“You’re my spirit animal,” I tell her.
As we step into The Spiced Chai, scents of freshly ground coffee and cinnamon greet us. I sigh my appreciation but stop as the cover of a local newspaper captures my attention. It’s a picture of Nolan and Hudson, helmets off, smiling after their win Saturday night. The words charismatic, charming, and passionate stick out before I study the photo for a second time.
“Hadley?”
I turn, realizing it’s my turn to order. “Sorry,” I say, facing the menu.
Evelyn shakes her head, noticing the paper. “It’s weird, isn’t it? Seeing them in the newspapers and online.”
I nod slowly, taking one final glimpse at the picture before examining the menu.
I settle on a BLT and a bag of jalapeno chips. Evelyn gets egg salad.
We sit at a table near the front, close enough to hear when they call our names. I expect things to feel awkward and forced, filled with conversation about football and the team, but instead, we talk about classes, our shared anticipation for autumn, and our mutual obsession forA Court of Thorns and Rosesthat has every last concern and barrier breaking between us.
The combination of food and Evelyn’s company has my bad morning and questionable weekend falling away as I tell her about my failed speech and fear of public speaking. “I don’t know how I’m going to show my face Wednesday or even consider making another speech next week.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,” she says. “We’re always our worst critics.”
I shake my head. “If you’d been there, you wouldn’t be saying that. I froze, repeated myself, stuttered…” I clamp a hand across my face. “It was awful.”
“Maybe your professor wanted that? Maybe it was a challenge of sorts?”
“To see if I can show my face in public again?”
Evelyn nods to my surprise. “I had a coach once who said when others saw your worst it made it easier to drop all pretenses.”
“I don’t think I could do worse.” I knock on the table in hopes I don’t jinx myself.
She grins. “Exactly.” Her phone vibrates with a calendar reminder. “I have a date with my aunt. She’s redoing her house and asked me to go furniture shopping with her.” She looks as disappointed as I feel about our lunch ending. “We should do this again,” Evelyn says as we clear our table.
“I would really like that.”
Her smile grows. “Oh, and I did a little recon.” She reaches for her phone. “I’m going to text it to you.”
“Recon?”
Her dark eyes flash to me. “I got Nolan’s schedule and I found out he’s terrified of snakes, which I feel like I should have known because I share the same visceral fear.”
“I think the war is over,” I tell her, picking up a chip. “I don’t know if Katie’s going to let him move back in.”
“Nolan’s pretty persistent… If I were you, I’d be getting some rubber snakes and hiding them in his things because I’m sure he’ll be back.”
“I don’t know…”
Her phone rings, interrupting me from nearly telling her how much I hope he does move back, how much I want to know if he’s dating that Janelle girl—or anyone else, and how since kissing him, embarrassment has followed me like a rash.
“I’m sorry. It’s her, let me get this really fast.”
“It’s okay. I actually have another class starting in twenty minutes.”
“Maybe we can make this a standing date?”
I nod, more grateful for the olive branch than I can say. “Sans near car accident.”
She laughs. “See you later.”
My afternoon passes in a dangerous cycle of regret and the same dread I woke up with. When I finally get home, the sky is dark with clouds, making it appear later than it is. Neither Katie nor Hannah’s cars are in the driveway. I never thought about our house as empty and lonely, not until this past weekend, and I hate that a single night—a few lone hours—has challenged the way I look at the house.