Chapter 28 The Ways of a Woman in Love
The Ways of a Woman in Love
Eve
“Can I be messy for a second?”
Eve eyed her coffee mate with a crackling amusement as her grin widened. “Please be messy,” she said. She was sitting with Casey at a chic little European coffee bar down the street from Jamie’s while they waited for Jack to get out of school.
Before continuing, Casey peeked around the corner, assumably to ensure his husband wasn’t returning to their table just yet. “Okay, be honest. How do we feel about Lucy?”
“Oh.” Eve shook her head, needing a long sip of her chai latte as she tried to concoct a tactful response. “So to be fair, I haven’t met her yet,” she started.
“Count yourself lucky.”
She grinned again. “You really are messy.”
“I know you’ve heard things,” Casey said. “Be honest, and don’t hold back just because she’s Jack’s mother. I’m positive he’s the only good thing she’s ever done in her life.”
“Oh my god,” Eve said, outright giggling now. “I don’t know, I guess I just…I have questions.”
“Like why Jamie ever spoke to her in the first place?” Casey quipped.
“Well, yes. And I know there are sides to every story, but I just can’t help but wonder how anyone could treat someone like Jamie the way she did.
” Eve gazed into her cup, her mind wandering, however briefly, to Leo, and imagining someone, somewhere saying something similar about her.
“But maybe some people are just bad matches, and that’s okay. ”
Casey stared at her, a combination of mirth and mischief in his blue eyes, “Mm-hmm. I see why Jamie likes you.”
Eve was practically bursting behind the smile she was trying to contain. But she truly delighted in hearing that out loud; it made it feel real. “And why’s that?”
“You have that sort of intentional, introspective way about you. Just like he does.”
Before she could respond—not that she knew what she’d say—Jelani had returned, reclaiming his seat at their tiny table near the front window.
“The bathroom remains my second least favorite place to be recognized,” he announced, “topped only by my father’s wake.
” He then flashed his gorgeous smile, effectively glossing over that grim little tidbit. “What’d I miss?”
“Not too much,” Casey said. “Eve hasn’t met Lucy yet.”
“Oh, girl, consider yourself lucky,” Jelani said.
Eve laughed at their identical responses, even if a small part of her worried for when her path did cross with Lucy Ewen’s.
“I was telling Eve how this feels right, though,” Casey said. “You know how Jamie tries to pretend he’s not sophisticated, but, Eve, you’re, like, exactly what I pictured for him.”
“Oh yeah,” Jelani agreed. “He gets to be the person he wants to be with you.”
“You unlock his potential. Instead of caging it.”
“That right there,” Jelani agreed, pointing to his husband animatedly.
As flattering as that was, and Eve hoped that was true of their relationship, she wondered how they could possibly know that for sure.
“We googled you, by the way,” Casey added, seeming to intuit her skepticism.
“And we will be at the Public opening night. Front and center,” Jelani said. “I actually saw it last year at BAM. I saw it with my little sister and my literary agent, and we sobbed through the whole fucking final act.”
Eve adored those kinds of compliments. “You better not just be saying that.”
“Swear to God.”
“He sees a lot of shows, but even I remember him lauding this and hating that I didn’t get to see it,” Casey confirmed.
“We’re so excited for you,” Jelani said.
“Not that we know you intimately or anything, but just to meet you and see who you are and what you’re doing.” Casey punctuated his sentence with a kind smile. “We’re excited for you…elated for Jamie.”
“Are we completely overwhelming you right now?” Jelani asked. “I know Casey can be a lot.”
Eve watched, amused as Casey playfully plucked Jelani, and she took a beat to consider the question.
“You’re not, actually,” she said. And no one was more surprised than Eve that she was being honest. But this felt good.
As Casey said, it felt right. She not only enjoyed being let into Jamie’s life this way, but craved it on some level.
Even if the idea of meeting Lucy was quietly terrifying, she still wanted it.
She wanted everything that came with being Jamie’s partner.
It was why she’d forced herself to meet Jack, and why she accepted the coffee invite from Casey, recognizing the importance of spending some time with Jamie’s family while she had the chance.
This was the life she’d imagined when she first met Leo, but it had always managed to evade her.
It was finally right there in front of her, waiting for her to touch it, take it, embrace it.
Besides, what was waiting for her in New York other than a mess?
A bunch of people she’d disappointed? Stella.
Her parents. Even Maya wasn’t exactly happy that Eve’s summer sabbatical had stretched through autumn.
She fit like a missing puzzle piece in Jamie’s world—a euphoric feeling when she felt so outside her own.
And she was going to hold on to that for as long as she could.