Chapter Sixteen #2
When he’d exhausted his educational background, Chelsea gaped. “I’m a little bit jealous of your life choices, Bas.”
Bas exhaled. “Please pass that on to my parents.”
Chelsea’s expression melted. “I’ve never been to Paris.”
This was going perfectly. I threw out another fact that Bas would never admit on his own. “Bas was also a world-class fencer.” I picked at a pumpkin muffin—God, it was good. “That’s how we first met, actually. In the fencing club.”
Elizabeth coughed. “Fencing?”
I realized I’d inserted my own self in the narrative, but the way Elizabeth’s eyes goggled, I didn’t think she believed me, like I was the one lying about my past here.
“I know. Everyone expected me to play lacrosse, but I was ready to try something new. I never won any big tournaments, but Bas could have gone Olympic.”
She scoffed. “You must think I’m the most gullible person on the planet.”
As Chelsea pressed Bas for more details, I focused on Elizabeth. “Why do you assume I’m lying? Projection?”
Her brows shot up. “Just for the record, I’m not a chronic liar. Other than whatever I said at the bar that night, I’ve been totally straight with you.”
“But it was too late by then.” Could she not extrapolate? “Once you set that fiction in motion, it warped everything that followed. Perception is reality.”
“I’m not disputing that you and I had a different framework of the truth that night, but you need to believe that I thought we were clear. When I told you I’d been lying, you seemed to roll with it. I honestly thought you’d been in on the gag the whole time.”
“Okay, supposing I was… What was even the point? Why not just talk to me like a normal person? Why the whole ruse?”
She wadded up a napkin, her lips twisting together, like she was frustrated with this conversation, and that rankled even more. I hadn’t been the one to fuck with her. Finally, she sighed. “It was a dare, Evan. I didn’t intend for it to go beyond a simple conversation.”
I sat on that. “Then why did you invite me home?”
She stared up at the sky, her cheeks pinkening, either from the chill in the air or embarrassment or anger.
When she looked back at me, eyes narrow, she seemed to be mustering courage to confess something, and I braced for the worst, expecting her to say I was just a warm body.
But she said, “Because despite the circumstances, I got to know you, and I liked you. I would have preferred to know you better, but you were leaving the next day.”
I bristled. “So you took what you could get?”
Her head tilted. “I took what I could get, same as you. I had no idea you were about to move here or I would have slowed things down. You weren’t exactly forthcoming about that. Lying by omission is still lying.”
Damn. “I told you I was considering an opportunity here, but you’re right. I hadn’t decided, and it didn’t seem fair to promise something that might not happen. Unlike you, I thought we had history already. Turns out I never even knew you.”
She ran a finger under her eyelid, and I realized I’d made her cry. “I really am sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to fuck with your head. I wish we could have just met on the job.” She let out a small laugh. “Though I won’t last there long enough to have made an impression.”
“Really?”
She breathed in deep then let it out. “I’m out of my depths, and I don’t know how many fuckups Lauren will tolerate before she fires me.”
“You want a piece of advice?”
Her nose wrinkled like she was bracing for criticism. “I guess.”
“In live TV, the past doesn’t exist. If you make a mistake, move on. If you dwell on it, it will only mess you up more. It’s all ephemeral, like tossing a stick into a river. Viewers will forget almost everything in five minutes.” If only that were true in real life.
Her shoulders relaxed. “That’s actually really helpful.”
“How did you end up there in the first place?”
She looked confused. “You gave me the idea.”
I thought back, recalling that night again, how we’d talked. Something clicked into place then. Like this version of her was starting to replace the false memory of Lizzy. “You told me you were a writer.”
“And you told me this job would suck. You were right.”
“Yeah. But you’ll get better at it with time.” Why was I helping the enemy? “I mean, if you stick with it.”
She dragged her lip under her teeth, looking shy all of a sudden. My eyes fell onto her mouth, and I tried to forget that we’d once kissed. More than kissed. “I hope you’re right.”
Our conversation lulled, and I overheard Bas asking, “Where do you like to hike?”
Chelsea said, “The Priest. Humpback Rocks. Anywhere. I grew up in the Virginia Highlands, so the Blue Ridge Parkway was my backyard.”
Bas lit up. “Seriously? I’ve hiked all of those trails.”
Elizabeth turned from me and elbowed Chelsea. “FYI hiking’s on the list.”
I started to gather the trash, then jumped up to locate a receptacle to toss it in. Failing to find one, I wandered back just as Bas was asking, “You wanna go see who’s playing at the Jefferson tonight?”
I’d been making my way to all the old Charlottesville haunts, and the Jefferson had been a favorite music venue I’d been hoping to revisit. “That’s a great idea. I haven’t been there in ages.”
When Bas turned to the girls to convince them to join in, I suddenly realized I’d just agreed to go on a double date.
With Elizabeth.