I looked down at her, noticing the way the breeze danced with her hair. She was beautiful and I wasn’t the only one who noticed. People, especially men, turned to look at her as she walked by. Their gazes lingered on her for longer than necessary and a fit of uncharacteristic jealousy twisted inside me. I didn’t want anyone looking at her. If they did, I wanted them to know she was mine.
“Where exactly are you taking me?” Eve asked, a note of suspicion in her voice.
“This is the part where I lead you to a secluded area and kidnap you,” I said.
She rolled her eyes and poked me in the ribs. I jumped away from her as a shock raced through me. Eve’s eyes lit up with delight and I cleared my throat, sheepishly smoothing out my shirt.
“You’re ticklish,” she said delightfully.
“No,” I said, even as I stepped further away from her and her assaulting fingers.
She smirked, her eyes looking me up and down as if searching for a vulnerable spot. Christ, I hoped she wasn’t going to poke me again. I was afraid I was going to make a high and girlish noise as soon as she did it and I would prefer not to do that until after our fifth date.
“Seriously, where are you taking me?” Eve asked again.
“It’s just around the corner.”
“Now is when I realize I should have told someone where I was going and who I was going with,” she said.
I came to a stop and turned. Eve stopped next to me and turned to look at the shop we had stopped in front of.
“Okay, so not a murder house,” Eve said, sheepishly. The ice cream shop, called The Ice Cream Shoppe, had large windows that looked into an interior of a sixty’s diner. The floor was black and white tiles, the walls were bright aqua, the furniture was red and white vinyl, the table coverings were red and white checkered plastic.
Eve stared at it with her eyes wide and her mouth partially open. I watched the joy on her face, and it warmed me from the inside to be to introducing her to this place.
“How did I not know this place was here?” She asked, turning her bright eyes to me.
“It only opened a year ago,” I said.
Eve looked at me with pursed lips.
“You didn’t live here a year ago. I did. I must have walked by this place a hundred times and never noticed. It’s not exactly a hole in the wall.”
“Do you think any of them notice?” I asked, motioning to the people walking around us. We were committing a cardinal sin by standing still in the middle of a street in downtown. Some people shot us dirty looks as they walked by. Most were busy with their phones or the people they were with, rarely looking up to notice the world around them.
Eve looked at me suspiciously. “Are you about to turn this into a ‘millennials and their technology’ lecture?”
I laughed. “No, because I am also a millennial and you will never see me part with my Roomba or the app on my phone that allows me to turn on the exterior lights of my house while standing next to you.”
I pulled out my phone and demonstrated the latter to her by going on the app and turning on the exterior lights of my house.
“Nice,” she said, appreciatively. “No wonder Maddie doesn’t like you. I think she sensed your love for technology.”
Eve walked ahead and opened the door of the Shoppe while I stared after her.
“Wait, what? Your best friend hates me and you’re just now telling me this?”
I followed her in, and she turned to look at me over her shoulder.
“She doesn’t hate you. She just doesn’t like you.”
I came to stand beside her. The hostess waved at us to wait just a minute as she led another group to their table. Eve picked up the small, framed menu on the hostess stand and read it over. The only thing I could think of was why Madelaine Guillaume didn’t like me. A lot of it was about Eve, but a little bit of it was pure male pride that one of the most beautiful women in the world didn’t like me. She probably thought I wasn’t good enough for her best friend. I remembered the comment she made in her house that day I had dropped Sienna off, when Maddie had looked me up and down and said, “I don’t see it”. I finally understood she meant she didn’t see why Eve was attracted to me. The thought was more distressing than it should have been.
“Just two?” The hostess asked, returning to us.
“Yes, please,” Eve replied, putting the menu back on the stand. The hostess led us to a booth by the windows and Eve and I slid onto the red vinyl, facing each other.
“If it makes you feel better, Maddie doesn’t like about 95% of the people she meets,” Eve said.
“That makes it a little better,” I said. “But only a little.”
