Reluctantly, her stomach churning with dread and chagrin, Eva labored up the steps to number 29, lugging a giant suitcase behind her - a loud clunk on every step.
It was her first time here, and she had to admit - it was a surprisingly nice neighborhood. She didn't think quaint townhouses and cul de sacs would suit him. But then again, she had to remind herself, she could never assume she knew everything about him - despite being acquainted for nearly half their lives.
She had to catch her breath before ringing the doorbell. Why on earth was she so nervous? No, pissed off! Yes, that's what she was feeling! Coming all this way at the behest of this prick! He's got some serious nerve!
No answer. She rang the doorbell again, and tried to peer through the window next to the door. The blinds were drawn.
She shivered in the winter air. If he didn't answer the door in the next 10 seconds, she was going to leave the suitcase, turn right around, and-
Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.
Several locks came undone. The door swung open. The haggard figure standing before her nearly startled her into punching it in the face, but she stopped upon seeing those ridiculously reflective trademark glasses.
"Eva. What're you doin' here?" said Neil, blearily rubbing his eyes. His hair was sticking up at odd angles and little pricks of stubble smattered his jaw.
Eva smirked. "First off, nice teddy bear jammies. Second of all, I called you four times in the past two hours, but you never answered. You made such a huge deal the other day about me coming over today? I lost a bet? Ring any bells?"
Neil peered at the hulking suitcase behind her.
"...Did you really...?"
"About a month's worth of macadamia nuts. As promised."
Neil looked at Eva, and pursed his lips to contain a laugh.
"You know I was joking right? I didn't think you'd actually do it."
Eva's face fell, and Neil burst out laughing.
"I...I bought thirty bags of macadamia nuts! And...and drove an hour all the way out here! For nothing?!"
Neil wiped away tears. "I underestimated you, Dr. Rosalene. You are something else."
He opened the door wider and ushered the dumbstruck Eva inside, dragging the suitcase behind him. "You can just toss your coat on the chair. Don't mind the mess."
Neil unzipped the suitcase, and gasped at the treasure trove of macadamia nuts inside.
"Holy overcooked macaroni, Eva! You DELIVERED! Look at all these FLAVORS! Ooooh, and you even have my favorite - Spam-flavored!"
Eva shook her head and sighed in resignation. "You're welcome, bub."
Eva peered around the room. There was a narrow staircase and a small kitchen off to the left, opening up onto a cluttered living room on the right. There were cardboard boxes strewn about. (Neil preferred online shopping to actually going to stores. "Convenience is everything," he says.) It was sparsely furnished with cheap IKEA furniture- little more than a recliner, coffee table, and flat-screen TV. A mismatched sofa sat by the window, a throw blanket crumpled on the floor, Neil's custom-built gaming laptop blinking on standby mode next to it.
"Did you fall asleep in your living room?" asked Eva, stooping down to help Neil unload the goods.
"I was in the middle of writing a League of Legends fanfic. It got so exciting, I dozed off to dream about it. You know, keep the creative juices flowing."
Neil tossed the bags of macadamia nuts unceremoniously into his pantry, despite Eva's disapproving look. The only reason he keeps his workplace spick and span is because Robert would get on his ass otherwise. Eva looked around at the crumpled box of frozen Pizza Pockets in the recyling bin and the case of energy drinks on the counter, and refrained with all her might from commenting. Neil gets particularly annoyed when people get nosy; Eva's learned multiple times that she's no exception. She had to remind herself, just because she's in his house doesn't grant her special permission to pry.
Only then did she notice that Neil was watching her.
"...Oh for God's sake, just say it already," said Neil, exasperated. "Don't give yourself an ulcer trying to tip toe around me."
"Say what? I wasn't gonna say anything."
"Eva. Stevie Wonder could see through you."
"Really. It's nothing."
Eva stared unwaveringly at her two reflections in Neil's glasses. Neil shrugged, "Suit yourself. Come on, I'll show you the rest of the place."
He led her upstairs to a narrow landing. Bathroom on the right. Bedroom door adorned with a key card reader on the left.
"What the...You use a key card to get into your room?" said Eva, aghast.
"Why not? The pet store didn't have guard dragons, so naturally, I settled with the next best thing in security."
Neil whipped out a card from his pajama pocket and, with a flourish, waved it in front of the reader. It beeped, lit up a green LED, and a lock clicked.
Neil's bedroom looked as though an office and college dorm room had a baby. There were locked filing cabinets everywhere. A poster that read "So what? I am a rock star!" hung above his bed in the corner, which had a navy blue plaid quilt draped over it. Several trophies and medals from science fairs and mathalons from high school adorned his dresser. (Eva's high school acolades were more for tennis and student government.) A monster of a desktop computer with dual monitors sat on top of his desk, with a couple balled-up granola bar wrappers here and there. His white lab coat hung on his closet door. His name badge - Dr. Neil Watts - shone bright and polished from the breast pocket, the cleanest thing Eva has yet seen in his house. She smiled a little.
"Hey Eva, check this out," said Neil, pushing his desk chair toward her. "Sit here."
"There aren't any thumbtacks or whoopie cushions hiding in there, right?"
"...C'mon, you gotta give me more credit than that. I ain't THAT unfunny."
She gave the chair another skeptical look before sitting down. It was like sinking into a luxurious memory foam mattress.
"Holy melon balls! This is amazing!" croaked Eva.
"Riiight? I got it from some dude at the flea market for twenty bucks. Twenty bucks! This baby's got to be worth maybe two hundred!"
