Chapter 44 #2
“I didn’t.” I did hear it, but it was her first ever live performance. For her to have been perfect would have been unrealistic. “You keep these interviewers waitin’ any longer, and you’re gonna wake up to bad reviews on your album.”
“Are you taking me home after this?” she asked, eyebrows raised and eager.
I sighed, tossing a glance at Eden’s manager far behind her, and pulled out my phone to let her know I was taking Eden home.
Eden’s smile steadily grew as I typed out the message, and she was practically beaming when I hit send.
“Great! I’ll make this quick and meet you at your car. ”
“You’re always so grumpy, you know that?” Eden informed from the passenger’s seat of my car. She had the seat kicked back and her bare feet up on the dashboard. “You never used to be like this.”
“Like what?”
Eden shrugged, tapping a beat on her raised knees before simply saying, “Sad.”
I didn’t reply to her observation, rounding a corner in silence. It wasn’t until I stopped at a red light when she said something else.
“What’s your twenties without a broken heart one or two times?” Her hand was on my shoulder—not in a suggestive manner, but so that I’d look away from the road and at her. “You don’t heal by fucking randoms and never letting people in again.”
“Eden,” there was warning in my tone, “I’m not doing this with you. You’re out your lane. Get back in it.”
These kinds of conversations were what I paid my therapist for.
Eden huffed from her side of the car, her hand still on my shoulder, but not saying anything.
Although I would’ve preferred not to be touched, I was at least grateful for the silence.
From my periphery, I could see Eden’s head turned toward the side of my face the entire time, watching me carefully.
Pretty as she was, there weren’t many things about her that reminded me of Her.
Over the past fifteen months, I’d developed something I never used to have before.
A type.
Eden’s shoulder length, pin straight brown hair with the forest green ends, was a far cry from the natural heads of big black curls I’d grown to prefer.
Eden was just about two shades too light, three inches too short, and ten pounds too thin.
She didn’t have dimples when she smiled.
When she got uncomfortable, she’d get quieter instead of talking more.
Although her eyes were big and the right shade of brown, they just weren’t the same.
Not even close.
“Could you stop staring at me?” I broke the silence, not taking my eyes off the road. Eden swiped her hand off my shoulder and sunk into her seat. We were about five minutes out from her Miami Beach apartment, and from the clock on my dashboard, I knew I was going to be late getting back home.
“Do you chase me away because of Marlon?” Eden asked suddenly, her voice a cross between wounded and curious. “Because you’re worried that if you give your best friend’s little sister the time of day, he’ll turn on you?”
I sighed. “It’s not like that.”
“Then tell me what it’s like.”
“We don’t want the same things, Eden.” I gave it to her straight. “You out here lookin’ for a man who will make you the center of his universe, am I right?”
She cleared her throat, awkwardly replying, “That would be nice.”
“Well, I’m not in the market for a center to my universe. I’m just lookin’ for distractions right now.”
“What are they distracting you from?”
I shrugged, pulling in to a roadside drop-off loop off a tall apartment building, telling Eden what I told my therapist. “The past.” I nodded towards the door. “You’re home.”
She didn’t immediately get out of the car. “Kain, I’m so hungry.”
“Thanksgiving was yesterday,” I reminded. “You don’t have leftovers?”
Eden made a face.
“Don’t be rude,” she snapped. “I was in the studio all day yesterday recording background vocals for today. And I haven’t eaten in like forty-eight hours because I was trying to look good in this dress tonight. I’m literally starving.”
“It’s after midnight.”
“I know a place by the beach that is still open. Just drive and I’ll tell you when to turn.”
My eyes darted to the clock on my dashboard. It was fifteen minutes to one o’clock in the morning. I had someone waiting for me outside my apartment, and even though I was sure she’d still be there when I got home, the unexpected detour for the night had my patience wearing thin.
“You trying to get home to one of your hos?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.”
