It was the height of cowardice, and Evangeline made no excuses, nor did she even attempt to offer any when she left her apartment well in advance of seven o’clock the next evening.
Though she’d been granted a temporary reprieve when she’d gotten home and her girlfriends weren’t waiting up—much to Evangeline’s utter astonishment—to make her spill all the gory details of her evening out at Impulse, they had awakened her the next morning by all piling onto one of the twin beds in the room she shared with Steph and literally pounced on her.
Evangeline had grumbled and whined about them waking her up when she had to work a late shift that night, but they’d ignored her and informed her she had time for a nap. After she gave them every single detail, word for word, of the ultimate payback they’d cajoled her into. As if she had a prayer of going back to sleep after recounting it.
She hesitated for a long time, biting her bottom lip until her friends grew concerned, and Evangeline knew she would have to spill or they’d assume far worse than what had actually happened, and they would absolutely have no compunction about paying Eddie an unexpected visit and beating the ever-loving hell out of him.
And one wimpy guy against her three ferocious, positively evil—their best quality, in Evangeline’s opinion—friends? Wouldn’t have a chance in hell. Then Evangeline would have spent the rest of her day figuring out how to afford to bail all three out of jail, when raising the funds to bail just one would have been impossible.
Her friends were loyal and protective, and their friendship was unconditional. Evangeline wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world, which was why, despite her humiliation over the events of the night before, not to mention the OH-MY-GOD ending and her leaving like a mute automaton, programmed to obey without question, she poured out the entire story.
The first part involving Eddie was actually enjoyable, and now that she had distance and wasn’t existing in that moment, she could actually find amusement in what a complete spineless wuss he was and what a complete moron she’d been to have ever allowed him to have sex with her. Especially allowing him to be her first. Despite the amusement she was able to summon, the humiliation was still ever present in her mind, because how stupid and naïve could she have been? She wasn’t a stranger to hard life lessons, but this was one she would have been more than happy to take a pass on.
Her friends found it vastly amusing as well, once they got over their rage at the way Eddie had humiliated her and had actually assaulted her in public! But Evangeline had assured them that he had thoroughly received his comeuppance and he had ended up being far more humiliated than Evangeline.
It was then Evangeline had paused in the retelling, and Steph, ever the astute bulldog who never let anything go, narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she stared Evangeline down. She had the uncanny ability to make Evangeline feel like a guilty schoolgirl caught cheating on a test.
“Okay, all of that went down within minutes of you getting there. I mean, you had only just arrived and gotten a drink when Eddie came up to you with his little tramp clinging to his arm. What he had to say couldn’t have lasted more than a few minutes at most before the bouncer dude got involved and tossed Eddie and his floozy out, but you were gone a hell of a lot longer than that. So what else happened?”
At that, Nikki and Lana both clued in to what Steph was getting at, and Nikki pinned Evangeline with a piercing stare that was almost as squirmworthy as the ones Steph was so famous for.
“You’re holding out on us,” Nikki accused.
“Yeah, no kidding,” Lana muttered. “Spill, girlfriend. We mean everything. And don’t leave a single detail out or swear to God, me, Nikki and Steph will all make a trip to Impulse, find this bouncer who took care of Eddie and find out exactly what happened afterward.”
Evangeline groaned, because they absolutely would. The men who worked with or for Drake—she hadn’t exactly been able to figure out the dynamics of that situation in the short time she’d been there—were all badasses. She hadn’t needed more than a few seconds in their company to figure that much out. Anyone with eyes and any modicum of common sense could tell these were not men to fuck with. Ever.
She nearly laughed at the mental image of Maddox being confronted with three petite but very stubborn, determined women who were like pit bulls latched on to a prime steak when it came to something they wanted. They wouldn’t be intimidated or put off by Maddox—or any of the other badasses who worked at Impulse. The poor guy—or guys—would never know what hit them.