Page 62 of Without a Doubt

I shrug, deciding to offer some information. “I don't want to talk to her anymore and it makes Eva uncomfortable, so it's for the best.” Suddenly, I have a craving to see her, touch her, kiss her, and to make her smile and laugh. I pick up my phone to text her. “Think you can give me a ride to Eva's dorm?” If I don't have a way back, she'll have no choice but to spend the night with me.

Glen nods and after a moment, he smirks at me like he knows something I don't.

“What?”

“You're whipped,” he grins, cracking an imaginary whip with the flick of his wrist.

Eva texts me that she isn't busy. “Shut up and let's go.”

Glen laughs, but we leave for campus. “I'm glad I'm not your roommate anymore,” he says out of the blue on the short drive there.

“Why?”

He gives me a quick, pointed look. “You're dating my cousin. I don't want to share a room with her boyfriend.”

I laugh. He makes a good point. We make plans to eat at Smitty's this upcoming week when he parks, and then I'm on my way to see my girl. I delete Kelly's voicemail. When I slip my phone into my pocket and look up to open the door to enter the building, I see Eva standing there. She's in jeans and a sweatshirt, mine that she stole.

“Why is Glen dropping you off?” she asks.

After kissing her briefly and wishing I had brought my own coat, I answer, “So you'd have to come home with me.”

She smiles. “Well, come on, so I can pack some clothes. Aren't you cold?”

“Yeah. It got cold fast this year.” And it has. We could faintly see our breath when we were outside.

“It's a furnace in here,” Eva says as we walk to her dorm, pushing up her sleeves. “How was the game?”

“Good. I picked the winning team and won twenty bucks. Hey, Catherine,” I say when we enter the dorm. She's lying on one of the beds, reading a book.

“Hey.”

I sit on Eva's bed while she moves around to pack. “We're going to get a late night milkshake. Do you want to come with?”

Catherine and Eva both glance at me in surprise. Should I not have asked? Eva's been around my friends and I thought it would be nice to do the same.

“You should come,” Eva tells her. It's like they're having a silent conversation with one another with their eyes.

“Yeah, okay. I will.” She grabs a bookmark from their nightstand and puts it in her place. “Are you staying with him again?”

“Yep,” Eva answers.

Catherine grabs her purse. “When are you two going to move in together? It'll be simpler.”

I laugh at the craziness of that idea. “We are not moving in together.”

Something about my tone makes Eva look at me and she doesn't exactly have the same expression as I do. Us living together after what, three months, would be crazy, right?

“You don't want to live with me, Emerson?” There's a dare in her tone.

Shit. Any answer other than yes sounds like it will be the wrong answer. “You don't think it would be too soon? We aren't that serious yet,” I explain anyway.

Her lips part with shock. She folds her arms over her chest defensively. “How serious are we then? How serious do we need to be?”

“It's only been like three months.”

It's like something clicks inside her head. Her shoulders fall with defeat, her arms drop, and she removes her overnight bag from her shoulder, dropping it onto the floor with a thud. “Makes sense. You're right.” She nods as if she's convincing herself. “You know, I don't really feel like a milkshake anymore. Let's just go, so I can take you home and come back. I'm really tired.”

“Eva,” I begin, wanting to change her mind and fix however I messed up.

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