Eve smiled at me. She had a beautiful smile, soft and warm. The kind of smile that could make a bad day good and a good day great. Eve was the kind of person who smiled with feeling. Each smile meant something. It was so brilliant and bright I half expected the lights in a two-block radius to be blown out.
A server came to take our order and Eve ordered vanilla ice cream and a plate of fries. My phone rattled on the table, vibrating with a text message. I hated when people were on dates and couldn’t take a moment to look away from their phones and focus on their date. However, my job always required me to keep my phone on and keep it on the table even when I was on a date. Usually, work was an escape. The last thing I wanted right now was to pick up the phone and see a message from work.
“Shouldn’t you get that?” Eve asked.
I released a long-held breath and nodded regretfully. I picked up my phone, turned it over, and froze. It wasn’t work. It was Cecily. A few weeks ago, I had given in and finally answered the phone when she called. We had talked for thirty minutes; it had felt nice and I had waited for all those old feelings to come rushing back. They hadn’t. When she called again, I answered, when she messaged me, I messaged back. She wasn’t close to her family and it was hard for her to make friends. She was alone and if talking to me provided her some sort of comfort, I was fine with that.
I was fine with that until I was sitting across from this amazing and talented woman I was interested in and my ex-girlfriend was texting me asking me what I was up to and if I had time to talk. It put me in a precarious situation. I put the phone down. Even I knew answering your ex’s message when you were on a date was a big no-no. I would reply to Cecily later.
“It wasn’t important?” Eve asked.
“Nothing that can’t wait until later,” I replied. She had pushed her hair over one shoulder, exposing her long neck. Even from across the table I could see the pulse beating in her neck. I had the intense urge to get up, get in the booth with her, and press my lips against her pulse point. I imagined her arching into me, pressing her body more firmly against mine, the scent of orange blossoms surrounding me. I shifted as the crotch of my pants grew uncomfortably tight. Note to self: don’t think of Eve in compromising positions when in a public space.
“Daniel, what are you thinking?” Eve asked. She placed her hand on mine, her brows drawn in concern.
“I was thinking about you,” I replied honestly.
Eve’s eyes widened in surprise. “Me?”
“I was thinking about what you would do if I came over to your side and kissed you, how you would react and how your body would react. I know women don’t want to hear this on the third date but you have been starring in a lot of fantasies and in most of them you were doing things that we can’t talk about in public.”
I watched as her cheeks turned a brilliant red, her eyes widened and she sputtered, trying to think of something to say.
“Third date?” She hissed outrageously.
“Yes. Our first was the first time we had dinner together, the second was on Sheila’s birthday and tonight is the third,” I explained.
Eve opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, and still no words came out. She huffed and sat back against the booth, crossing her arms and tilting her chin up.
“The first one was a happy accident; the second
doesn’t count—”
“We slept in the same bed.”
“Tonight, is not a date, either. It’s an appointment. An informal meeting of the minds.”
“But you’re okay if I call it our third date?”
“It’s not a date!”
“Well, it’s not an appointment. You have appointments with doctors.”
Eve waved her hand towards me in an Ah-ha! gesture.
“I am not your doctor,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “Unless there’s something you want to tell me?”
Before she could reply, the server came back with our ice creams and fries. She set the bowls in front of each of us, set the plate of fries in the middle, and told us to enjoy before walking away again.
“Not a date,” Eve said as soon as the server was out of earshot. She narrowed her eyes at me as she took a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and licked it as one does with a cone. I watched the movement of her tongue as it disappeared back into her mouth. Satisfied with her findings, Eve put the spoonful in her mouth, moaned as the ice cream melted, then licked her lips again. I shifted in my seat again and my knee knocked against hers. Eve looked up and found my gaze locked on her mouth.
“Is there something on my mouth?” She licked her lips again for good measure.
I pressed my fist against my mouth to keep from groaning or asking her to marry me.
“Are you doing this on purpose?” I asked.
