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“Good to see you again, Evie.”
“Same to you.”
“See you in the morning, Tris. Don’t stay up too late on a school night, you two.”
With that, he disappears.
Tris waves his empty bottle.
“Let me grab another one.” He stands. “Be right back.”
And then he’s gone, leaving me to pick up the pieces of this terrible job I’m doing at telling Tris how I feel. Here I am giving him unwanted advice about his life, and I can’t spit out three little words.
I like you.
Is that too hard to say?
Surprisingly, yes. Yes, it is.
26
Tristano
“Oohhh, look how pretty,” she says as I step out onto the deck. The sun is just setting now, so I flipped on a set of lights hanging from the roof above us. Big, soft white bulbs like the ones at the wedding reception, strung by my sister for a “lakeside, romantic vibe.”
Which I can appreciate right about now.
I lean over and light the candle on our table. The urge to kiss her is so fucking strong. But we need to get things cleared up first.
“Refill?”
“Sure.”
“So you were saying.” I pour wine into her glass.
“This PR thing isn’t working,” she starts again.
I sit, reluctantly. “And obviously we’re in a really awkward situation. Although I don’t really think Brax was worried about you stealing proprietary recipes.”
“Little does he know . . .” As the sky begins to darken around us, Evie’s smile is as bright as ever.
“But a few things have changed,” I acknowledge, “since the last time we had this conversation.”
“Exactly.”
Talk about tiptoeing. I come out and say it.
“I don’t want to do this anymore either.”
Evie blinks. “Ok. Good.”
“I want your phone number so I can text you and say goodnight.”
Her eyes widen.
“And good morning tomorrow before you go to work.”
I wait for her to stop me and tell me I’m way off base. She doesn’t.
