63 EVIE
E VIE
One thing I’d learned by that point was that you never knew what the day was going to bring. For instance, there was the day I found myself inexplicably standing next to Iliana Billings while I wore no pants or makeup. This, I’ll tell you, was not an easy thing.
I’d woken up late one day, just as Carter walked out of the closet wearing nothing but jeans. He came over and kissed my forehead, brushing my wayward hair from my face.
“You’re up early,” I said, cradling the pillow beneath me.
“I didn’t want to wake you. You looked so peaceful.” Marvin was sprawled out next to me, and he rustled the dog’s ears, giving him a pat before he left the room.
A few minutes later, I grabbed one of his button-down shirts from a nearby chair and padded out to the kitchen, passing the gentle rain tapping at the glass and the garden beyond.
“Carter, where—” I called, rounding the corner, then stopped in my tracks as I took in the scene.
Inside the open front door, he stood with a statuesque brunette who was reaching out to hug him as he returned her embrace stiffly.
A look of anxiety crossed his face when he saw me.
At the sound of my voice, the woman pulled away from him and shot a look like an arrow through me.
“Are you kidding me right now?” she growled as she pushed past him, glaring at me.
I recognized her immediately, of course, and shuddered, remembering all too well the night when the reports of their imminent engagement had surfaced.
I had brutally compared myself to her, falling short in every way possible, and now here she was, standing just feet away from me. Iliana Billings.
He clearly had a type; I’ll give him that.
I don’t know how I hadn’t noticed it before, but I realized, somewhat oddly, as I watched her, that she and I looked alike.
Okay, that’s a big stretch, obviously. I just mean that if someone were to play me in a movie, it could be her.
Though of course to say that out loud would be ridiculous—she, a world-renowned actress and model celebrated for her beauty, while I was plainly . .. me.
Still, I could see the similarities. Like the way I might look if my DNA had been arranged in just the slightest more favorable way.
If I had been two inches taller, my cheekbones sitting just a tad bit higher, my nose in a delicate line with a tulip tip, my eyes sketched even a millimeter differently.
If my skin were more effortlessly silken and flawless.
Years later, there would be filters on phones that could make these adjustments, to give women a painful taste of what it would be like to be slightly improved.
But now here it was in the flesh—the similarly long, delicate build—only with hers in proportions that made even the plain white V-neck T-shirt and baggy, oversize jeans she wore drape her body in perfect, sensual form.
Her long hair was swept up into a high, messy bun.
She didn’t have a stitch of makeup on. But despite her plain appearance, she was anything but plain.
She was easily the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in person.
Evie 2.0. I wasn’t sure if this was comforting or awful. And, of course, there was the hint of her lovely accent.
“Nice shirt,” she said as she approached, tugging at Carter’s shirt on me.
“Illa, please don’t do this,” he pleaded with her quietly. He seemed exasperated.
I watched hurt as it surfaced in her angry eyes.
Her stance softened, resigned as she turned to him.
“Carter, I don’t get it. I know you said we were over.
But this is low, even for you. First some asshole guy from the paparazzi asks me what I think about your new girlfriend in your house, and now I show up here to find out it’s true.
I haven’t heard from you in weeks, and I’ve been worried about you.
But I guess I was a fool. You could’ve waited at least five minutes before jumping into bed with someone else. ”
“Illa, you don’t understand. It’s not like that. Look, I’ll explain sometime, but not right now.”
Desperate to remove myself from her presence, I backed out of the foyer. “I’ll give you guys ... some ...,” I muttered.
“No, Ev, wait.” Carter was immediately at my side. “Illa, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”
His behavior toward me clearly surprised her, and something told me she hadn’t experienced the protective side of him. She opened her mouth to start a fresh torrent of wrath when a strange look appeared in her eyes and she snapped it shut again.
“Ev.” She stated it in a way that sounded more like a place or a thing, and the puzzle pieces came together.
Her gaze dropped to Carter’s left hand and to the tattoo on his finger as her eyes pooled with tears.
At her implicating stare, his thumb instinctively rubbed over the tattoo, much like one might fiddle with a wedding band.
“It wasn’t Sigma Five . It was EV .” She closed her eyes, shaking her head just slightly, and then smiled sadly. “She’s the one who ...”
Carter nodded. The defeated look on her face showed me how deeply she must have cared for him, and despite wanting to hate her, I felt for her. Sensing her pain, I nudged Carter toward her and gave them their privacy to say goodbye.