Chapter Twenty-Nine
Evie
It didn’t happen, it didn’t happen, it did not happen.
I’ve been pacing my room for the last hour, since my family and I came home from the Knight mansion. I’m sure my hair looks like a nest on top of my head due to the many times I’ve been running my fingers through the strands.
Noah and I almost kissed. Again.
We almost kissed.
Kissed!
I groan as I press my hands to my scorching cheeks. What on Earth would possess us to almost do something like that? I blame the gazebo. Maybe the thing is enchanted and put a spell on us or something. Yeah, that has to be it. There’s no other explanation.
I wonder what would have happened if those people hadn’t interrupted us…
“No!” I cry as I grab the bottom of my hair. “No, no, no. Brain, quit rebelling. I still control you, okay?”
With another groan, I fall on my bed and stare at the ceiling, trying to ignore the way my heart gallops in my chest at the memory of his lips so close to mine, his warm breath on my cheek, the way his eyes lit up under the soft lights...
“What the heck!” I grab the sides of my head. “Is there any way to wipe out the memories of the last twenty-four hours?”
Paint. I need to paint. But I can’t. I’ll probably paint another portrait of him, and that’s the last thing I want to do. How can I take my mind off him? And I don’t mean something temporary. I need something that will completely make me forget about him forever…
I jump up when an idea hits me. Racing over to my phone, I start a video call with Penny and Hannah.
Penny yawns as her face fills the screen. “I was just about to go to bed. I danced so much at your party that I can barely keep my eyes open.”
“Same with me,” Hannah says with a smile. “Tonight was spectacular, Evie.”
“Yeah, it was pretty great…” If you don’t count what almost went down in that enchanted gazebo…I clear my throat. “Anyway, can you do me a favor, Penny?”
“Sure.”
“Remember Mark’s friend that you wanted to introduce me to? You think he’s still interested?”
Penny, who was basically half-dead just a few seconds ago, suddenly perks up. “What? You want me to set you up with Cam?”
“Cam? Is that his name?”
“Cameron, yes. I told you that was his name when I first brought him up.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t interested back then so I didn’t care.”
Hannah raises a brow. “And you’re interested now?”
“Yes.”
She looks at me with narrowed eyes. “Why?”
Resting my phone against some books on my desk, I start pacing my room again, running my fingers through my hair for the millionth time.
“Evie?” Hannah asks.
I return to the phone and shrug. “Can’t a girl change her mind?”
“Sure,” Penny says. “But you’ve never been interested in going out with anyone before. Why now?”
“Is it because of all the couples dancing at your party?” Hannah asks. “It looked like you were having a lot of fun with Noah.”
My eyes bug out. “W-what? I didn’t have fun with him! No fun whatsoever. You guys are seeing things that aren’t there!”
Hannah holds up her hands. “Whoa. I didn’t mean anything by it. Just, it was kind of him to offer to dance with you—”
“Can we not talk about him? Penny, will you talk to Mark or not?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Thank you. If he’s interested, you can give him my number.”
“I’ll text him right now—”
“Wait a second,” Hannah interrupts. “Something’s not right.” She studies me closely. “What’s going on, Evie? Why are you suddenly interested in going out with someone when you’ve never been into it before? And didn’t you say you don’t want to get involved with anyone before college?”
I lift my shoulders. “Maybe I changed my mind?”
“Hannah, it’s because she felt lonely at her party,” Penny whispers to her.
I put my hands on my hips. “Actually, I was completely content not having a partner at the party. It was only after he came and ruined everything…” I sigh. “My life was fine until he messed everything up.”
“Who?” Hannah asks.
“Who messed up what?” Penny says.
My lips snap shut when I realize what just came out of my mouth. I shrug nonchalantly. “No one.”
“Evie, seriously. What’s going on?” Hannah asks. “I’ve never seen you so…I don’t know. On edge. Bothered. You weren’t this bad when you were biting your nails waiting to hear back from the colleges you applied to.”
I scoff lightly. “What’s college compared to this?” I mutter.
“Evie, tell us what’s going on,” Penny says. “Please?”
My eyes trek from one friend to the other. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to them about it, I just don’t want to admit it out loud. Because that would mean it’s true, and there’s no way in heck I’m ready to deal with it. Not now or ever.
But if I keep this inside, I might explode. So with a sigh, I fall down on my bed and hug my pillow. “Noah and I almost kissed tonight.”
“What?!” they exclaim.
I keep my eyes on the floor. “Yeah. I went out to the gazebo for fresh air and then he came to join me and we danced and…” I sigh again. “It just happened. Well, it almost happened. For the second time.”
Penny moves her face closer to the screen. “Did you want it to happen again?”
“Are you nuts? Of course I didn’t want it to happen again! He’s Noah.”
“So?” Hannah asks.
“So he and I are enemies. And it needs to stay like that.”
“Why is that, though?” Penny asks. “You guys clearly have something going on. Maybe you should go out with him and see—”
I explode off my bed. “What?! You want me to go out with…to go out with…I can’t even say it.”
