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She got to the third floor and followed the smell of food to Eve's door. Colourful flower stickers brightened up the doorframe and surrounded the peephole.
Charlie felt herself smile. That was such an Eve thing to do.
After one knock, the door swung open and all thoughts of rejection left Charlie's head. The falling sun framed Eve like a vision and highlighted her temptingly bare shoulders. Her lovely pink blouse dipped just low enough to reveal a hint of cleavage, something which didn't go unnoticed by Charlie's wandering gaze.
Eve's smile brought her freckles closer to her eyes. "Hi. Come in."
Practically hypnotised, Charlie could only nod. She crossed the threshold, leaving all her good intentions in the hallway.
Eve's flat was spacious and Charlie was pleasantly surprised by the amount of natural sunlight and the high ceilings. The furniture looked expensive and it had real wooden floors.
"You have a nice place," she complimented, mentally comparing it to her own place. There was no contest, hers was a dump.
Eve beamed. "Thanks. Perks of being an estate agent. Well, former. Current. I don't know what to call myself now I'm between jobs.”
“I'd say current? I'd call myself a mechanic whether I'm working somewhere or not." Charlie shrugged her jacket off, a rather impractical action while she was holding her bottle of wine.
"Good point, I guess I'm still an estate agent by trade. I like that.”
Pleased, Charlie held out her bottle of wine. “For you.”
The smile appearing on Eve’s face was blinding. "What a gentleman, thank you. Shall I take your coat? Dinner will be ready soon, I just have to put it in the oven. I have some nibbles and cold Prosecco if you're interested. Or I can offer you a beer or fresh apple juice."
"I'll have what you're having," Charlie said as she handed her coat over, not wanting to be difficult.
"You're my guest. I'm having what you're having," Eve returned, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
Charlie considered her options. As tempting as a bit of Prosecco sounded, getting tipsy together was what landed her in this mess in the first place. It was a wonderful, delightful mess, but still... She shouldn't have let it happen.
"Fresh apple juice sounds nice," she decided.
"Excellent choice. It's from a local bear-run orchard. Isn't that neat?" Eve beckoned as she made her way to the open kitchen. "My friend Pomme's family owns it and I like supporting small businesses."
Bemused, Charlie followed her. "You have a friend named Pomme? Like apple in French?"
"Yes, her parents are absolutely apple-obsessed. Her brother is called Ringo. I'm told that's Japanese for apple. Isn't that over the top?" Eve twisted the metal cap on a rustic glass bottle and filled two glasses with the amber juice. "Here."
“And here I thought Charlise was bad. That's so over the top. That’d be if I called a child Mercedes or Otto or something just because I love cars.” Charlie accepted her glass, her fingers brushing against Eve's and causing sparks to dance along her skin. This was exactly why she was having trouble staying away from her, even if it was the right thing to do.
She clinked her glass against Eve's and took a sip, hoping to still her nerves. Maybe she should've said yes to alcohol after all.
“What are you cooking?” she asked, feeling uncharacteristically nervous.
“I made a chicken and chorizo pasta bake. It has some bell peppers and I used those cute little shell shapes.”
“Orecchiette?” Charlie guessed, trying her best to pronounce it as authentically as possible. And failing miserably.
“No, those are little ears. These are called, ummm…” Eve snapped her fingers. “Conchiglie or something.”
“Oooh, because they look like conches?”
“Yes, that makes total sense! Now I'm never going to forget that name.”
Charlie grinned, secretly proud of herself. She sipped from her apple juice again, barely paying attention to the flavour. All she could do was stare at Eve who seemed to enjoy the attention. It was certainly not a coincidence that she was biting her bottom lip and fluttering her long eyelashes. Or maybe that was just how she always looked, like effortless temptation embodied.
Eve kept her little smirk as she brushed past, her hand touching Charlie’s hip for a moment longer than necessary. “Shall we sit? I have crisps and those cheese biscuity things. No nuts, because I didn’t know if you were allergic and that seemed just a bit risky for our first date.”
First date. The words echoed through Charlie’s head. She’d been in denial about what this was, but she wasn’t sure who she was trying to fool. Everything about this screamed ‘date’. It couldn’t be more obvious and yet, a part of her still wanted to pretend that she’d agreed to a polite dinner where she could tell Eve that they shouldn’t get involved.
