Eva walked through her house with her floor length gown dragging behind her. She wore her usual Saturday attire, a pair of boy shorts and a wife beater. Her hair, most of it at least, was pulled up into a loose ponytail. Today, she hadn't even bothered to wear a bra. If all went according to plan, she'd see one person today and it wasn't someone she was trying to impress.
She woke earlier than normal. She had her erotic dreams to thank for that. The dreams were the sweetest form of torture. Since she'd woken from her coma, she'd not once thought of anyone in a romantic way; now she was horny as hell. The face of her dream lover had not been revealed to her, and that was the worst part. There was someone out there who could make her feel that good, and she couldn't remember him at all.
For a fraction of a second, Eva considered calling Layla. If they were as close as everyone had told her, then surely Layla would know the identity of the mystery man or at least be able to give her some names.
Before the big reveal about her and Cristian, Layla had tried filling her in on her old lovers. Eva hadn't particularly been interested. From what she could remember there hadn't been many. Her first had been Edward, and Layla said that he was just as inexperienced as Evangeline, so that ruled him out. Next there was Dennis who took a technical approach to sex, not him either. Then there was RJ, the excon, Layla said he was the dominant type and that didn't sound appealing at all. That only left John and Christian. That only seemed to leave her with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
The ringing of her doorbell echoed through her house and she smiled with glee. She walked briskly to the front door and pulled it open without even looking. Her smile faded quickly into a frown. She decided to break with her normal routine and started to slam the door in the face of her visitor.
"Eva, wait." John put his free hand up to stop her from slamming the door in his face. In true male form, he noticed as her nipples harden from the cold air rushed in to greet her. She frowned at him and snatched her robe shut. "Can we talk? Please?" The cold air whipped around him and he wished he owned a heavier jacket.
Eva stared into his blue eyes as the wind blew his hair in his face. He was the last person she wanted to see today. "Now is not a good time! Now would you please just give me my pizza and get the hell off my property." She cursed under her breath. Apparently, there was some wisdom in keeping a shotgun by the door.
"This will only take a minute." He was practically begging her. He was freezing his butt off. He'd grown up in the northeast, so he was no stranger to cold weather. The wind was still cutting through him as if he was wearing no coat at all. John studied her face. Not as if she started out with any, but her patience had clearly run out. Maybe an ambush wasn't such a good idea. "I need to apologize for last night. I wasn't trying to upset you."
She smiled at the way he pleaded with her. She knew he'd had a hard time with the regulars last night with her not being there. It was a hard lesson that Gunner too had to learn. It would be her way or the highway, and he would soon find that out. "Fine. Make it quick." She turned leaving the door open and walked toward her den.
John stepped in quickly closing the door behind him. Not too surprising, but it felt like a sauna in her house. If there was one thing Evangeline hated, it was being cold. John knew better than to complain. He just followed behind Eva and waited to say his peace.
His brow creased into a frown. "Nice TV." Now that he was really looking around, this place really didn't seem like Evangeline. It had a cabin like feel and it lacked all the bright colors that John had become accustomed to while they were dating. The TV that was easily 70" looked the most out of place. Evangeline had always been too on the go to sit around watching TV. He shook his head and reminded himself that she was Eva now, and he would play along with that.
She just nodded. She took the pizza box that he held out to her and placed it on the table next to her laptop. She checked the time and then looked up at him expectantly. "You have ten minutes."
John stuffed his hands in his pockets and was at a loss for words. He'd had it all thought out before he got here, but he was lost in his surroundings. He glanced over at the screen of her laptop and was surprised. "Notre Dame?" He recognized the fan site as he was a patron as well. He got a partial scholarship to Notre Dame, but he had to forgo the opportunity. His father's pension wasn't quite covering all the bills especially with Michael in private school. He'd never told his mother because he couldn't bear to see her heart breaking again.
Evangeline was almost impressed. "Yeah, they're having a hell of a time this year, but I'm not counting them out yet." Her love of football was the one thing that no one in her family understood or wanted to tolerate. Sports hadn't been her father's thing or even her uncle's so she could only guess where she got the fascination from; either way, it was something that was hers and not Evangeline's and she was going to hold on to it. "Besides, Penn is having a damn good year and the Eagles aren't slouching either."
He smiled; the ice having been broken. "Penn is pretty good for an Ivy League school." Now he was trying to get a rise out of her. When they were dating, she argued with him at length that they were just as good as any other NCAA football team. Her passionate defense of her alma mater only endeared her to him more.
"I knew you'd say something like that." She rolled her eyes and sat down on the sofa. Her robe fell open and she gave John and unintentional peek at her body. "They're still athletes. They work just as hard as anyone else. I take that back. They probably work harder given that they are Ivy League students and all."
