Chapter 7 All Shook Up
All Shook Up
Eve
Much to Eve’s chagrin, she was relieved Jamie had been around to keep her panic attack from spiraling into an all-out war in her brain.
Even more to her chagrin, she enjoyed having some company after nearly a week of spending her days with only herself.
Ostensibly, it was what she wanted—to be alone—but that came with the sobering realization that alone was distressingly lonely.
And Jamie appearing practically out of thin air seemed like the universe’s way of throwing her a bone.
As much as she hated that he’d seen her in such a vulnerable state, it couldn’t hurt to have someone give a shit about her well-being. Someone other than Maya and her parents, all of them a two-hour flight away.
It was why she returned to the kitschy diner with the pushy cashier and sat in silence while Jamie made his way through his breakfast. Eve had a few sips of coffee before determining that the caffeine may have contributed to her hysteria in the first place, and she decided to just people watch.
The number of kids in the area seemed endless.
But then, she was the dumbass who moved to a place known for its parks.
Gatlinburg was a humble town of maybe four thousand people, but visitors came in droves.
Millions every year. Eve hadn’t considered it until it was too late.
When Jamie asked to take her home, she didn’t protest. Eve wasn’t particularly comfortable with driving anyway—she only learned because she needed to get around in college, and Atlanta’s public transportation was…
lacking, to put it nicely. But if she had it her way, she would never get behind a wheel again.
It was anxiety inducing on its own, and doubly so in the mountains, with the threat of another panic attack looming over her.
Sitting in the passenger seat of Jamie’s Chevy truck, Eve found the roar of his engine rather agitating, and the butter-soft seats the opposite.
His car was old—old enough to be in high school, if she had to guess—but it was well cared for, the cab so spotless she worried about touching anything.
He had one of those Little Trees air fresheners hanging from the rearview, reminding her of New York in a way she didn’t mind.
Her father drove a taxi as a side hustle when she was younger, and she could still recall the aroma of citrus and bergamot that dwelled in his vehicle.
Jamie’s was the standard pine scent, which fit into the box of what little she knew about him.
He was Classic Coke. Original Levi’s 501s. Vintage.
“How you doing over there?” Jamie asked.
Despite the noise of the car, Eve had gotten comfortable enough to close her eyes and was on her way to a light sleep when Jamie’s voice startled her alert. “I was fine until you woke me up,” she said.
“I figured you might’ve just been pretending to sleep so you wouldn’t have to make conversation.”
Eve wanted to be annoyed that he thought so little of her, even if it was absolutely something she would do. “We don’t know each other well enough for you to be talking this much shit,” she said.
Jamie smiled in that way of his. She could see the mirth in his eyes just from his profile. “I guess you really are all right,” he said.
As they fell back into a comfortable silence, Eve resorted to scrolling through her phone, mindlessly liking everything that popped up on her Instagram feed.
She forgot that it was a signal to people that she was alive and well enough for social media, thereby prompting a couple of direct messages from friends whose texts she had ignored.
Jamie turned his radio to some station playing an old Outkast song, leaving her wondering if he was like those Uber drivers who set their music to hip-hop whenever a Black person set foot in their car.
She never complained, because, well, the playlists usually slapped, but she was never not at least slightly annoyed by it.
“You can play whatever you usually listen to,” Eve said.
“And what makes you think this isn’t what I usually listen to?” Without thinking, she eyed him and he laughed. “I’m thirty-four and grew up in Memphis. I listen to Outkast.”
She supposed that was fair. Just because Leo only liked jazz—or pretended to—didn’t mean every white guy she came across was the same.
“I probably know more about Outkast than you do, New York,” Jamie added. He was instigating, but she was going to take the bait anyway.
“Not you trying to play me. I went to school in Atlanta. Where Outkast was born .”
He glanced at her as if impressed. “Is that right?”
Eve shrugged. Her time at Spelman was nothing to write home about. She was a mess for three of her four years. But it was where she met Maya. And where she learned to hone her flair for the dramatic. “The start of my dramaturgical journey,” she said. “And my lifelong affair with André Benjamin.”
