Page 11 of For Eva

“Okay. Good. So back to Danny. You go to his apartment, he says he misses you, you have sex, you wake up, he says he misses you again, you scream at him, you finally find your purse, he drives you here…and then what?”

I sighed before taking a sip of coffee. “And then I got out of his car and knocked on your door, and thankfully, you opened it. But I would’ve sat outside for five hours waiting for you rather than sit beside him for one more second. It was the most awkward car ride in the history of car rides. He tried to talk to me, but I just smoked and stared out the window, praying you didn’t live far away.”

“But he wasn’t being a dick, right? From everything you told me, it sounds like he was apologizing and begging you to hear him out.”

“He was being nice because he felt bad for me. Or guilty. Or both. I mean, I fell on the floor in my underwear trying to sneak out, for Christ’s sake, and he woke up looking like some messy-haired, bare-chested rock God.” I covered my face with my hand. “I can’t believe I still think this about him, Denise. Why does he do this to me?”

I peeked out from between my fingers to see her shaking her head.

“I don’t know, babe. This is so insane to me. I mean, what are the odds?”

I gathered my hair into a haphazard ponytail with a tie I’d stolen from Denise’s bathroom. “One in five hundred forty-six billion.”

“Yeah.” Denise raised her mug to her lips, cocking her head before taking a sip. “But what if that means…”

“What if that means what?”

She held her hand out to me as if she was trying to stop the oncoming traffic in my brain. “Just hear me out, okay?”

I narrowed my eyes.

“What if this happened for a reason? What if you’re supposed to reconnect with him for some greater purpose?”

My shoulders dropped, and I groaned. “Oh my God. You sound like Danny last night talking about fate and the cosmos and whatever. Plus, less than twelve hours ago, you were telling me not to go home with him because he’s a motherfucker. So, don’t think I’ll be putting a lot of stock in that.”

She chewed on her long red nail and nodded slowly. “I know, I know. But what Ididn’tknow was that the motherfucker was gonna pour his heart out to you.”

I shook my head. “You kill me, Denise. How do you always manage to be somushywhen these things involve other people and sonotwhen they involve you?”

“One of life’s great mysteries. But whatever. You said it yourself: this isn’t about me. And you also said the chances of you running into him were slim to none. I mean, who knew he was even still out here?”

“I guess it did cross my mind that he could be.”

That was a lie. I didn’tguess. I knew damn well each time I’d visited Denise I’d wondered if Danny was still in LA. Just like I wondered every Thanksgiving and Christmas if I might somehow see him pumping gas at the Phillips 66 or checking out at the A&P in our hometown.

“Think about all the things that had to happen in order forthisto happen,” Denise began, counting off on her fingers. “I had to decide to go to DePaul, and we had to end up as roommates. Matt and Danny had to join the same band. I had to move back home and meet Matt and accidentally keep sleeping with him. You had to come out here, and we had to go to the exact same bar on the exact same night as Matt and Danny.” She paused and tipped her mug at me. “I mean, that’s some crazy shit to just be one big coincidence.”

I squinted up at the ceiling, considering what she’d said. “But how comeyounever met Danny? I mean, you’ve known Matt for a while, right?”

“A couple months, I guess,” she answered with a quick shrug. “But Danny wasn’t with Matt the first night I met him, and since then, he pretty much comes here, we have sex, and I kick him out.”

Her honesty never ceased to amaze me.

I opened my mouth to close the book once and for all on the supernatural speculation but pressed my lips together as the chain of events Denise had listed out settled into my brain. I had to admit itwaskind of crazy. More than kind of.

A lump formed in my throat. “Why do you think he said he missed me?”

“Maybe he really does. I mean, he didn’thaveto say that. You were naked in his bed. It’s not like you were going anywhere.”

Outwardly, I cringed at the memory, but a white heat burned inside me as images of his head and hips between my thighs flickered behind my eyes.

Her face softened as she placed her coffee on the small side table and uncurled her legs. “Look, I don’t wanna make up stories about this. Who knows what he’s thinking. In my mind, heisstill a motherfucker until he proves otherwise. But he’s off to a good start based on what you told me. And whathappened between you guys…You were teenagers, Eva. He’s older. Potentially wiser. And there’s a possibility he knows now that he actuallydidfuck up.”

I swallowed and nodded, thinking about the things he’d said earlier that morning. All the things I’d repeated to Denise when I’d first gotten back to her apartment. “He, uh…he asked me to come to their show tonight.”

Denise’s eyes widened. “He did? At the Troubadour?”

“Yeah, how’d you—”

---