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“I could have,” he agreed. “But I didn’t want to. The person I spent a whole week talking to in that damn app deserved more than that. I didn’t want to just disconnect without an explanation.”
“Still could have done it in the app.”
It didn’t make sense. There was no reason for him to sit here and continue to lie to her. He was busted and yet still arguing.
“I couldn’t explain it, though now it makes more sense, I needed to do it in person.” Evan downed his beer and set it back on the bar.
She shook her head. He made her want to believe him, but she couldn’t be in a relationship with someone she didn’t trust.
“Think about it. We haven’t talked since last week and even then it was nonsense.”
He had her there, aside from one message that could be construed as flirty, the messages were bland. The conversation was nothing like it had been before she had slept with Evan as real her.
“I didn’t even write you back again Friday. I only accepted the date,” he continued. Then his eyes got big. “I did write you back! Check it.”
“Evan, really, you have to give it up and just accept that you’re caught.” She sighed and debated just walking out.
“Please, Kayla. It’s important.”
She sighed again and pulled her phone out of her purse to look at it. She’d been running late to get here after debating if she was coming or not and hadn’t looked at her phone since she left her house.
“Don’t open it yet. Look at the time; that was before you got here,” he pointed out.
“Okay,” she agreed. It was sent about ten minutes before she showed up.
Kayla unlocked her phone and set it down on the bar so he could see it as she opened it. She quickly read the message and then read it again. He really had broken up with K. It didn’t prove that had been his plan the whole time, but it was proof that he did.
“You could have made up your mind to do that after I was late and you thought I wasn’t coming.” She held on to that last small fraction of anger she still had.
He looked hurt and she wanted to take it back but still wasn’t sure she trusted him. “I thought you knew me better than that. Talk to Cade then. I told him about it.” All the fight was gone from him and she hated that she was the one to do that.
She blew out a breath. “Do you remember how I told you that I’d never had people that just did things for me and didn’t ask for anything in return?”
He nodded. She was going to try to explain why she was so screwed up before he walked away.
“When I first met you, I told you I had owned a restaurant before. That’s true, but I didn’t leave to pursue other things like I said.” She didn’t tell this story ever, and it took her a minute to gather her thoughts to get it out. “I was in business with my ex-boyfriend. I wanted to open a restaurant, he’d offered to help back it, and everything was good.”
“You don’t have to tell me anything, Kayla.” There was a bitter tone to his voice.
She’d screwed up, she knew that now. Something was telling her to believe him, but she’d pushed it down so deep that it was acrid as it rose up now, teasing her with the knowledge that she already had before she invented this mess.
“I do. Anyway, Kevin helped me launch the restaurant. It went well for a year. I ran everything, and he would make comments on the menu and staffing choices. All nonsense things really just to make him feel like an owner. One night I walked in on him in my office diddling the hostess. We weren’t even closed, it was just that I wasn’t supposed to be there.”
“I’m sorry,” Evan said.
She brushed it off, needing to tell him the rest. “I lost my cool, as you can imagine. He said he’d done all this for me with making the restaurant, and all I needed to do was be where I was supposed to and I wouldn’t have known. In other words, it was my fault for showing up.” She sighed. “I tried to get financing to buy the restaurant from him, but he wouldn’t do it. I had put all the work in, and he kept it in exchange for me ruining his plans. I got a clean break from it. He hadn’t put my name on anything, and I was too young and dumb to notice. It was all his and what he wanted was to be successful and not need to put in any real work.”
Evan’s fists had clenched on the bar. “What’s his name?” he grunted out.”
“Irrelevant, but I appreciate it. He’s a jerk, but I’m better off. If I hadn’t shown up when I did, I wouldn’t have known and he would have kept doing it. I put everything I had into that restaurant, a full menu that I helped create. I used to cook there, too.”
“That’s why you insisted on the silent partner bit?” Evan asked.
She nodded. “It had nothing to do with you. It was just all my own fucked up feelings. It’s also why I panicked when we slept together. I was so scared to get back into a situation where everything would be taken away from me.”
“You could have just talked to me.” Evan picked at the label on his beer.
“I should have. I was so scared, though. It’s not an excuse, and I don’t expect you to say anything. I just thought I would let you know. For what it’s worth, the blind date thing was never a test or anything of you. I kinda had a crush on you and just wanted to, I don’t know, know what could have been?”
