ll have security here all night, and I’ll take it out of your salary, Julia.” He turned to the rest of the firm. “What are you staring at? Back to work!”

That night, Julia went through her little black book. A few guys she dated in her early twenties, who got married or moved away a long time ago. Ted, who had a wife, and broke her heart. Mike, who lived with her for two years and slept with her best friend. And Andrew, who was great fun but was “afraid of commitment”.

None of them cared about her enough to write those words, not even as a prank.

“I had to take a leak,” the security guy said miserably on Wednesday morning, the huge letters glowing behind his back, “and the damn thing just appeared.”

JULIA, I LOVE YOU.

“I’ll have the police... cameras...” Hicks was apoplectic.

“Mr. Hicks, let me deal with it,” Julia said, nothing but a twitch of her eyelid revealing her fury. “I’ll catch the culprit tonight or I’ll resign in the morning and cover all costs.”

She had a thermos full of coffee and hot rage in her chest to keep her awake. Personal alarm on her keyring, pepper spray in her pocket.

Around 2 a.m. she felt the need to pee, but unlike the security guy, she squatted behind the first car. That’s when she spotted a dark figure approaching the wall. The unmistakable sound of a ball rattling in a can of spray paint broke the silence. The figure lifted its hand and the spray hissed. JUL—

Julia hit the figure running and threw it to the ground. It curled up as Julia kicked it. “You stupid fuck, you think that’s funny?”

“Julia, stop! Stop!”

Julia tore the culprit’s balaclava off and froze. Her own face stared back at her, a little worse for wear.

“What the... Who are you?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” the other Julia said.

“But... how? Why?”

“You know what they say, ‘if you’re looking for a sign, this is it’?” The other Julia got up and grabbed the can. The spray hissed again. Julia watched motionless as she wrote JULIA, I LOVE YOU.

“You’re the only one who does, right?”

The other Julia threw the empty can and opened her arms. “Come.”

As they hugged, Julia heard her whisper, “This is your wake-up call. Get the fuck out of here.”

Heat engulfed her and spread through her veins as the other Julia melted into her. A heartbeat later, she stood alone on the parking lot.

JULIA, I LOVE YOU.

“I do,” she whispered. “You deserve a better life.”

She picked up the empty spray can, turned on her heel and left.

Jelena Dunato

Jelena Dunato is an art historian, curator and writer. Her stories have been published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Dark, and Future SF, among others. She is a member of SFWA and Codex. Her debut novel, Dark Woods, Deep Water, was published by Ghost Orchid Press in September 2023.

• Website: www.jelenadunato.com
• Twitter and BlueSky: @jelenawrites
• Instagram: @jelena_author