John chuckled and decided to let it go. She'd used words similar to those in the past. In the end, John conceded defeat and they ended up making love in his living room. He shook his head and tried to get that thought out of his head immediately. The last thing either of them needed was to get involved with each other again.
"That is true." John sat on the sofa to the right of her. He sat as far away from her as the space would allow. He wanted to avoid any sort of accidental touch. After all, he was still a man and he had his limits. "So, about last night, I'm sorry." He remembered the time constraints and decided not to test her patience with him. "Seeing you last night was a little more than unexpected, and after the way things ended between us in Llanview I was still angry with you." He looked over at her staring at the profile of her face. He could tell from her body language. She was uncomfortable. That was so unlike the Evangeline he'd known.
"I guess I let my anger get the best of me. I should have listened instead of jumping to conclusions. I had no idea about your amnesia." He'd been thinking about her nonstop since last night. He wanted to ask Michael about amnesia, but his little brother was sharp-witted, and he'd figure it before too long. In typical John fashion, he was always wanting to be the hero. He had to stop himself from trying to find ways to help her. If Eva was anything like Evangeline, then she would do just fine on her own. Evangeline was hardly what one would call a damsel in distress. John was convinced that it was her relationship with him that started all the trouble in her life.
Eva nodded. She didn't exactly know what to say. She'd gotten into it with plenty of people, but she'd never stuck around to hear their apologies or to offer her own. "I think it's best if I don't sing at the club anymore." She bit down on her bottom lip, hard, and rolled her eyes. That was one of the few things that she actually took pleasure in. Still, with her talents, she could find another gig, but it wouldn't feel the same.
"No," John said a little too quickly. He didn't want to sound desperate. "Look, I know that I'm not your favorite person in the world." He turned to look at her with his arm slung over the back of the sofa. "The truth is that I really was a lousy friend to Evangeline, no matter how you look at it. I was there to save everyone else and the few times that she did need me I let her down." John ignored how awkward it sounded to talk about her in the third person although she was sitting right next to him. "Can't you at least look at me?" He couldn't see her eyes so he couldn't read her. Eva folded her arms defiantly across her chest and leaned back against the sofa cushions. After a long few moment of silence, she looked over at him. Her dark eyes looked blank. John couldn't read her at all.
"I'm sorry that I wasn't there for Evangeline when she needed me, but I can't change that now." He clenched his hand into a fist and stopped himself from reaching out to touch her. He was afraid of her rejection and of her acceptance. He felt like he deserved her hate and scorn. He was a glutton for punishment and Eva would definitely dish out plenty.
"I don't want to do this." Eva shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. It wasn't as if she'd let a lot of people get close to her, but the way he looked at her made her feel strange. It was like he was looking right through her. "Besides, your ten minutes are up." She looked over at the TV and was glad to see that they were moments away from kick off.
"I know this is going to sound incredibly selfish, but the bar needs you. I need you. The people down there love you, and if I can't find a way to bring you back I might as well close the doors tonight." He cocked his head to the side and wondered if he was getting through to her at all. Right now, she just looked pissed.
"Don't put that on me," she snapped at him. "The bar was there long before me, and if you weren't so damn incompetent then it will be fine long after I'm gone." For the life of her, she couldn't understand why she kept fighting him on this. She didn't want to give up singing at the bar, so why was she trying to destroy her own happiness.
John watched her eyes darting between him and the TV. Apparently, the game was more fascinating than their conversation. "Eva, are you a betting woman?" He got a brilliant idea.
"What do you have in mind?" she snapped. She grabbed the remote and paused the game. She would be damned if she was going to miss a minute of it.
"Let's make a bet," he hated what he was about to do, but he was up against the wall and fighting a losing battle. "If Notre Dame wins, I won't try to make you come back to the bar. I'll take your resignation and find a way to keep the business above water."
Eva couldn't stifle her laughter. "Sucker's bet. As if UConn stands a chance against the Irish."
"Then you've got nothing to lose, but just so we're clear. If the Huskies win, you stay on at the bar until the end of the year with your usual routine. We reschedule last night's performance for tonight. After that, I'll have something else lined up in case you really decide you want to cut ties." He watched her as she thought it over. He felt sick for betting against his Irish, but it was a necessary evil.
"I'm not exactly sure if you know what you're getting yourself into and I don't really care. The Irish are going to disassemble those jerks and that will be the end of it." She liked John's terms. This way, when the Irish won, she'd get to choose to stay at the bar and she'd do it on her own terms.
"Fine." John was satisfied, at least for now. "Let the games begin." He turned his body away from her and kicked his heels up on the coffee table.
