“Seriously?”
“Yes,” he replies. He nods towards the bar where Scarlett is standing, wedged between a married couple and an older man. “Now go talk to that girl before you lose your mind.” This time I glare at him. “Sorry, Scarlett’s her name, right?”
“Yes,” I reply, basically beaming. “That is her name.”
I rub my sweaty hands against my trousers as I make my way over to her.
Fuck. I shouldn't be this nervous.
Maybe I should have taken Miles’ advice, but Scarlett doesn’t seem like the type to appreciate me pestering her, so I left her alone and we worked on our project through emails and text messages. Grovelling didn’t seem like her vibe. I gave her the space she needed to figure things out, even if that meant making me overthink every single decision I've made up until now.
The second I'm within her proximity again, I feel my whole body come alive. Just the smell of her drives me crazy — fresh, clean, and justrich. Everything about her screams ‘I have money’ and I love it. But not as much as I love her mind and the way she sees the world. The way she managed to constantly keep up with competing with me in classes, shoving her intelligence down my throat.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to come over,” is the first thing she says to me. She turns around at the bar.
God, she looks so pretty. It’s hard to even look at her. Yet it’s all I want to do. I want to memorise her, burn it into my memory for days to come. She looks like she’s wearing a little bit of makeup because her cheeks are a new shade of red and her lips are glossier than usual.
“So, you knew I was here the whole time?” I ask playfully.
“Come on, Branson. You and your dad have been brooding in the corner the whole night. It’s kinda hard to ignore you two,” she says, rolling her eyes lightly. I look over to where my dad stood and she’s right. He’s brooding.
“I'm guessing you want to talk?” I say, shifting my weight on my feet. I shove my hands in my pockets.
“I do,” she says, holding her chin up to me, showing me that beautiful confidence that I love. “You lied to me, Evan.”
Jesus. I knew this was coming, but…I didn’t see it coming. I didn't predict the way the words would roll out of her mouth so easily. The fresh glint of betrayal in her eyes as she tells me exactly what I did.
“I know and I'm sorry and I don't deserve you to forgive me, but you have to understand the position I was in. It was myfamily. We didn’t find out anything anyway. Even if we did, I’d never let them do anything to purposefully harm your family,” I explain.
The words come out of my mouth in a rush, as if they’re competing with my brain. I probably sound stupid. She looks at me curiously, trying to understand me and I let her. I'd lay my soul bare to her if it would get her to trust me again.
“My dad is fighting for his life in the hospital right now, so don’t bullshit me about how important family is. I know you don’t have the greatest one, but you could have tried to get that back in any other way. If you wanted to tell me the truth, you could have. If you knew more than you were letting on, you could’ve told me before it got too far, but you didn’t,” she says, her voice levelled and calm. Her voice cracks a little as she says, "I would have listened to you. I would have understood you if you just told me."
“I'm sorry, Scar. I’m so fucking sorry,” I say again, really meaning it. If I was smart enough, I would have told her from the beginning. I would have told her the truth and we wouldn’t be caught in shit shitstorm.
“I don’t want you to be sorry, Evan. I want you to stay, to listen, to do this fucking project so we can get on with our lives.” She steps in closer to me now, still holding her head high.
“So, that’s what we’re gonna do?” I ask. I need something more than that. I needhermore than that. More than just existing in each other's presence. “We’re just going to get on with our lives? I know you don't do serious and I’m not asking for that, but we…You know…”
She knows exactly what I'm talking about because her face flushes as she remembers the series of hot, angry kisses and everything that led up to her whimpering my name inside the library.
“This is such a fucking mess right now,” she says, running her hands through the ends of hair, quickly. “Usually, I go with the flow. But with you, I need to know what we’re doing. This isn’t like what I usually do. You know that.”
I swallow, trying to think. I don't want to scare her off, but I don't want to lose her either. “I don't know what this is either, Scarlett. If I did, you’d be the first to know. I just want to be close to you. I don't want to lose you after all this.”
“So what? We’re dating now?” she asks. Her face scrunches up at the idea and she looks adorable. She’s pretending again. I thought I knew it before, but I now know for sure that she’s forcing herself to act like I repulse her, which only makes me smile harder.
“Doyouwant to date me?”
“I don't know,” she says through a sigh, shrugging. “I hardly like you, Ev.”
That fucking nickname is going to kill me, I swear.
“Yeah, sure you don’t,” I say laughing. “Look. If you want to date me, you tell me that, Scarlett, and I'll be the best boyfriend you’ve ever had. If you want to fool around, pretend you hate me, I'm cool with that too. You like me. Ireallylike you. It’s that simple.”
“Is it?” she asks, tilting her head to the side playfully, pushing her hair behind her ears.
“It can be if you let it,” I whisper. She smiles then. A real smile. I lean forward to tug on the strand of her hair that I realise is not as long as it used to be. “You cut your hair.”
