Chapter 14 Late Night Tip #2
The two of them went back to their books, but before much longer, Jamie felt Eve shift, all her body heat gone from his chest as she moved back to her side of the bed.
“Callin’ it a night?”
“You wore me out,” she said, settling onto her stomach and nestling into her pillow.
“I haven’t done anything yet,” he mumbled, and even though he knew this, he still felt a tinge of pride that he was a lot of work for her.
Eve drifted away while Jamie continued his book, determined to finish this fantastic voyage before leaving Gatlinburg for the week.
He’d have little time for leisure reading once Jack was in school again, back to early morning drop-offs and karate on Tuesdays, toiling through homework, and the daily challenge of satisfying his son’s picky palate.
But there was a buzzing sound that thwarted his plans to keep reading, Eve’s iPhone rattling against his nightstand, the illuminated screen grabbing his attention like blinking neon.
The name Leo Coletti accompanied a picture of a handsome white guy with short black hair and a graying goatee, wearing dark-rimmed glasses and a wide, perfect smile.
The buzzing stopped almost as quickly as it started, which confused Jamie as much as it disquieted him; he could take a wild guess at who that was.
Nonetheless, he promptly turned to Eve. “You just got a call,” he whispered. He slipped his hand beneath the sheets to gently squeeze her thigh. “Evie…”
Eve moaned at the nuisance, but she was too deep in her sleep to take heed.
Jamie could only leave it at that. But he couldn’t pretend it wouldn’t bother him. It was bad enough he wouldn’t see her for a couple of weeks, but now, he’d have to worry about some mystery man taking the space he was leaving.
When the phone lit up again with the notification of a text, Jamie caught all the other missed messages and call notifications sitting on her home screen, most of which were attributed to a Stella Fischer.
Eve’s agent was named Stella, but why would she be ignoring her for what appeared to be several weeks now?
It wasn’t like she was doing anything particularly important with him.
Dinner and silence didn’t qualify as busy.
Jamie didn’t know how to parse it, and Eve would likely shut down before he could even broach the topic. But it did leave him wondering. And with that, he set his unfinished book back on the nightstand.
—
Morning came swiftly, and with rain attached, leaving Jamie even less enthused about the drive back to Nashville than usual.
It would’ve been a perfect day to just lie in bed, but alas, he’d already scheduled Jack’s back-to-school haircut for that afternoon, and with his not-quite-best friend’s wedding the following week, he had a number of groomsman duties he had to attend to, including a bachelor party, for which he was already dreading having to be sociable.
When he stepped out of the bathroom, freshly showered, Eve was awake, much to his relief, as he had no interest in sneaking out without a goodbye.
“Mornin’,” he greeted her. Morning suited her—even this gloomy version of it.
The white sheets and her tank top absorbed the light, making for a beautiful and striking contrast against her dark skin.
“The way you were snoring, I just knew you were still gonna be asleep when I left,” he said, deciding not to reveal his kinder musings.
“Nice try, but I don’t snore.”
She was staring at her phone, which was so unlike her, he could only surmise that it had to do with that late-night call from “Leo.” He waited a few minutes, going on to find underwear and a cleanish pair of jeans to throw on before returning his focus to her. “Everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine.”
From her vacant responses, Jamie knew she was holding something back, but he also knew better than to press her on it.
She would tell him only what she wanted him to know, and she would do so only when she was ready.
If he were being honest with himself, he wasn’t ready to confront his fears about whoever this guy was.
Not after everything he’d been through with Lucy.
Instead, he took a seat on the bed, needing to address a different elephant in the room.
“So when I come back, we’re gonna have to do something about this arrangement.”
Eve stared at him tentatively, and when he placed his hand on her bare foot, his thumb running across her toes, she wriggled out of his grasp. “?‘Something’ like what?”
“Eve, as much as I enjoy you…doing what you’re doing, I’m not exactly liking the disparity here.”
“If anyone’s gonna complain about that, it should be me,” she said, laughing in a way that sounded like a scoff.
“Which makes me wonder why you’re not,” he said. “Not that I’m trying to pressure you, or even…if you don’t wanna talk about it, we don’t have to. But I am curious.”
Eve shook her head. “I…just…don’t feel comfortable. Yet.” She recoiled, as if to prove her point, and crossed her arms over her chest, covering what her thin tank top failed to conceal. “When we tried, I was so inside my head, I couldn’t even enjoy it.”
“In your head about what?”
