I chased after him like a loon and somehow it turned into us committing to each other. He asked me to be his girlfriend, and I agreed. Still can’t quite believe I did that, either.
“Ready to let him go, my arse.” Evie snorts again, and I wonder when she developed this unappealing habit. “You planned that entire fiasco.”
“It wasn’t a fiasco, and I didn’t plan it.” I love Evie, but sometimes she’s too honest. “Humor me for a bit. Tell me I did the right thing.”
“Yes. You did the right thing.” She waves a hand, rolls her eyes. Takes another slurp from her martini glass. “It’s not going to end well, Susanna. You two will have this farce o
f a long-distance relationship, you’ll go over to California at least once and he’ll show you Disneyland and Alcatraz and all that shit, and maybe he’ll come back over here and meet the family, which will end him right there, but we won’t focus on that right now. Anyway, you’ll pretend that you’re in a relationship and tell everyone your boyfriend is that hot footballer, and then some gossip site will have a photo of him with some trashy bleached blonde American girl hanging all over him. She’s nineteen and the coach’s daughter and they’ll get married. The end.”
I blink at her, startled by her words, hating how they swirl around in my brain like she just spoke the truth.
She plucks the toothpicked-olive out of her drink and waves it at me before popping it in her mouth. “You know that’s how it’ll happen,” she says as she chomps on the olive.
A shudder moves through me. Both at the rude way she’s speaking to me and the fact that she’s eating with her mouth full. “It will not.”
“Fine, it won’t. You two will suffer through your long-distance relationship and eventually come out on the other side. He’ll ask you to marry him, you’ll say yes, and your mother will convince your father to cut you from the family inheritance. Thank God the footballer is rich or else you’d really be in a pickle.”
“Evie,” I scold, leaning across the table so I can hiss at her and not scream like I really want to. “Why are you being so negative?”
“I don’t want to see you get hurt,” she says, mimicking me so that she’s leaning across the table too. “This won’t end well. You’re just too—lovesick to see it.”
“You think I’m in love with him?” It’s like I want to hear her say that very thing.
“I don’t know. Are you?” Her brows shoot up.
The server chooses that exact time to show up at our table, and we give him our order, me deciding on water versus any sort of alcohol to drink. I need to get some actual sleep tonight, and drowning my happy/sadness in liquor isn’t the answer.
“I’m not sure,” I tell her once the waiter is gone.
Evie smirks, then polishes off the rest of her martini in one swallow. Lucky for her she ordered another one from the newly besotted waiter. “You’re just under his sex spell. Give it some time and distance, and you’ll come to your senses.”
Hmm. She could be right. He did cast a sex spell over me, one that I was fully committed to. I still cannot believe some of the things we did together. I’ve never been so daring or adventurous in bed. Ever. Not even with Colin.
“He’s better than Colin,” I admit. “I know that.”
“Let’s be real, Susanna. Everyone you dated after him was better than Colin. He was an overly enthusiastic eighteen-year-old boy who gave you your first orgasms, so of course you thought he was the most amazing thing to ever happen to you.” Evie shakes her head. “Did you ever talk to this man? Like have real conversations?”
“Actually, we talked quite a bit. About all sorts of things.” When we weren’t desperate for each other, we did have great conversations. I’m not only attracted to Cannon, I really like him, and that says a lot.
Most of the men from my not-so-distant dating past, I didn’t know what to think about. We usually had nothing in common, or zero chemistry, or they were dreadfully boring. Or pompous asses. Anyone my mother tried to set me up with, well…it always ended up a complete failure.
She has different expectations from me than I have from myself, that much is clear.
“Do you think your parents will like him?” Evie asks.
“My father met him.” For all of about a minute. “He seemed quite taken with him.” Quite taken with his enormous size.
Evie makes that hmm face she often does when she has to concede that what I’m telling her isn’t a load of rubbish. Though I kind of am telling a bunch of lies. Not that I’ll ever admit it. “That’s a positive sign. Maybe he could convince your mother that Cannon Whittaker is good match for you.”
I wouldn’t go that far. “Perhaps. Though they really didn’t talk as much as I wish they had.”
“Oh, that’s concerning then.” Evie reaches across the table and rests her hand on top of mine. “I’m happy for you, I really am. And if I’m being too negative, it’s only because I’m trying to watch out for you. I don’t want this man to hurt you.”
“I know,” I murmur, hanging my head once more. “You have my best interests at heart.”
“It’s true. I do. And that’s why I worry about your mother as well. She doesn’t like any of the men you’ve ever dated, save for the few she’s tried to set you up with, and those never worked out,” Evie explains.
“She’d hate Cannon,” I blurt, unable to hold back any longer. “I know she would. He’s rather crass, and the way he speaks sometimes isn’t very proper, and he eats with his mouth open.”