“Doing what on purpose?” She asked coyly. When she licked her lips again and gently bit down on her bottom lip, I knew I had the answer to my question.
“Tell you what,” Eve said, picking up a fry. She dipped it in her melting ice cream and bit down on it. “I would be willing to call this a date if you told me your greatest fear.”
I dug into my ice cream, trying to think of my greatest fear. There was the most popular one, death. Everybody was scared of dying, including doctors. Then there were heights, which I had concurred by years spent rock climbing just to get over my fear. Even today, when I went above the fifth floor of a building, my heart raced and I had to remind myself to stay calm. I could have told Eve about either of those. That wouldn’t be answering her question, though. She wanted to know my greatest fear and I wanted to tell her.
I tapped my spoon against the edge of the ice cream bowl.
“My greatest fear is being a disappointment to my father.”
Eve reached for my hand again and everything in me wanted to pull back because I didn’t want her comfort or platitudes. I didn’t pull back. I let her hand settle on mine and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Why do you think he would be disappointed in you?”
“Because he deserves a son who lives up to his expectations. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and he’s had to bail me out one too many times.”
“Ah, you were a little troublemaker, weren’t you?” She teased.
I laughed. “Not so little. I got into a lot of trouble. Even got arrested a few times.”
“No,” she breathed.
“Yes. My parents fought a lot, Sienna and Emily couldn’t get along to save their lives and I didn’t want to be the only sane one in that family. I just needed an escape.”
Why was I telling her all this? If I give her a little, she would want a lot. I couldn’t tell her a lot. I wanted to be selfish and keep her.
“I get that,” Eve said, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “I used baking as an outlet when I just couldn’t deal. I have one hundred percent control over that, but I also like the predictability because there are no surprises as long as you follow a recipe.”
“I can see you appreciating the predictability.”
Eve gave me a half-smile. “I think this is the best date I’ve ever been on, including the time my date took me to a movie premiere and I was two people away from Robert Downey Jr. Actually no, that was the best date. This is the second-best.”
I chose to play along. I didn’t like seeing the fragility and vulnerability behind her eyes. It was the same look that had made me join her on the hood of her car all those weeks ago. Looking back on it, that was the day when my thoughts towards her started to change. Before she had been a woman I was attracted to, someone I thought I would never date. After talking to her, I realized that I was putting her in a box she didn’t belong in. Eve was the kind of woman who needed to be free to do her own thing.
“Excellent. I excel at second best,” I said to her.
Eve snorted. “No, you don’t. You forget that Sienna has told us a lot about you. One of those things is that you always have to be the best at everything.”
“You’re right. Except, who can compete with Robert Downey Jr.?”
“Do you have an in with any of the Chris’? I’ll take any Avenger, doesn’t even have to be a Chris.”
“No Avengers, but my great-grandmother treated Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. I can introduce you to her if you want. She’s a celebrity by proxy.”
Eve was shocked to hear that my great-grandmother was still alive and healthy. I explained to her that Reid’s lived for a long time. Vampires had it all wrong. It wasn’t blood that gave you eternal life. It was sanity. We sucked other people’s sanity and that kept us going for a long, long time.
We finished our ice cream and fries and I walked Eve back to her car. There were more people on the streets than before, forcing us to walk closer together. Our arms brushed together; fingers danced against one another. Still, neither of us made a move to hold hands.
We stopped in front of Eve’s car and she turned to look at me. She was parked away from the street lights, so I couldn’t see the expression on her face when she turned to me.
“Well, good night,” she said softly. She opened her purse to take out her car keys. Even in the semi-darkness, I could see the way her hand shook. The keys dropped from her hand and to the ground. I bent to retrieve it at the same time she did and our hands brushed against each other. It was a simple contact, just the brush of her fingers against mine. Yet, it was enough to send my blood racing and my heart thumping. I wrapped my hand around hers, the key pressed between our palms. I brushed my thumb against her wrist gently and felt the wild beating of her pulse.
