Page 103 of Over the Edge

Garrett’s light brown eyes clash with Oliver’s brilliant blue ones.

37

Garrett

She’s trying her best to not look at me. Her hand might be draped in mine and my hand might be resting on her back, but she’s doing her best to avoid me. I know I have no right to be jealous, but I couldn’t help but feel like I caused her to run from me and dance with him. It’s my own damn fault for waiting to tell her what I was doing this morning. I just needed to follow through first.

“Eve,” I plead.

“I get it.” Her false smile lags before falling into place. “It’s fine.”

“I sent a text.”

“You know what text no one wants to get? Any variation of ‘we need to talk.’” Her eyes flare as they fix on me. There’s also that damn fake smile of hers. Fuck. She’s hiding again, hiding from me. “Like I said, I get it. You don’t do relationships. We said we shouldn’t sleep together when we first discussed this. I could have said no, I had that choice. If you want to go back to New York and work, that's fine.”

I spin her around to get out of the way of someone who’s turned the slow song into a whirling swing dance. “I’m not going back. Can we talk? I can explain. It wasn’t something I could have explained over text. And you haven’t been sleeping well. I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Five minutes. I’ll give you five minutes.”

“I’ll make them worth it,” I promise.

The song stops and I take her hand to lead her out of the gym. We rush past lockers and the open doors of classrooms where teams are assembling signs.

“Wasting your five minutes on a tour?” she asks as I pull her along.

“Based on the conversation we’re about to have, I thought you’d value privacy, unless we want everyone in our business via text chain within the next hour.”

It should be here somewhere. I’m not very familiar with the layout because I never went to school here myself, but I’ve come to enough practice festivals over the years. Around the next corner I find the door I’m looking for. I test the knob to find that it’s unlocked. After a twist and a push, I walk into the dark room then pat along the wall for a light switch.

“Supply closet, very classy,” Evelyn says. She steps in behind me with her arms crossed defiantly over her chest.

“If you want, I bet the cafeteria is unoccupied but I didn’t want to waste any more time.”

Evelyn strides past me to an empty bucket, which she grabs and turns over to use as a chair. She crosses jean clad legs and folds her arms over her chest. It isn’t lost on me that she’s wearing the sweater I gave her last week.

I don’t know what it means that she still chose to wear it despite being upset with me, but I want to.

“Did you go to the office this morning to meet with your boss about getting back to work?” she asks.

I can’t blame her for the assumption. It was all I had wanted when we first ran into each other in Alina's driveway.

“That’s where I was,” I start, and her face falls. I walk over to her in two quick steps. My knees fall to the hard ground. “I went there to quit.”

“Huh?”

“I went to the city so I could quit in person. I met with Holt and put in my notice. That’s what I was doing this morning. That’s why I left and couldn’t explain over the phone because I didn’t want to tell you until it was done and I was standing in front of you and could have this conversation.” The words fall out in a rush. I need her to know, but also there’s this electric feeling that comes with the adrenaline of it all.

“You quit your job for me?”

“No, I quit my job because I should have left a long time ago. Talking to Lana got to me. She’s living a life she can’t shut up about. I’ve been going through life without living it like I was playing out some self-imposed sentence,” I explain. “And yesterday you showed me how good it could feel to go for what I want. I was happy making music for years. I want that again. Actually, I want more than that, because now when I think of music, I also think of making it with you.”

She reaches out to cup my cheek and I lean into her touch. I’m here on my knees praying she won’t give up on me. “Does that mean…”

“Yes, I want you. Only you. All of you.”

“And you’re not freaking out.” Her voice breaks into a quiver. “Because I am still freaking out. Because you say that and I feel like there’s this nonstop earthquake and I’m the only one experiencing it.”

I put my hand over where hers is resting on my face. My thumb rubs against her knuckles. My eyes latch onto hers as I say, “I’m fucking terrified. But I know that’s because whathappened between us mattered. You matter so damn much to me, Evelyn. I drove to the city scared out of my mind that when I came back you’d be okay with keeping things the exact same. But I had it in my head that if I quit then at least I was doing something right for myself. For the record, I would never run away from you. If anything, I’m running from myself. I see all of you and that’s a fucking gift. With you, things make sense.”

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