“Why are you freaking out?” Hannah asks. “You guys have known each other all your lives. As much as you bicker, you still look out for each other. And Noah is a really good guy.”
“With too many hang-ups,” I mutter.
“Everyone has hang-ups,” Penny says.
“Not like Noah. Don’t you get it, guys? Noah and I can’t…we can’t…”
“Date?” they both supply.
“Yeah, that!”
“Why not?” Hannah asks.
“Because we’re so different! He’s a neat freak and I’m a tornado. He likes order and I like messy. He’s responsible and I’m irresponsible. He’s always looking ten steps ahead while I only see what’s in front of me. We’re different in every single way.”
“Yeah, but different could be good,” Penny says. “You know, the whole opposites attract thing.”
“This goes way beyond opposites. In no reality would Noah Barrington and I be a good fit. We’d bicker over everything.
We’d hurt each other. And if we become serious and get married one day, we’d only hurt each other and our kids.
Why bother starting something when a relationship between us is doomed from the start?
I don’t want to hurt him and I certainly don’t want him to hurt me. ”
Penny and Hannah exchange a look.
“She might be right,” Penny says. “They’re so different and argue about the littlest things. Maybe getting together will only lead to heartache.”
“Not maybe,” I clarify. “One hundred percent.”
“You never know,” Hannah says. “Maybe you should just give it a chance and see if it works out. After all, your pretend marriage seemed to work out fine.”
I laugh out loud. “Key word here is pretend, Hannah. There’s no way we would last in real life. You both know I’m right.”
Hannah thinks it over for a bit before sighing. “I guess. I don’t want you to get hurt. It’s easy to complain and whine about Noah when he’s your enemy, but if he was your boyfriend? Everything about him that annoys you would drive you away from him. Unless you guys learned to compromise…”
“Forget it,” I say. “I’m not embarking down that road because it’ll lead to a dead end. I need to forget about him and meet someone else.” My eyes move to Penny. “So you’ll text Mark?”
“Already did. He said Cam is interested.”
That causes a flutter of anticipation to enter my stomach. “Really? Cool.”
“He said that if you’re still up, he’ll call you.”
That anticipated butterfly has morphed into a nervous butterfly. “Right now? What do I say to him? Guys, I’ve never talked to a boy before. I mean, of course I’ve talked to boys, but I mean…Ugh, you know what I mean!”
“Just be yourself,” Hannah advises. “He’ll like you for you. And if he doesn’t, he’s not the right one for you.”
“Okay…” I run my hand through my hair again. “I guess we should end the call in case he calls?’
“Definitely!” Hannah says, an excited grin on her face. “Text us how it goes.”
We say good night and end the call. Then I sit on my bed and stare at my phone, waiting for a strange number to appear on my screen.
He said he’d call tonight, right? Unless he’s trying to act cool and not call right away.
Ugh, I hope he’s not the kind of person who plays games. I have no patience for that.
I gasp when my phone lights up with an unknown number. Holy crap, it’s him!
With a shaky finger, I answer and say, “Hello? This is Evie speaking.”
“Hi, Evie. This is Cameron. Cam. I got your number from my friend Mark, who got the number from your friend.”
“Right. I let her give it to him so he could give it to you.”
“Yeah, I was just trying to be polite,” he says with a small laugh.
I laugh, too. “Thanks, that’s sweet of you.”
“I hope it’s not too late? Penny said it was okay to call you.”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Thanks for calling.”
“No problem. Oh, it’s your birthday today, right? Happy birthday.”
I glance at the clock on my desk. “Actually, my birthday will be over in exactly one minute.”
“At least I still had time to squeeze it in before it’s tomorrow. So, did you have fun?”
We spend about twenty minutes talking. Cam’s easy to talk to and he also seems genuinely interested in what I have to say. Hmm. Maybe this could lead somewhere.
“I know it might be uncool of me to suggest this so early on, but do you want to go out Sunday night?” he asks. “I have lots of schoolwork and exams coming up next week, so I might not be able to get together after this week.”
“You’re a freshman in college, right?”
“Yeah. Busy busy,” he says with a light laugh.
“I can wait until your load gets lighter.”
“No, it’s cool. You sound very interesting and I would like to meet you in person.”
His words cause my cheeks and neck to heat up. “Thanks. You sound very interesting, too.”
“Thanks. So let’s meet at Mikey’s Diner for dinner Sunday night?”
“Sure. See you then.”
“Great. Have a great night and a great day tomorrow, Evie.”
“Thanks. You, too.”
My face hurts from the huge grin that has taken over it.
Cam sounds so mature. Cool and easygoing.
The prospect of meeting him fills me with an excitement I wasn’t expecting.
Maybe I was wrong to swear off relationships because of college.
If things work out for me and Cam and we’re endgame, we’ll figure out the whole long-distance thing.
But I’m thinking way too much into the future, just like a certain guy with blue eyes...
Oh my Gosh.
Nope. Out of my head. Hopefully after I meet Cam on Sunday, the memory of him will be completely and totally obliterated.