Chapter Ten Scarlett #2
“You’ve got . . .” Evan points at the corner of his mouth and I lift my finger, pointing at my own.
I wipe a drip of ranch from my mouth with my thumb and push it between my lips to lick it off.
I watch Evan’s own lips curl up into smile.
It’s not mocking like usual. It seems weirdly genuine, and it makes my breath hitch.
It’s rare I see Evan smiling at something without the teasing undertones and I’m only just realizing how beautiful his smile is.
His teeth are white and perfect, a sharp jawline and smile lines that appear sort of like dimples on his cheeks.
His eyes look brighter too, slightly creased in the corner like he smiles like this a lot and I just don’t see it.
“Thanks,” I mumble, clearing my throat. He jerks his head in the direction of Richard Han, and we turn, making our way over there. He stands tall beside me, his hand casually landing on the small of my back like it’s just something we’ve always done. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“We’ve got to be civil, or at least pretend to be,” Evan murmurs out of the side of his mouth, flashing a charming smile to everyone in the room. “We’re representing NU tonight, remember? Surely you can put aside your hatred for me for a couple of hours.”
I side-eye him, but he just smirks. “Right. Of course.”
When we get to Richard, Professor Lawrence’s eyes widen, and he points his champagne flute toward us. “I was just talking about you two,” Lawrence chuckles, and Richard smiles politely.
“You were?” Evan asks, giving both men an easy smile.
“Richard, meet Scarlett Voss and Evan Branson, two of my best students,” Lawrence announces. I can’t help but stand a little straighter at the compliment, leaning over to shake Richard’s hand.
“It’s nice to meet you both,” he says, taking Evan’s hand after dropping mine.
“You too,” I say, smiling. We all share an awkward look, not sure where to start or what to say, before Lawrence clasps his hands together.
“Well, I’ve got to sort out an issue with the hotel rooms, so I’ll leave you to it,” he says, giving Evan and I an encouraging look. He turns back to Richard and clasps him on the shoulder. “It was great catching up with you. I’m sure these two will entertain you until I’m back.”
He nods and we all exchange goodbyes with our professor before he leaves.
Richard turns to us, a slightly amused look on his face.
“His best students, huh?” Richard asks, raising an eyebrow.
Evan and I laugh awkwardly, but Richard just smiles, pleased.
“Why don’t you tell me a little more about Lawrence’s class? ”
I don’t know what makes me hesitate, but I turn to Evan, giving him the option to speak first. It was his idea to come over here, but he’s not saying much. He surprises me by stepping back a little and nodding at me to go first.
What is going on with him?
I try to silently ask him that with my eyes, but he just smiles again and turns back to Richard, whose expectant eyes are on me.
I clear my throat. “I’d love to,” I say eventually before launching into an anecdote about Lawrence and our business class.
Talking about our class and our project feels easy, especially since it’s one of my favorite classes this semester and Richard actually seems interested in what we have to say.
He doesn’t ask about our parents or our families’ companies.
He keeps all the focus on the two of us, how much we’re liking NU, and if we have any plans for after graduation.
The conversation comes to a natural end, Richard excuses himself, and Evan and I are left alone again.
There should be some itch in me to get away from him by now, but it’s just .
. . not there. Talking with him about school stuff and networking is easy.
He’s good at this stuff—good at charming people, while letting me talk and get my own point across. It’s nice being like this with him.
Someone I recognize from our class walks in our direction, pausing when she gets to us.
“Is Richard still here?” the girl asks, looking around. I know I must’ve seen her a lot over the years, but I can’t remember her name. Come to think of it, I don’t know the names of many of the people in our class.
“You just missed him,” I say.
She sighs, blowing air out of her mouth to push up the bangs sticking to her forehead. “You were all talking for so long,” she groans, folding away a piece of paper and sticking it into the pocket of her pantsuit.
Evan chuckles. “You snooze you lose, Tiffany.”
Tiffany Cortez. That’s right!
I knew that, obviously.
She folds her arms against her chest, narrowing her eyes at us. “I’m surprised you two are helping each other,” she says, shaking her head in disbelief. She wouldn’t be the only one. I’m surprised too. “You know, there’s usually only one person from each class that will get chosen for the SEI?”
“I know,” Evan says confidently.
I blink at them. “I didn’t know that.”
Tiffany nods eagerly. “Yep. Competition is fierce.” She gives Evan and I another one of those looks. Like she knows something we don’t. “Clearly, you and your bus buddy don’t really care about competition anymore.”
I bark out a laugh. “I’m sorry. Bus buddy?”
“I prefer mortal enemies,” Evan adds, and I honestly have to agree with him.
“Right. Enemies who help each other suck up to CEOs,” Tiffany says.
I don’t like her. I’ve decided. She clearly thinks something else is going on here and I don’t like it one bit.
She leans in a little closer to us, and adds, “Look, you didn’t hear this from me, but everyone’s going out to the bar downtown after the mixer.
You two should come along. I don’t think it’s fair that we have to miss out on Halloweekend because of this. ”
Evan shakes his head immediately. “I’m good, but thanks.”
Tiffany raises an eyebrow at me. “Scarlett?”
I look back at Evan and the reality hits me so hard that I almost fall right onto my ass.
Evan Branson is the only person in our cohort I can even consider a friend.
I’ve never made much of an effort with anyone else in our class and it took me longer than it should have to put a name to Tiffany’s face.
I’ve been so focused on arguing with him in class, and then hanging out with Kennedy and Wren, that I don’t even know half the people here.
Evan cannot be the only person from NU that I stay in contact with after we graduate.
I need to change that immediately.
“Text me the details,” I say to Tiffany. “I’ll be there.”