Page 43 of Hard Lessons
“I’ll pick you up at eight tomorrow night.”
I smiled and nodded once in agreement.
“Good night, Eve.” He backed away, leaving me to walk inside by myself.
While I was excited, I was also scared because if Elliot found out, I was toast.
The next twenty-fourhours passed in a blur with little to nothing memorable about it. Unless you could count Professor West being a decent human being, that is. He was pleasant in class. He didn’t take any jabs at me, and he gave me back my paper with a nice big A written in red. He didn’t call me to his office either, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. He seemed to be lying low. I made it through the day and managed to get back home, where I did some homework before getting ready for my date with Chase.
I pulled on a maroon sweater and a pair of skinny jeans, which I paired with my knee-high boots. I braided my hair, pulled it over one shoulder, and pulled on my gray pea coat. When he rang my buzzer from outside, I didn’t bother with letting him through. I just moved out to the street and welcomed him there.
“Hey,” I said as he turned to face me.
“Hey, for a minute there, I thought you were standing me up.”
I pulled my coat closed. “I wouldn’t do that.”
He put his hands into his jacket pockets. “You just wanted to make sure that I didn’t come up.”
I gave him a tight smile, unsure of what exactly I should say. “I hope you’re not offended. It’s just that my life is?—”
“Complicated,” he finished for me. “Yeah, I got it.”
“Are you mad?” I asked, unsure of how he would answer, but then he gave me that reassuring smile of his, and I knew he wasn’t.
“No, of course not.”
I smiled with relief. I didn’t know why, but I didn’t want him to be mad at me. I liked him, and I liked that he liked me. He was exactly the type of guy I always pictured myself marrying. Tall, smart, and handsome. He was sweet, friendly, and seemed patient and understanding. There was only one little problem. Well, it’s a big problem, actually. Elliot. And even though Elliot was everything I hated right now, deep down, he was also everything I wanted.
“So, where are we going?”
“I was thinking about it all day. I didn’t want to have some boring movie date night where we can’t even talk.”
“Yeah? So, what did you come up with?”
He gave me a lopsided grin. “You’ll see.” He pointed down the sidewalk, and we started walking in that direction, side by side. “I thought that maybe we could get to know one another a little better on our walk.”
“Okay. What do you wanna know?”
He shrugged. “Everything.”
I felt my insides turn to mush as every inch grew warm. “I’m not sure we can cover everything on one date.”
“Exactly.”
I smiled widely. “You’re good. You know that?”
He shook his head. “That’s the thing. I’m not.”
I looked over at him.
“I’m not the guy who says all the right things at all the right times. I’m not the best at being consistent or picking up on hints. I only had a couple of girlfriends through high school, and all three of them would tell you how oblivious I was. One of themeven slept with my best friend behind my back, and I had no idea.”
“Sounds like you were preoccupied.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I guess. But that’s also my point. I’ve never really been interested in anyone for any real length of time before. I never met anyone that I couldn’t walk away from, but then I met you.” We both stopped walking, and he turned to face me. “I don’t know how you’re different, but you are.”
I stared into his eyes. I wasn’t sure what to say. I’d never had a guy say those kinds of things to me before. I’d never had a guy look at me with that look in his eye. I swallowed over the lump in my throat, and I wet my lips. My mouth opened even though I had no idea what I was going to say. Before any words could come out, my phone chimed from my coat pocket, breaking the moment that was growing thick between us.