We stood up; our hands still clasped together. When she looked up at me then, I did what I had been wanting to do since the moment I saw her tonight. I kissed her. Her lips were still cool from the ice cream and she tasted like vanilla. Eve made a noise in the back of her throat and I started to pull back. Until she fisted my coat and yanked me closer, our mouth pressing more firmly together, our teeth clanging. I smiled, still kissing her, and walked forward until she was pressed between me and her car.
I took the key out of her hand and put it in the back pocket of her jeans, telling myself the whole time that I was not trying to cop a feel of what had to be the most perfect ass. Kissing Eve felt like it was what I was meant to do my whole life. Forget about being a doctor and maintaining the family legacy. I couldn’t believe I had spent thirty-three years on this planet and was only now getting the chance to kiss this woman. She was everything good that I didn’t think I deserved but I never wanted to stop kissing her or give up the chance of kissing her.
When she gasped for breath, I pulled back, kissing my way across her jaw and down to her neck. I sucked on her pulse point and Eve moaned softly, arching her back and lifting one leg to wrap around my waist. I ground myself against her center, causing her to gasp and moan again. The sounds she made would be starring in every dream I had. I bit the curve where her neck met her shoulder, then soothed the hurt with my tongue. Eve shivered, writhing against me.
A horn and the headlights of a car turning into the parking lot fell like ice water against us. We pulled apart like guilty teenagers who were caught making out by their parents. Our chests heaved with each breath we took. Eve’s hair was mussed from my fingers.
“I…” Eve stopped and licked her lips. “I should go.”
Without meeting my eyes and without saying another
word, she got in her car and drove off. I stood there, feeling like an idiot. Maybe she hadn’t been ready for the kiss. I should have stopped. I should have confirmed that it was okay to kiss her before I did it. My desire had blinded me.
I pulled out my phone and texted Eve, asking her to call me when she got home. I knew she wouldn’t call and I was making a futile attempt. Short of showing up at her house or bakery uninvited, there wasn’t a lot I could do. Other than hope that she didn’t leave me waiting another two weeks for an answer.
Chapter 19 – Eve
I was a fool. An utter fool. I was the head fool of The Fools Society. The Queen Fool. Fool, fool, fool. Oh great, now I had thought the word fool so many times it had lost all its meaning. Why was that? Why did thinking about a word so many times make it lose its meaning? I made a mental note to look it up before I went to sleep tonight otherwise it would be bothering me all night.
I knocked on the apartment door again and finally heard noises on the other side of the door. Fool, fool, fool. An annoying fool because I was knocking at Sienna and Logan’s door at 11:30 on a Tuesday night. I was an annoying and guilty fool.
I heard noises on the other side of the door until finally, the lock turned and the door was opened to reveal a mussed-haired, bleary-eyed Logan. She took one look at me and the sleep vanished from her eyes.
“Eve, honey, what are you doing here? Is everything alright?”
“Whoever is at the door, are they dying or can I go back to bed?” Sienna’s voice called from inside.
“It’s Eve,” Logan said over her shoulder. She pulled the door open further and ushered me into the apartment. Only the hallway light was on and the rest of the apartment was dark. Logan closed the door and Sienna turned on the lights in the living room, momentarily blinding us all.
“I’m sorry to bother you so late at night,” I said, once my eyes adjusted.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sienna said, rushing forward. “Is everything alright?”
I looked at her and suddenly my brain shut off and my mouth went dry. God, the family resemblance. Daniel had joked that all the Reid’s were genetic clones. If a Reid wasn’t a blue-eyed brunette with an interest in medicine, the family doubted his or her claim to the family money. And apparently, there was a lot of that because Reid’s had been practicing medicine since World War I. I had asked him about his family because he had questioned about mine and I hadn’t wanted to talk about it. I mean, he could trace his family history back to WWI. I could only trace it to my mother who got pregnant at seventeen.
Not My Type : Golden Girls 1 Page 15