“Evie,” Josh said from the floor. “I can explain.”
“Nick, he’s bleeding!” the beautiful woman shrieked. “Should we call an ambulance? What do we do?”
“No ambulance!” Josh replied. He rolled over and groaned, cupping his bleeding nose. The only person who didn’t say anything was Nick, who was still looking at me.
Despite the craziness of the scene, and my hurt, and the fact that my boyfriend had—it seemed likely—recently put his dick into the bare-assed girl, I was calm.Be polite,my mother had always taught me.No one likes a girl who makes a fuss.That’s who I was now. I was the polite girl, after years of failure at it. I ran a hand through my hair, thinking maybe Ishouldmake a fuss in this situation—but then again, Josh and the gorgeous woman were making enough of a fuss for everyone.
I met Nick’s gaze without flinching. I couldn’t read his expression.
“The neighbors are about to call the cops,” I told him in my oddly normal voice.
He blinked once—his eyelashes were ridiculously dark—and looked down at Josh, who was still moaning. I watched him uncurl his fists. He toed Josh with his boot, nudging him in the ribs as the woman poked at him, still not getting bloody. “Hey,” he said, the voice I recognized from the phone call. “Shut up.”
The woman wasn’t done. “You asshole!” she shouted at Nick again.
Nick actually sighed. “You shut up, too, Gina,” he said. She went quiet, still glaring.
I should be screaming, or crying maybe. I should be losing my shit. Instead, I watched as Nick bent and picked up his brown leather jacket, shrugged it on. He scrubbed a hand over his face. His knuckles were red—he’d given Josh a hell of a hit. There was a second of furious satisfaction at that, and then I pushed it down again. That wasn’t me.
Ignoring the two on the floor, Nick walked toward me, his untied boot clomping loudly. I felt a jolt of alarm low in my belly. I’d met bad boys in my life—even done things I shouldn’t with a few of them, back when I was Old Evie—but I’d never seen one like this. This Nick guy owned a room without even trying. He probably wrecked things without even trying, too. Lives. Women. Virginities. Reputations. He was that kind of guy.
Still, I assumed that with his ass-kicking finished he would leave, and Old Evie felt a pang over it. I didn’t know who Nick was, but he was very fucking cool, and I envied him that. Old Evie would have followed a guy like this like a lapdog. “Thanks for the phone call,” I said to him.
He stopped, looking at me again in that way he had, like he was figuring something out. “Yeah?”
“I mean it.” I did. If he hadn’t called me, I would have continued getting cheated on, not knowing about it. It wasn’t his fault. “It takes guts to be the bearer of bad news.”
Nick considered that, his gorgeous gray eyes looking me over. “Are you pissed off, Evie Bates?” he asked in his bar-band growl.
It was a strange question, but somehow it fit the strange, surreal night I was having. I looked past him at Josh and naked girl, who were watching us. Josh had sat up, and I could see his nicely styled hair, his washboard stomach. He’d had sex with me a week ago, on my bed in my apartment. I remembered now.
Old Evie would have screamed at Josh. New Evie didn’t make a fuss.
But maybe both Evies were angry.
I nodded, answering Nick’s question. “Yeah. I think I’m pissed off.”
“Yeah?” Nick said. “Okay, then. You hungry?”
Another weird question, but suddenly I was. I really fucking was. It was like he was hypnotizing me. I shouldn’t do this, not even a little. I should tell him to take a hike.
I should go home and get back in bed and pull up the covers and handle this like an adult. I should get some sleep so I’d be ready for work in a few hours. I should be rational and work through it and partake in self-care and do whatever you were supposed to do when your boyfriend cheated on you. I should work on getting past this and healing. I should get through this and come out better and stronger than before. Giving in to base instincts was not going to help with any of that.
I looked at Nick. It was two in the morning. I was pissed. And he was ridiculously hot.
Bad idea, Evie.
Shut up,Old Evie said.
“I’m starving,” I told Nick.
He nodded back. It was like he understood everything.
“Me too,” he said. “Let’s go.”
TWO
Evie