Page 69 of Dead Set on You
“See you around!” Rafael says, following on my heels. I scramble into the truck, shivering as I pass through the metal. He joins me, watching me as he starts the engine.
“I promised I would help you, and that’s what I’m doing,” Rafael says, shifting in reverse. “Whatever alternate reality you’ve created where I’m the devil? It couldn’t be farther from the truth.”
The truck rolls backward, and panic rolls in my belly. I clamp my hands together. “I don’t think you’re the devil,” I say, to distract myself.
He shoots me a look as we pull out of the parking garage. “Devil’s son, then?”
I shrug, biting down against a grin. “A distant cousin.”
Rafael chuckles, maybe calls me a smartass.
I’m focused on keeping calm. On distractions. Like the clogged street. People and cars. It’s all familiar. Two turns and we’re driving past a high-rise. I crane my neck, trying to see up to floor thirty-eight. Media Lab. I wonder if my things are still at my desk—or if Rafael has pushed his chaos across the threshold of the two. Or maybe he’s already moved into the office reserved for the next marketing director.
Pre-Coma Evie tackles Coma Evie.Of course he’s already moved into the office. He’s Rafael!
Does he already have the promotion? Would Dana have given it to him without waiting to see what will happen with me? My stomach churns in response. I can’t fathom it. My lifewasMedia Lab. My distraction and refuge. A way out of being Stevie Popovici. The place where I reinvented myself after I left Michigan and never looked back. Except for that one night.
Before I started courses at Northeastern Illinois University, I drove to one of my favorite spots overlooking Lake Michigan. I took out an old phone and turned it on. It was the one thing I had from my old life, and not that I’d ever admit it, but each night before bed, I turned it on, held my breath, and waited. Not once was there a missed text or voicemail from my mother, Margot.
I’d waited for years for her to call—to care—but getting love from Margot was like trying to squeeze blood from a rock. As much as it hurt, I hurled the phone into the lake with a “Screw you, Mom!” and I moved on. The next day, I started investing my focus and energy into my future because I’d already given my past so much. The only thing—person—I took with me was Annie.
I became Evie Pope at Media Lab. Someone with a career and the means to provide for herself without relying on anyone else. It started with my one-year plans, which changed to five- and ten-year plans because there were always bigger and better opportunities ahead. Even more stability.
And then there was Rafael.
Rafael who knows I’m Stevie.
Rafael who makes me feel more unstable than anyone else I know.
Rafael who’s helping me, despite everything.
See, you know I’m right!Coma Evie dusts herself off and flips off Pre-Coma Evie.
I sneak a peek to my left. The sun kisses his skin, giving him a faint glowing outline that screams Team Edward (cue that Cullen sparkle fromTwilight). He’s drumming his fingers against the wheel, anxious about something. I know this about him, just like I know about half a million other things.
He catches my gaze and frowns. “Plotting my demise?”
“No!” I snap my gaze to the road. A blush creeps into my cheeks, and I blame it—and these new symptoms—on my condition. The fullness. The inability to think clearly. “I’m just … nervous about this,” I admit, quieter than I intend. I haven’t let myself be vulnerable with him in a long time.
I feel his gaze on me.
“Me too,” he says, his tone warm and honest, and I fear he’s swapped one weapon for a much more dangerous one. Because beneath his tone is something else, something a lot like sadness.It’s not anything I’ve associated with Rafael before, save for when his dad passed. I’ve imagined it, sure. Multiple times across multiple scenarios. Only I didn’t think it would somehow make me feelnothappy.
He catches me staring again, and I manipulate my features into a scowl, gesturing at his hair. “What’s happening up there?”
“Oh?” He rakes his long fingers through his hair, tousling it in different directions. I want to reach out and fix it. I want to throw myself out of his moving vehicle and see what happens. “Lupe keeps saying she can give me a trim.”
“She’s a hairdresser too?”
“There’s little she’s not good at.” He grins. “Well, maybe except sticking to one thing. We’re alike in that way. We’ll get into one thing, invest our time and energy into it until something else comes along and becomes the new thing. It’s how I ended up at Media Lab. The draw of new clients and projects. Some days it’s working on marketing plans. Other days it’s learning a new product.”
“What you’re saying is that all I had to do was make work boring and then you would have quit?”
Rafael’s shoulder lifts in a shrug. “Doubt it.”
“You underestimatemyabilities.” I use his words against him.
He smile slips. “Never. Not once in five years,” he says, his tone suddenly serious. His words sear themselves into bits of me I didn’t know existed. My chest. My belly. Lower still. I’m glad his eyes are on the road.