"How on earth did that happen?"
"Welllll...I may or may not have thrown in a set of counterfeit baseball cards to sweeten the deal. He totally bought it though. Ha! I didn't even see that pun coming!" Neil chuckled at his own joke.
Eva swiveled away. "Remind me never to buy anything from you."
"Not when you so willingly buy things for me without me even having to ask, apparently. I'm livin' like a king without even trying!"
"Hey, you didn't ask; you FORCED me to buy you those macadamia nuts!"
"Whatever you say, hun."
Neil walked over and draped his arm around the back of the chair.
"What else can I guilt-trip you into doing?" he mused.
"Oh shut up." Eva grumbled, jerking the chair from his grip.
That's when a golden gleam caught her eye. Sitting in the corner next to his bed, was an old, dusty saxophone. Among the scant few things Eva and Neil had in common, it was an adoration for the sax. She and Neil were both accomplished players in high school. Her friends often tried to stage "saxophone face-offs" between the two of them.
"You still have old Rusty!" gasped Eva, pointing at the saxophone.
"Ah. He's been out of practice for a while," said Neil, crossing the room and picking up the sax. He brushed off the dust.
Eva stood up and approached him like a child approaching Santa Claus. "Um...May I?"
Neil gave her a crooked, amused smile and handed over the decade-old saxophone. She held it gingerly, like it was made of glass, and blew a note into it. It rang out loud and rich. She looked up at Neil and her face lit up. She began to play a soft, bluesy tune. Neil sat on his bed and watched her.
Oh, it felt amazing to play the sax again! How long has it been? Yet, the notes came just as naturally to her as they did when she was 16. It was her go-to bluesy number whenever she got tired of practicing the boring songs for class. The music swayed and soared and swooped. She didn't care how silly she looked in front of Neil. She ALWAYS got into it.
The song ended. Neil was still watching her. A brief silence.
Eva coughed. "Ahem, yes, well. I've been out of practice myself. I mean, it's been so long since - "
"That was really good," said Neil.
Eva forced her face not to reveal how pleased she was to hear that. She wiped the mouthpiece with her sleeve and held out the sax to Neil.
"Here," she said. "Your turn."
"Now that your cooties are on it? Hell to the no."
"Aw come on! You were top of the class!"
"Nice try, dumpling. But no amount of flattery is gonna get me to indirectly kiss you."
Eva winced at the insinuation. "Wow. Low blow, even for you."
Neil shrugged, "What can I say? I push buttons for a living."
"Just one song."
"No."
"Moon River."
"No."
"How 'bout I throw in another bag of macadamia nuts?"
"How 'bout no?"
Eva huffed, and looked down at the poor, neglected saxophone. She turned it over, and saw "Property of Neil 'Flippant Fingers' Watts" inscribed on the bottom. She smiled.
"I almost forgot about that stupid nickname you invented for yourself," she said. She looked up at him again. "Why did you stop playing? I thought you loved it."
Neil didn't meet her gaze. "Most likely for the same reasons you did. Life just carried me onward to bigger and better things."
"...Really?" asked Eva.
Neil stared blankly at Eva. "What's with that look? Things just happened, alright?"
"I...Did I say something wrong?" said Eva.
"...No." He began tidying up his room, not looking at her.
Another silence. Eva, suddenly feeling unwelcome, rose from her seat. "...I probably should get going."
"Do what you want," replied Neil, expressionlessly. Wow, did it get cold in here all of a sudden.
Eva stared at him for a moment, before picking her way through the junk on the floor. Why was she the bad guy? She hesitated at the doorway.
"Hey," she said. "I'm...sorry for dropping by unexpectedly."
Neil gave her a confused look. "Why?"
"I don't know. I just...feel sorry that I came."
He just stared at her. Those damn glasses always made his expressions so hard to read! Holy cucumber, what did she want from him? A hug? Oh, quit being a baby, Eva, she thought. Neil wouldn't. He'd never. For someone who had been such a long-term fixture in her life, she ardently wished she could call him a friend - wanted so very much to be able to say "Yeah. This is Neil, my best friend." It was the very limits of her daring to admit that to herself. But no. This was Neil Watts. Prickly, arrogant, ruthlessly unsentimental, closed-like-a-clamshell Neil Watts. Eva concluded, for perhaps the hundredth time, that she and Neil would only be colleagues for the rest of their lives.
She fiddled with a stray thread from her long-sleeve blouse. "I'll just...let myself out." And with that, she awkwardly shuffled out of the room.
She didn't look back. Every scalded nerve in her body yearned for freedom. Every step down the stairs brought her closer to running away, closer to that blessedly long drive that separated their houses. She wanted to go somewhere she didn't have to wish for silly things anymore. She's had enough of wanting things from Neil.
Eva reached out for the door knob that separated her from glorious freedom when she heard a sound emanating from upstairs.
Saxophone music. "Moon River." The song that she and Neil had played together as a duet project back in high school.
She stopped. Hand grasped on the doorknob. The music felt sweet and melancholy. Her vision grew blurry, and she felt a powerful ache in her chest. For the entire duration of the song, she simply stood there and listened.
The music ended. Silence. She heard footsteps come down the stairs. She had to stifle a sob. No, she would rue the day she let Neil Watts see her cry! Not that he wouldn't see through her pitiful attempt to hide it anyway. She turned the doorknob and exited the house, just as Neil appeared on the landing.
"Eva," he said.
She kept walking.