Page 49 of Chalk It Up

Evie

We all step outside of the auditorium to say our goodbyes and congratulations. I still don’t have a running car so I plan to ride home with Thea, even though I desperately want to go with August and talk to him about everything that happened. That was insane, so I guess it's probably best if all of us sleep on it for a night.

“Thanks for coming tonight.” August says to me while I head over to Thea’s car.

“Well, I didn’t really have much of a choice since it was my program.” I say snarkily while refraining from touching him in any way. I’m already nervous that we were too close and touchy in the auditorium, so I’m trying to behave.

“Oh I’m sure that even if you didn’t have to, you wouldn’t have shown up for my daughter.” His sarcasm is thick and I love that we can lightly joke back and forth with each other. I’m not a particularly funny person so I’m glad we can both fall back on sarcasm.

“Have a good night, August.” My voice is steeped with intent to portray how much I really don’t want to be leaving him right now.

“You have a good night too, Ms. Jake.” He winks. Him calling me “Ms. Jake” will always make my gut twist in anticipation. I can’t help but giggle at it because he knows exactly what he’s doing to me. I can’t stop staring at him the entire time I get myself into the car. He closes my passenger door for me once I’ve settled into my seat and we’re waving goodbye to each other. I turn to Thea and she has a ridiculous grin on her face.

“What?” I ask her knowing full well what she’s smiling at and I can’t help but smile too. Everything feels almost perfect.

“How much longer will he be able to call you Ms. Jake before it changes?” She smirks at me.

“Eyes on the road, Torres.” We just laugh together and fall into companionable silence, letting the pines rush past us.

“But really, what’re your plans?” I know Thea is asking out of love and not annoyance.

“That’s a really long answer. Can we wait to get to your place, set up some snacks, and we can dissect everything that’s happened in the last two days?”

“Deal.”

The drive to Thea’s house is quick and quiet, and gives me time to figure out everything I’m going to tell her. Which is obviously everything. I let Maple out of her crate and take her out back to do her business before Thea and I settle in for what will probably be a long night. Poor Maple did a great job in her crate all day. Thea would never ask me to crate her, but it feels like a respectful thing to do since she’s helping us out.

By the time we’re back in the house, Thea has already pulled out two cherry cokes and started on a charcuterie of Vermont sharp cheese squares, caramel corn, strawberries, and some dark chocolate. I carry everything to the living room and set the board and drinks down on her coffee table before we sit down on the floor, Maple jumping in Thea’s lap.

“I feel like you definitely have a lot to tell me because that interaction at the school and him helping you into my car all felt really heavy.” She shoves some chocolate into her mouth and speaks between bites. “Please put me out of my misery and tell me you’re marrying the hot dad.”

“You’re hilarious.” I laugh nervously. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m marrying him or not.” She gives me a very loaded, pointed look. “Okay, fine, yes, I really want to. But ugh it’s all complicated and I don’t know if he’ll want to be with me that long.”

And then I fill her in on everything that happened. I tell her that the rental agreement termination email I got was actually because August waved his billions around with some untraceable shell corporation and bought my house from under Larissa without her knowing it was him. Thea physically swooned at that. Full on, back of the hand to her forehead and slipped to the floor, swooned. I just laughed at her dramatics.

Then I let her know how August saved the day in ways I never would’ve thought of by checking the cameras at my house and threatening Lorraine and Larissa, and finally the ultimatum for Larissa to forever choose between her daughter and her career. Thea easily guesses how that went.

“You’re going to sit on my floor, eat my food, drink my favorite coke, and lie straight to my eyeballs and say you don’t know if this man wants to marry you?” Then she takes a swig of said favorite coke. “Evie, that man doesn’t just want to marry you. He sounds like he would either burn the world for you or buy the world for you and neither sounds like a bad thing.” I shake my head at her because all of it is ridiculously unbelievable.

I’ve never felt worthy of love from anyone. Not my parents, let alone a significant other. People who were supposed to choose me didn’t, so I don’t have any reason to believe someone would choose me willingly. But I think deep down I know that Thea is right. No one ever chooses me, but August did choose me and keeps choosing me through all of his actions and care. And he doesn’t just choose me, but prioritizes me.

“Thea, I think there’s a really good chance you might be right.” I chuckle to myself.

“Can you say that again so I can record you? I’m sure I’ll need that for the future.”

“Shut up, you know you’re always right about everything.” I finish the last of my coke and throw my head back on the couch.

“At least you can admit it.” And she assumes the same position. “So where do you go from here? It sounds like your job and living situation are fixed. What now?” There’s the billion dollar question I guess, because while my job is safe right now, that doesn’t mean the town would still be thrilled about a teacher dating her student’s dad.

“I think August and I will just lay low and tell Addie at the end of the school year so there won’t be a conflict of interest.”

“Are you okay with that?” She asks while we both stare at the ceiling counting the little bits of popcorn texture above us.

“I think so. We can just get to know each other quietly and without other peoples’ opinions or influence. It honestly sounds really nice.” With that thought, I suddenly feel very relieved with the direction we might have to go. “You know what I’m not okay with? This popcorn ceiling.” We both resume a seated position so we can polish off the rest of the snacks on our board.

“I really hate it.” Thea has done an amazing job decorating her little apartment. She has that particular gift of going to thrift stores and being able to piece together a bunch of random knick knacks and make them look beautifully cohesive somehow. I’ve tried thrifting with her and I just don’t have the patience or vision for it. Despite her interior design eye, I know she doesn’t love her apartment. “One day I’ll have enough saved up for my own place. But for now, I’m just glad I have a place to call my own. Kind of.”

We shuffle around cleaning up our girl dinner and Maple follows dutifully waiting for something to fall her way. I drop a little bit of strawberry down to her for her effort. “So what’s been going on with you lately? You’ve seemed to have a lot of unexpected things come up?” I don’t just want to make this entire night about me and I’m dying to know what’s going on with Thea.