Nearly three hours later, John and Eva sat in disbelief at the Irish's loss. The game was close, and though John wanted Eva to stay on at the bar he wanted his Irish to win too. "Damn." John cursed under his breath. He looked over at Eva suddenly after feeling a cushioned blow to the side of his head.
"I can't believe you." She looked over at him with her hands on her hips. She was fuming and he couldn't understand why. He'd been good for the whole game. He avoided looking at her long, sculpted legs. He refused to allow himself to remember how good it felt to have them wrapped around his waist. Not once, had he stared at her breasts that were free from the restraints of a bra. He pretended he didn't want to twist her hardened nipples between his fingers as he kissed his way down her body.
"Was this all just a joke to you?" The anger that burned inside of her was almost frightening. She clenched her fists angrily and felt herself huffing. "Fuck off, John. If you didn't want me singing at the club all you had to do was say so. Hell, why did you even show up here?"
"Wait, what?" John knew better than to reach for her at this point. "What did I do?"
"I thought I was the one with amnesia." His blank expression hadn't changed in the slightest. "You were rooting for the Huskies to win, or did you forget?"
He frowned that she'd overreacted so. "Eva, that was just a bet. I'm happy that you'll still be singing at the bar, but I'm pissed that UConn won."
"Why would you bet against a team that you like?" She shook her head and felt better at least that Penn had won their game.
"Well we couldn't both be rooting for the Irish, could we?" He looked at her innocently. Eva seemed so volatile and he didn't want to keep agitating her so. He could tell that she still didn't believe him. "I'll bet you didn't know that I wanted to go to Notre Dame." He felt weird opening up to Eva about something that he'd never told Evangeline.
He grabbed his beer off the table and took a big swig. "I was a terrible athlete and not that great of a student either. I grew up in AC with my mom and my brother after my dad died in the line of duty. My little brother is really smart, and I knew he'd get out of that town. Me, not so much." John filled her in on some minor details that she was sure she wouldn't remember.
Eva shook her head. She didn't want to hear some sob story. "I don't want to play shrink here, John."
John looked at her wide eyed and smiled. As usual, whenever he was ready to open up it never came out at the right time. He wouldn't be deterred though. "In the last leg of my senior year, I worked my ass off. My grades were a little better than mediocre and my SAT scores were no better, but I think my old man was looking out for me. I got a partial scholarship, and I knew then that I could work a part time job and make up for the deficit." John's smile faded at the memory.
"So, what happened?" Eva knew better than to ask, but he'd piqued her interest. "What completely selfless and idiotic thing did you do that kept you from going to school?"
"I got home after I'd spent some time planning and celebrating. I was going to tell my mom and Mike, my brother, the big news that night. Mom wasn't home and I went to the kitchen to get a snack. There were bills covering the top of the table. I was a nosy kid, so I read through them. My brother's private school had lost some funding, so they cut some of his scholarship money. Without taking on another job, mom wasn't going to be able to cover the bills." John's felt sick at the memory. He remembered wishing that he was just as selfish as Michael was so that he could get away.
"I knew Mike needed to stay at that school and get a really decent education, so I made up my mind then. I left everything like I'd found it and left until I knew she'd be home. Then I told her that I didn't want to go to college, and that I just wanted to start working after graduation. We argued, but eventually I got my way."
"Classic." Eva rolled her eyes at his tear-jerking story. She wasn't fazed. "If I remember what my mother told me, you are the hero type. You sacrifice yourself for others." He was just like Evangeline and that sickened her. "I will never understand what's so great about giving up your dreams to make someone else happy."
John clenched his jaw in anger and stopped himself from saying something hateful. He'd just poured his heart out to her, and this is how she reacted. "Sometimes it's the right thing to do."
"Bullshit," she said quickly. "When you give and give and give, people will continue to take until there's nothing left, but that won't be enough. They'll keep coming back for more and be angry when there's nothing left. Remember no good deed goes unpunished."
John heard the truth in her words, but he wouldn't be a cynic. "There is such a thing as balance you know."
"I'm not the one who needs to hear that," she reminded him. "That was Evangeline's thing; not mine." She stood and pulled off her robe. It had warmed up considerably outside, so she needed to turn the heat down.
"Fine, whatever." John reached for his coat and saw that it was time to go. He'd been a good boy all day, but he couldn't be in the same room with her when she was wearing so few clothes. All he could think about was her soft skin pressed against his body, and it hurt to know that he would never feel her that way again.
"So, I guess I will be seeing you tonight." Eva rocked back and forth on her heels. She could barely contain her excitement. She loved performing and wondered if Evangeline felt the same way. She shook the thought off. She wasn't Evangeline and didn't want to be anything like her.
John simply nodded. "See you later."