Wrinkling her nose, Eden crossed her arms and sunk further into her seat. She wasn’t budging. Sighing in frustration, I gave in and pulled the car out of park. We’d get her something to-go and call it a night.
“Booty calls at one o’clock in the morning.” She chuckled at the observation. “You wanna call her and tell her you’re about to be late?”
“She’ll wait.”
“Wow.” Eden’s loud outburst bounced off the interior of my car, having the car vibrating in her outrage as she repeated the word. “Wow. Woooooow. You are a literal fuckboy, you know that?”
I dodged the statement, handing Eden my phone. “Put the restaurant into the GPS.”
“Hey Siri,” Eden called into my phone. “Find the quickest route to Catfish Carol’s.”
I flinched, an involuntary reaction, before I took my phone back and simply stated, “I know where it is.”
“Since when do you like seafood?”
I shrugged, not wanting to get too deep into it. Eden didn’t need to know the answer to every damn thing. Eden didn’t need to know that I knew where the restaurant was because Catfish Carol’s was Lauren’s number one choice as well.
The familiar roads to what was once Lauren’s favorite place to grab a bite, were still fresh in my memory, each turn sending me into flashbacks of last summer.
Images of Lauren in the passenger’s seat of my car, saying something or another about whatever was on her mind that day.
If I focused hard enough, I could make out the sound of her voice as if it was her beside me now.
What was it that Lauren used to say? She always had so much to say, but now I couldn’t remember any of it. How could her words be scattered to the wind, but her voice in my mind still clear as day? It was a strange kind of memory, vivid yet somehow incomplete.
I wondered if the longing that burned in my chest was displayed on my face.
I hated that even after all this time, it left me feeling hollow to even allow my mind to wander to her.
I could feel Eden’s eyes on me as I weaved through the tangled Miami streets.
If she could tell that I was having my own mental journey as we took this literal one, she didn’t make the observation known.
The short detour to the beachside eatery was a quiet one, the images outside my window making me feel heavy with nostalgia.
There were so many memories in this part of town.
When I parked outside of the neon-colored storefront, my eyes wandered to the end of a curb.
As if it were real, ghosts of me and Lauren walked along the familiar sidewalk, headed for the ocean.
This was where Lauren and I had our first date.
More than a year and a half ago, we walked this path, stopped on a bed of beach sand…
And I… It was all downhill for me from there.
I could remember her back against my chest as we watched the waves die inches away from where we sat.
There was the gradual slowing of her breaths when she relaxed, as she began to feel comfortable in the space between my arms. I was always so aware of Lauren’s breathing, the way she always seemed to unconsciously match each of her inhales with mine.
Unfortunately, I could also remember her lips.
The first time was memorable, the way they cautiously touched mine with a curious shyness that dispersed within seconds.
I remembered feeling like there was no way I’d just met this girl less than a week before.
I kissed Lauren with the kind of passion that used to take me months of interaction to develop for someone.
It came naturally for her. Later it would occur to me that perhaps my mind didn’t know I would love her someday.
But my soul knew.
I killed the engine of my car, tossing a pressing look Eden’s way.
“What?” she questioned. “You’re not getting out of the car with me?”
I started to lose the little patience I had left. “Eden…”
“It’s best when it’s fresh. If I order takeout, I am going to eat it in your car. And if I’m not mistaken, you hate the smell of fish.” She shrugged, giving me an ultimatum. “You want the smell in your car, or do you want to suffer through it for, like, twenty minutes while I eat?”
It would’ve been nothing to tell the woman in front of me that I’d call her an Uber back to her place and get on with the rest of my night.
However, it was late, and this was Eden, not some random woman I picked up through some chance encounter.
Even though she was seriously testing my limits, I couldn’t just leave her here.
Some part of me, in a vaguely brotherly way, loved this annoying ass brat. I wouldn’t just leave her here.
So, with that, I unbuckled my seatbelt, scowling at the sound of Eden clapping her hands with excitement.
“Our first date,” she giggled.