“Well, the truth is, I just turned on the radio because the only CD I have in the car right now is the Encanto soundtrack.”
She chuckled at the idea of still using CDs in the year 2025. “You know, most people have music on their phones nowadays.”
“Well, I’m not most people,” Jamie said. He pulled out a little LG flip phone as proof, which made Eve smile so hard she started giggling.
“Wow…”
“It does what I need it to do.”
“Unless you need to listen to something other than Encanto ,” Eve said, still tittering. “Why are you listening to Disney soundtracks at your big age anyway?”
“First of all, Disney soundtracks are timeless.”
“Fair,” she said. Though she was having a harder time imagining him belting out “A Whole New World” than rapping along to “Elevators (Me & You)” now. “You’re just full of surprises, huh?”
“I’m kidding,” Jamie said. “My son is obsessed with Encanto right now, so that’s all we’ve been listening to lately.”
Eve physically recoiled, her elbow knocking against the passenger door as if her body had attempted to jump out of the car and simultaneously been splashed with a pitcher of cold water.
She flashed back to the son who had been taken away from her all those years ago, and she hated Jamie for reminding her—even though she never actually stopped thinking of him.
She’d allowed herself to enjoy his company, only for the record to scratch as soon as she stopped being afraid of that fact.
“You have a son?” she asked. He could’ve punched her in the chest and she would’ve been less flummoxed.
“Yeah. Jack.” He glanced back at her for longer than she was comfortable with, considering he was driving, but she couldn’t blame him for likely wondering why she was losing her fucking mind. “Is that okay?”
“It’s fine,” she said, trying to regain her poise. She shook her head as if to knock away the intrusive thoughts. “It just—it didn’t occur to me.”
“He lives in Nashville,” Jamie explained. “His mom and I share custody.”
Eve wanted to detach herself from the gory details.
It occurred to her that Jamie was probably divorced, and he wasn’t old enough to be divorced long, so he probably had some baggage he was dealing with.
She didn’t like baggage. She had too much of her own and no space for anyone else’s.
She started to fish in her purse for her AirPods case, figuring he’d at least get the hint, even if it would be remarkably rude.
“He’s eight,” Jamie went on while she continued rummaging frantically. “Goin’ on about twenty, though.”
“I have to call my mom,” Eve blurted out, desperate to make him shut up.
And while she did owe her mother a call, Eve had no intention of dialing her up.
Upon locating her AirPods, she simply pretended, leaving a fake voicemail after a realistic enough waiting period.
The entire act was inane, but that was how badly Eve needed to end this conversation.
Jamie seemed to understand that she was no longer in a chatty mood, so he let the silence speak for the bulk of the ride.
Surprisingly, it didn’t feel awkward, though it should’ve.
He had every right to check her for being an asshole, but he left her to it.
Perhaps he’d had enough of her brand of unhinged for one morning. Either way, she was grateful.
“I don’t know what your plans are for the rest of the day,” Jamie said as their ride ascended to their tiny neck of the woods, “but you’re welcome to come by for dinner. I’ll be cooking either way.”
“Oh.” Feeling trapped again, Eve cursed herself for not just biting the bullet and driving herself home.
“I think I’ll be okay. But thank you.” She imagined that if Jamie hadn’t mentioned his son, she would’ve accepted his invitation, and who knows where that would’ve led, so in a way, it was best that he brought her crashing back down to earth.
When they pulled up to her grandmother’s cabin, Eve was struck by what a good job he’d done with the landscaping, turning the year of neglect into an idyllic little cottage to house all her issues.
“Thank you,” she said sincerely. “For everything.”
“You’re welcome,” he said. Jamie put the car in park and then turned to her expectantly, his blue eyes searching for something she clearly didn’t have to give.
“But I don’t think I’m someone you wanna be friends with,” Eve said.
Jamie nodded as he looked down at the console between them. “Maybe I am somebody you wanna be friends with.”
Eve smiled. He was probably right. But if she could help it, she would never find out. She grabbed her things and piled out of the truck before he could undoubtedly do the gentlemanly thing and help her out of it. “I’ll see you around, Jamie.”