Page 9 of Chance
Evie
Without Abi,I wasn’t confident I would have made it five minutes through the class, let alone the entire ninety minutes.Between her and the professor, I only glanced at the closed door a few hundred times, and never once did I beg someone to open it.
Evy would have been so proud of me.
As Abi and I walked outside, I noticed the café in the distance.“Want to grab coffee?”I offered, then glanced down at her cute baby bump.“Or tea.I’m fond of tea.”
“I want an iced latte so bad,” she said with a laugh, threading her arm through mine like we’d been friends all our lives instead of less than two hours.“And thankfully, decaf is an option.Plus, cake pops.We deserve all the carbs.This is going to be a not-so-fun semester if Professor Anderson keeps looking at me like that.”
“How was she looking at you?”Maybe I’d been a little more trapped in my head than I thought.
“Like this.”Abi gave me a scowl that I remembered being on the professor’s face a few times.“She hates me, but whatever.Thirsty bitch.”
Her grumpy tone was borderline adorable.“I’m going to pretend I know what that means.”
“It means I’m a jealous person, at least when it comes to my husband.”Her rings glittered blindingly in the afternoon sunshine as she rubbed her hand in a circle over her abdomen.“Long story short, I married the hottest professor on campus.Only, he’s no longer a professor.All these heifers were panting over Vaughn before he became mine, and they are still salty because I locked that man down.Hard.I might have been flashing these bad boys a little more than I would normally.It was so satisfying every time her brows twitched when she looked my way.”
“You married a professor,” I repeated.
“Scandalous, right?”she laughed.“But he doesn’t work here anymore.”
“Because of the no-fraternization rule?”I guessed.
“No, he’s just focusing his skills on other endeavors.Like stalking me through the CCTVs.”As we walked into the café, she glanced up at the cameras and gave a flirty finger wave.
Weird, but okay.
Before we reached the counter, her phone pinged with a text.She showed me her screen.“See what I mean?”
Husband: Have fun with your new friend, wildfire.Stay out of trouble.
It was cute how “husband” was surrounded by heart and kiss emojis.She glowed as she typed out a quick reply and then tugged me forward to order when it was our turn.Midafternoon appeared to be a busy time.Most of the tables were taken, and several people were already waiting for their drinks.
Abi ordered something that sounded like a science experiment rather than a drink, but I was familiar with the barista lingo at this point.Evy had been diligently teaching me about the perfect lattes and blended drinks.I ordered my skinny vanilla iced latte with cold foam and a drizzle of caramel.At first, I’d thought adding foam and drizzle to a sugar-free drink was redundant, and then I’d taken a sip of the delicious concoction and shut up.Good was good, and that was all that mattered.
Chocolate was already smeared on Abi’s lips as she pulled the two cake-pop sticks from her mouth at the same time.Humming happily to herself, she licked her lips clean and chewed with chipmunk cheeks.
“I’m going to have to run an extra five miles with all the sweet treats I’ve been inhaling lately.My ass is getting huge.”Picking up her drink, she took a savory sip.I grabbed my own cup.
“Okay, one, I don’t think you have a huge ass.It’s kind of perfect.And two, you run?”I blinked down at her in horror.“Like, on purpose?”
Abi almost snorted her drink out her nose.“Oh God, I already adore you.Yes, on purpose.Running is my de-stressor.Or it used to be.Now, it’s riding my husband.But that’s not going to keep all these desserts from going to my ass.”
Casually having sex dropped into a conversation was not something I was used to, but I tried to pretend like it didn’t embarrass me.Despite the heat filling my face, I was a pro at keeping my expression blank.
Tossing her sticks into the trash on our way out the door, Abi took another drink of her decaffeinated iced latte.“You’re welcome to come running with me any morning if you ever want to give it a try.No pressure, though.Sammy, my sister-in-law, joins me most days.We could start a club.”
“As fun as that sounds, pass.Now, if it was a book club or maybe a movie club, sign me up.”
Reading was my only hobby since William had taken away my Netflix privileges so often as punishment.I’d found solace in the small library he’d allowed me in our monstrosity of a house.Brontë and Austen and Fitzgerald and Shelley and Twain.Reading Tolkien’s works had been my favorite, and then getting to watchThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Ringstrilogies was one of the few happy memories from my childhood that didn’t include my sister.It took a while before I could sneak inHarry Potter.
Why it didn’t bother William to permit me to read Mary Shelley’sFrankenstein,yet he was reluctant to give me theHarry Pottercollection still stumped me.Looking back, I thought it was because he had wanted me to be scared, possibly have nightmares, and shy away from certain genres.Instead, I’d gotten hooked.Witches and wizards were nothing on the whole Twilight diabolical, though.
After asking to read that series, my father made sure I never dared ask him for anything again.He was so damn controlling, and that had been one more thing he used to keep me in line.
“We can do that.I have a few friends here who would love it, actually.”Abi typed something into her phone before shoving it into the pocket of her hoodie.“I need to get home, but Sammy invited me out with the girls tonight.You should come.Bring your sister too.”
Excitement bubbled inside me, only for a rush of anxiety to temper it before I got carried away.“Maybe,” I hedged, unsure if I was ready for that, even though I wanted to.What I would most likely do was go home, take a nap, and hide.
