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“Come on, Nick.” Eve tried to laugh again. “Zeke? Really?”
“Are you laughing at me?” Nick asked and he roughly snagged her arm.
“Ow!” Eve cried. “No! I’m not interested in Zeke. It was nothing.”
“Prove it,” he breathed into her ear, his hands on her zipper. She tried to bat his fingers away but that just made him smile, and not in a nice way.
“No,” Eve said, afraid to meet his eyes.
“Come on,” he said. His voice was low, urgent. Eve considered running out the door, but knew she wouldn’t get far. He was bigger, faster than she was.
“Someone might walk in,” Eve said as she took small, slow steps backward.
“They won’t,” Nick murmured as he crept closer to her. “My dad’s out of town and my mom is doing inventory at the shop late tonight. We’re alone.”
Eve felt trapped. She knew if she argued, protested, things would go downhill fast but she had to get out of here. She shivered under Nick’s stare.
He stepped toward her and kissed her. Gently at first and then more fervently as they sank to the Italian marble floor. Nick slid his hand beneath her shirt while a silent scream clanged around in her head. Get off, get off, get off, she wanted to scream. His weight pressed the air from her lungs and Eve struggled to catch her breath. Nick nuzzled his face against her neck and whispered, “I love you, Eve,” as he tried to unzip her jeans.
“I have to go,” Eve said abruptly and squeezed out from beneath him.
“Hey,” Nick said, his forehead wrinkled with worry. “What’s the matter?”
Eve swiped at her wet eyes. “I can’t see you anymore,” she said, her voice cracking.
Confusion filled his face. He was so handsome, Eve thought. People would say she was crazy for breaking up with him. “What? Why?” he asked.
“It’s my mom,” Eve said. “She said we can’t go out anymore. She said we’re getting too serious.” This was a lie. Her mother loved that Eve was dating Nick Brady, thought that she was the luckiest girl in the world.
Her mother didn’t have much luck with her own love life. Pregnant at sixteen, married and pregnant again at eighteen, divorced at nineteen. Now bitter and alone, she didn’t have much positive to say about the opposite sex, except when it came to Nick. He’s a keeper, Eve, hold on to him, and don’t let go.
“Well, don’t listen to her,” Nick said angrily. “Let me talk to her. I can change her mind.”
“No.” Eve shook her head. “You won’t change her mind. I can’t see you anymore. I’m sorry.”
She moved toward the door. “She can’t do that,” Nick said, yanking her back by the arm.
Eve bit back a gasp of pain and the tears broke through and streamed hotly down her face.
“Eve,” Nick said pulling her to his chest and pressing his fingers deep into the small of her back. “Don’t worry. She can’t keep us away from each other. She can’t. I love you, Eve,” he said.
He sounded so sincere, so honest. For a brief moment, Eve kicked herself for telling him they couldn’t be together anymore. What were the chances that someone would love her as much as Nick? Slim to none, Eve thought. No, Eve scolded herself. Don’t back down now. A small mutter of frustration escaped from her lips.
“Don’t worry, we’ll change her mind,” Nick said, mistaking the sound as anger toward her mother. “I can be pretty persuasive. Let me drive you home.” Nick entwined his fingers through Eve’s. “I can talk to her. It will be okay.”
“No thanks,” Eve said, eager to leave the house. “She’s pretty mad. Maybe we can give it a few days until she calms down.” She just needed to get out the door. Nick kissed her one more time. Hard, desperate. Eve waited for Nick to break away first before pulling on her boots. She opened the door and stepped outside. The cold air felt good against her skin. The complicated part was over, Eve thought. She didn’t dare look back.
She couldn’t wait to get home even though her mother would be mad at her for being so late and would shake her head when Eve told her that things were over with Nick. Nick was too much. Everything about Nick was too much.
Eve moved through the streets of Grotto on autopilot, barely feeling the bite of cold on her cheeks. The bare tree branches swayed in the brittle wind and the shiny slick sidewalk gleamed like glass beneath the streetlights.
Eve knew blaming her mother for the breakup was the easy way out. Nick still thought she loved him and with that believed there was the chance Eve would disobey her mother so they could be together. She should have just told Nick the truth. That she was the one who wanted things to end, that when they were together she felt anxious and weak, like some smaller version of herself. But she could never say these words out loud. Look at tonight for instance. Why did she let Nick talk to her the way he did? Let him push her around? Why was she so weak?
Eve could just imagine how Nick would react to this. He would blink back at her with his gray-blue eyes, trying to work out what she was trying to say. But I love you, he would tell her as if that was all that mattered. Nick believed the world spun around him like he was the sun and everyone else were lesser planets. And, Eve guessed, for the most part that was the truth. But not anymore. She was done spinning.
Eve spent the first four blocks looking over her shoulder checking to see if Nick was creeping up behind her in his car but finally her limbs relaxed, her legs felt light, her arms swung easily. She began to sing softly to herself, a catchy one-hit wonder about common ground and that old movie with Audrey Hepburn or maybe it was Katharine, that she and Maggie made fun of, but right then, in that moment, it was perfect.
For the first time in a long time, Eve felt free. Hopeful.
The grumble of a car engine revving drowned out her song. Just keep walking, she told herself. Don’t turn around. The song fell silent on her lips. Nick always played this stupid game. Creep up behind her, rev the engine, make her jump, veer the car toward the sidewalk like he was going to run her over. All the while, laughing.
When Eve finally turned, Nick’s silhouette was outlined through the windshield and a familiar anxiety wrapped itself around her midsection, weighing her down. He lowered the passenger-side window. “Get in,” he beckoned, looking at Eve in that way that still made her stomach flip.
Why couldn’t this be easier? Eve wondered as she reached for the door handle. Why did goodbyes have to be so hard?
