Chapter 5
Two years ago
Jasmine watched my every move with too much curiosity as we walked back to our apartment. Though she never asked why I skipped more than I walked, she knew I was up to something. It had taken us a few tries before finding a store that had vanilla bean paste. Now that I had the last ingredient to make a fancy matcha latte, I could finally invite Danté over for one. It had been a few days since we talked about it, so I hoped that he would remember. The last thing I wanted was to look like a total psycho who had planned everything, when, in fact, I had simply been the only one to care. I shook my head and continued skipping when we walked inside our building. Jasmine sighed as we took the stairs, complaining all the way up until we reached our floor.
“This is really pushing it too far, Eves. You force me to eat all your creations and to take the stairs. What’s next?”
Unlike me, Jasmine didn’t have the time to hit the gym almost every day. I rolled my eyes as I looked at her while she climbed the last of the stairs.
“I could stay with you while you shower to tell you if there’s still shampoo left in your hair.”
“I hate you,” she muttered.
“Sure you do.”
The moment Jasmine searched for our key in the trash bag that was her handbag, another door opened. Before I could open my mouth to say anything, a girl perched on her toes and kissed the very person I was about to invite in. They hadn’t noticed that someone else stood in the hallway, too focused on mixing their saliva. The yellow light made her straight ginger hair shine like in a shampoo commercial. With my heart beating in my throat, I elbowed Jasmine.
“Come on, Jazz! Search faster.”
At the way her eyebrows furrowed, I could see she was about to hit me. Before she could, I pointed to the door behind us. Jasmine quickly glanced over her shoulder, and her cheeks dusted red. But instead of opening the door, she cleared her throat.
“Hi, Danté!”
The girl jumped back, and Danté’s eyes went wide now that he was called back to reality. His attention was first on my friend, then it landed on me for a brief second.
“Oh, hey.”
His voice was too cheerful. Had we once again interrupted a sexy time? Please, let that not become the theme of my life. I pinched the bridge of my nose while Jasmine started small talk with our neighbour and his… well, what was she? At this point, I was more confused about his girls than I was about the Belgian weather. It was then that I realized I had never greeted him back. Jasmine smoothly kept talking to them like she did with her friends. The girl was smaller than I was by a few inches. No wonder she had needed to stand on her tippy toes. She looked nothing like the blonde girl we had seen here on our first-night catastrophe. And she looked nothing like me. When Danté’s gaze fell back on me once again, I felt like a deer caught in the headlights. What was I supposed to do? What should I say? The bag I was still holding seemed to become heavier by the second. At least now I knew I could stop hoping. It would never be a date. I lifted the bag.
“I can make you a matcha latte, as promised.”
The girl’s head whipped in my direction. I let my arm fall back, unable to respond to the hostility that she was sending my way. Danté didn’t notice, or didn’t care. A smile lit up his face. A genuine one this time. Even though I felt like I was about to barf up the inside of my stomach on his black Vans, I smiled back.
“I thought you’d forgotten.”
So he had remembered? Jasmine and the mean ginger lady looked between the both of us. I bit my lip. All this attention was overwhelming.
“I couldn’t find vanilla.”
“Don’t worry.”
A part of me, a very petty part, if I do say so myself, wanted to invite him over, just because I could. It just didn’t feel right. I shrugged.
“Anyway, you can come whenever you want.”
Jasmine understood the finality of the statement and gave me the key. Another part of me wanted to strangle her for keeping that key from me even though she had found it minutes ago.
When I waved, Danté said, “I’ll come in a few minutes, if that’s okay with you.”
So he wanted to spend his time with us? The girl on the other side of the hall understood it too. I found myself unable to answer something smart, so I just nodded like a dumb bobblehead. Jasmine opened the door and discreetly pushed me inside. When we were out of their hearing reach, Jasmine shot me a wry smile.
“I know.”
This was getting too complicated. Because I wasn’t the type of girl who was confident or hot. If anything, I was the cute kid no one took seriously. I blamed it on my very round cheeks. And it seemed like I wasn’t the type Danté went for. But for some reason, we always ended up in each other’s orbit. My best friend patted me on the arm.
“You, my dear, are in for a wild ride.”
And an emotional one too, it seemed.
***
Chloe had been talking for a while, not that I could recall what it was about. At some point, she waved a hand in front of my face.
“Why are you moping?”
“I’m not moping.”
“You definitely are.”
“No, I’m not!”
Chloe raised her palms to show me she would drop it, but at the way her eyebrow raised, I could see she didn’t believe me. She was right, of course. I was moping. I had been for the last few days. Danté had come over to our place for the matcha latte. Jasmine had been the real hero, trying to figure out if the girl we had seen was his girlfriend. She wasn’t, which would have been a reassurance if Danté hadn’t also said that he wasn’t ready for commitment because he had gone through a tough breakup a few months earlier. All he wanted right now was just to have some fun. I couldn’t blame him. I also couldn’t help the disappointment that pinched inside my chest. It wasn’t love, sure, but there was something about him. Danté was a light, and I was a moth.
The bell chimed, and a group of students walked in. Chloe silently assessed me, probably trying to feel if I was able to muster enough sweetness to deal with customers.
“Why don’t you go and help that one out?”
A rather handsome fella stood at the counter, with blond dishevelled hair. The guy was having a staring contest with the drink list on the wall. I plastered a smile on my face. He didn’t even hear me approach.
I cleared my throat. “Hello, can I help you?”
The guy turned to me, his gaze bewildered. He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. “I’m a bit overwhelmed at the amount of drink choices you have.”
I found myself smiling. I was the kind of person who had to see the menu days in advance so I could make a choice without the pressure of choosing on the spot. So I knew how he felt.
“Can I help you or do you want me to come back in a few minutes?”
He ended up sliding on one of the bar stools. “What would you recommend?”
“I personally love chai lattes the most.”
“Alright, I’ll take one on the go.”
Though he was a bit smaller, understandably, he looked a bit like my annoyingly good-looking neighbour. Jasmine and Theo had a point: I had a type. But where Danté was a flirt and as confident as one could get, this one seemed to get easily lost in his own head.
“Can I have your name please?”
“Oh, it’s Robert.”
I put his name on the paper cup. A few other customers arrived, so I started preparing the orders.
“Robert?” I called.
“You can just call me Rob.”
“Alright then. There you go, Rob.”
Instead of taking his cup and leaving, he stayed.
“And you are?”
“Evelyn, but you can call me Evy.”
He laughed quietly. His eyes roamed over my face, and I started to feel self-conscious under the scrutiny.
“That piercing really suits you.”
My hand went to my septum, and I winced at the contact with the fresh piercing. It had been on my bucket list for quite a while. So when my mother had said that septum piercings made girls look like ugly cows, I had dragged Chloe to the nearest piercing shop after our shift yesterday, just because I could. My mom was so going to have a shock, and I was all here for it. The fact that someone actually said that I looked good with it was nice.
“Thank you. Anyway, enjoy your drink.”
“Thanks, I’ll see you around.”
He gave me a small smile and waved before turning back.
“I’m sure you will.”