“I don’t know,” she said, and he imagined her face had crimsoned beneath all her melanin. “I don’t know that I deserve to feel…good.”
“Eve, why—”
“I know that’s not true,” she quickly added. “It’s just…I’ve got shit I need to sort out. And sex is a big part of that shit, I guess. It’s easier to focus on you. I like doing it.”
Jamie nodded back, appreciative of her honesty. He’d figured out a lot of this along the way, but he was still missing the why of it all. Still, it was nice to hear the words, to know that she was trying to trust him.
“You think it’s possible we can help you through that?”
“?‘We’?” She smiled timidly.
“I mean, we’re doing this…whatever it is. I don’t wanna be in a relationship, sexual or otherwise, where you do all the work. Even if you like it, it doesn’t sit right with me. And I think if we could knock down this wall you have up, we’d both be better off for it.”
Eve rolled her eyes and exhaled heavily. “I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable,” she said. “If you want to, we can just go back to being neighbors who don’t engage in sexual activity.”
“You know that’s not what I want.” He stood from the bed to finally finish dressing; he got the feeling that being so close was adding to her discomfort.
“I want us to navigate whatever your insecurity is so we can actually have sex.” As he found a gray T-shirt in his dresser and made quick work of pulling it on, he kept his gaze on her, watching for a physical response if he wasn’t going to get a verbal one. “If that’s what you want.”
“And if it’s not what I want?”
“Then I guess we do go back to being neighbors who don’t have sex.”
“Fine. Friends. You know what I meant.”
“I did. But I didn’t wanna overwhelm you with labels,” he joked.
“Right.” She bit her lip, seemingly to stop herself from laughing. “I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I ask.”
“And I don’t like oral, so don’t expect too much there. But I’ll think about it.”
Jamie frowned at that last tidbit as he went to the kitchen to retrieve a new water bottle and an apple for his drive. “You don’t like the way it feels?”
“Not necessarily.” Her brows also furrowed, as if she weren’t sure of the answer. “It just feels very intimate to have someone’s face between your thighs.”
He chuckled, understanding the issue now; she obviously didn’t mind when the roles were reversed. “You don’t wanna give up control. Got it.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“It’s what you meant.” She opened her mouth to rebut, but when nothing came out, he took the reins of the conversation. “I’m good at it. I’ll ease you into it.”
Eve let out a sigh that sounded unsteady as it flew past her lips. “You should get outta here,” she said. “It’s gonna be a long drive in this weather.”
Jamie grinned smugly as he moseyed across the room, positive he’d struck a nerve there. “Do I get a kiss goodbye?”
“You know that’s not what this is,” she said, a broad smile sitting on her fresh face.
“You haven’t brushed your teeth yet, so it’s probably for the best,” he said. “I’ll see you in a few weeks.”
“Okay, okay, get over here.”
“Nope, that’s not what this is,” he mocked her, continuing to the door to retrieve his keys.
And Jamie would’ve walked out, happy to leave it at that, perfectly fine with sarcasm being her love language.
But there were a couple of books sitting on the table beside the door; they were beneath his keys so he’d know to take them, he presumed.
A Parent’s Survival Guide to Common Core Math and Never Too Late: The Adult Student’s Guide to College .
They stopped him in his tracks, and he turned back to Eve, practically beaming as he imagined her browsing Amazon on his behalf.
He was never sure what she got from all of his rambling, if anything, but maybe the college professor in her took notice when he mentioned how Jack’s math confounded him and latched on to his abstract desire for a degree.
Another thing he’d learned about Eve: She wasn’t necessarily nice, unconcerned with that superficial layer of pleasantness that ran rampant in the South, but she was thoughtful. She was kind, actually.
“Look at you, caring about me,” Jamie said.
“Yeah, don’t get used to it,” Eve said, obviously suppressing a smile as he crawled across the bed to get to her. “I just didn’t want you calling me for help while you’re gone.”
“You would love it if I called you for help.”
He planted a grateful peck on her lips and felt a swell of satisfaction when he tasted the gentle tug of her returning the kiss.
He probably shouldn’t have liked her as much as he did.
He was reminded every time she tried to pull away from him.
With every white lie she told. Her unwillingness to define them should’ve been a big red flag.
But then she would do something like this, or in a rare show of candor, confess to missing him while he was gone, and suddenly, it didn’t matter that she would rather give him a blow job than have a conversation; that she liked being close to him, but still did her best to maintain a healthy distance.
He was going to ignore the red flags. Because whatever this was (or wasn’t), it was starting to feel like something. And he needed something.