“Evan? What are you doing here?”
“Tessa,” he said, coming to a halt.
He ran a hand through that dark silky mane of hair on his head. “I wanted to see you.” He came back to my door and handed me the rose. Lucy, wagging her tail like crazy, stood on her hind legs and placed her front two paws on him. He smiled and pat the top of her head. “Can I come in?” he asked after a moment.
“Sure…” I said.
I took a deep breath, feeling the various emotions rolling through me. First it had been shock at seeing him at my apartment door, unannounced. Then it had been flattery over the beautiful rose. And then my frustration started to return as I recalled how he hadn’t bothered to tell me he was re-enlisting in the military.
I looked down at the rose in my hand, wondering if it was meant as a feeble peace offering for a silly lovesick girl who needed to be let down gently.
I gripped the rose a little too tightly, accidently pricking my finger on a thorn.
As Evan entered my apartment, I slammed the door a little harder than I meant to. “Be right back,” I said rather harshly as I headed to the kitchen to put the rose in a vase of water.
When I returned to the front of the apartment, Evan still stood by the door. His hands were stuffed in his pockets and he looked somewhat nervous
. Lucy still danced around him, and he occasionally reached down to pat her head.
“What do you want, Evan?” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “I have things to do.”
He raised his eyebrows, perhaps surprised by my angry tone. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s just—when you didn’t show up for work, I was worried something was wrong.”
“What do you care about me not showing up at work for? You didn’t show up yesterday.”
“I did—”
“No, you didn’t. I looked all over for you.”
“I did go to work. I went last night. I returned to the night shift.”
I paused. “Oh,” I said. “Well…still, what are you doing here? I’m busy. I have to take Lucy for her run.”
“Can I come with you?”
I headed to the back of the apartment to retrieve Lucy’s leash without answering. Lucy raced behind me, unable to hide her excitement about finally going out after asking for hours on end.
“Are you going in your pajamas?” Evan called out.
I swore under my breath. His presence had disoriented me so that I had suddenly forgotten I was barefoot and still in my pajamas. Behind me, I heard Evan chuckle. I turned around, seeing that he had followed Lucy and me.
“Evan, I really don’t understand why you’re here. What the hell do you want?”
His laughter quickly stopped and his brow lowered. For a brief instant, I almost felt guilty for hurting his feelings. But then I remembered how much he had hurt my feelings in leaving the hospital without telling me, as if the time we’d spent together meant absolutely nothing to him. And to add insult to the injury, he was here now, attempting to make light of the situation, thinking that he could just give me a rose and all would be forgiven.
“Is it wrong that I just wanted to see you?” he said. “I’m half delirious and desperately need to get some sleep, but I had to see you first.”
“Well, you see me now. I’m still alive and well. So you can go now.”
Evan sighed. “Tessa—did something happen?”
“You tell me.”
He raised his eyebrows, confused. “Are you angry with me? Did…did I do something? I thought the other night was incredible, but I’m getting the impression you don’t want to repeat it.”
I pursed my lips into a tight line, knowing that if I didn’t take a moment before responding, the onslaught of words leaving my mouth would be far from ladylike. Hell yes I wanted to repeat the other night, let him screw me senseless again. But not before he told me the truth.
“Wow,” Evan said, running a hand through his hair again and then returning his hands to his pockets. “I thought…I didn’t know…Look, Tessa, if you’re done with me, you could have just told me.”