by Alexis Davie
It was unlike her to play so poorly.
“What’s going on?” Ben asked gently. “You seem upset. Do you want to talk about it?”
Eva shook her head. “Nah,” she replied quickly, trying to smile. “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
Ben, however, was not convinced.
He had moved to Scarlet Oak two years earlier and begun working with Eva at an IT firm. He was a programmer, and she was a web designer at the up-and-coming company. At first, they hadn’t hit it off very well. Eva was accustomed to the men being condescending towards her, given that she was in a testosterone-driven field, but Ben had been intrigued by the pixie-faced brunette. It quickly became clear to him that she was much brighter than all the others, and he found himself making excuses to speak with her.
Eva had been reluctant to accept his friendship at first, but soon she had realized that he wasn’t like most of her male co-workers, who tried to boost their own egos by insulting her. Eventually, Ben had broken down her suspicion, and the two had become allies both in and out of work.
Sometimes Ben wondered what it would be like to date a woman as smart and beautiful as Eva, but he had never crossed the line of asking her out. He appreciated their friendship, and he would never do anything to jeopardize it. That didn’t mean he didn’t think about it from time to time, though.
It seemed to Ben that he knew Eva better than she knew herself. Watching her assault the dartboard, it was abundantly clear that something was troubling her, whether or not she admitted it. Still, Eva was usually a private person, and she wasn’t apt to openly discuss her issues, much less if Ben kept pushing her to talk about them.
“Another beer?” he offered, and Evan looked at him gratefully, her blue eyes brightening at the thought.
“Yes. And tequila,” she added.
Oh. It’s worse than I thought, Ben thought, turning toward the bar. He held himself back from asking her what was bothering her. If she wants to talk about it, she will.
“Hey, Ben.” Ben glanced over his shoulder and peered at Collette—the company’s receptionist—who grinned at him, her brown eyes slightly glazed.
“Hey,” he replied, looking behind her for their other coworkers. Ben’s eyes landed on a table filled with raucously laughing techies sharing pitchers, and he swallowed a grimace. They were an obnoxious bunch without alcohol. Throwing booze into the mix only served to amplify their ass-like tendencies.
“Why don’t you come and join us?” Colleen asked coyly, leaning it to stare at him imploringly. Her breath reeked of alcohol, and Ben could tell she was already a little bit drunk.
He smiled briefly. Collette was the one exception to the rule. She wasn’t nearly as irritating as her companions.
“No, thanks,” he said, signaling for the bartender. “I’m with Eva.” Ben gestured toward the stool where his friend sat, still hurling off darts without precision.
“What else is new?” Colleen sighed, and Ben’s green eyes narrowed in annoyance.
“Just pointing out what you obviously already know,” he said evenly, suddenly wishing Colleen would go away.
“So?” she demanded. “She can come, too.” There was no enthusiasm in her voice, and Ben felt himself tense. He could not understand why the rest of the company found Eva so difficult to accept. Perhaps it was because she was so much smarter than the rest of them. People always hated those who were better.
It wasn’t like Eva was easy to approach, either. Ben knew she liked to keep people at arm’s length, never trusting anyone entirely.
Except me, he thought, feeling slightly proud of himself. But I took the time to get to know her. Not like these high school jock wannabes.
“No, thanks,” Ben replied as Jeremy, the bartender, approached from behind the bar. “Hey, Jer, can I get another round and two shots of tequila?” He purposely turned his back away from Collette to indicate their conversation was over, but she wasn’t ready to let it go just yet.
“Jer, I’ll have one of those, too. You can put all the shots on my tab,” she told the bartender, who nodded in acknowledgment.
Ben glanced at her. “You don’t have to do that,” he protested, but Colleen only shrugged. He wondered if there would be a price to pay for the gesture.
“I’m hoping that you and Eva might change your mind and come sit with us,” Colleen replied. She leaned in and lowered her voice. “I know that Eva thinks we’re the enemy, but we have nothing against her,” she whispered. “And we certainly have nothing against you.”
Ben stared at Colleen, warmth rushing to his face as he understood her meaning.
“Good to know,” he said quickly, averting his gaze.
“Of course,” Colleen continued, “if you and Eva have something going on, I wouldn’t want to interfere.” Ben’s eyes shifted toward hers, and he shook his head slightly.
“We’re friends,” he replied weakly. Why did he feel like he had to justify his relationship with Eva to Colleen? Or to anyone else, for that matter? Ben wondered if he wasn’t simply trying to convince himself, forcing himself to believe that that was all they would ever be.
Jeremy placed his order before him, and Ben cleared his throat, snatching up the drinks.
“Thanks for the shots,” he told Colleen. As he returned to Eva, he could still feel the receptionist staring at him.
“What does she want?” Eva asked, noticing her watching them.
“She asked us to join them,” he answered. Eva’s head jerked up in surprise, and Ben let out a small sigh. “Don’t look so panicked, Eva, I said no,” he continued, reassuringly. His friend exhaled in relief. Then she turned to look at him.
“You can go if you want,” she sighed. “I’m not going to drag you into my black pit of despair.”
Ben chuckled and placed a shot in her hand.
“I like your black pit of despair,” he replied, grinning. “We can be depressing together.”
Eva cocked her head to the side and stared at him appreciatively. “Thanks, Ben.”
He shrugged and toasted her, clinking their shot glasses together.
“Thank you for being as miserable as me,” he teased her, and Eva laughed, downing the potent alcohol.
Eva’s face puckered, and she shivered slightly. “This stuff is awful,” she declared.
Ben snorted. “Yes,” he agreed. “But it is life’s disinfectant.”
“Yeah,” Eva grunted, nodding her head. “And I’m going to need it.” He peered at her inquisitively.
“What’s up?” he asked softly, and she groaned loudly as the source of her upset resurfaced.
“Family dinner tomorrow night,” she said. Suddenly, Ben understood her mood and her lack of points in the dartboard.
“I’ll go get another round,” he sighed.
* * *
“Look at it!” Melissa squealed, thrusting the photo at her sister. “Just look! You can see she has a bear jaw already!”
Eva politely glanced up and forced a smile onto her face, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of resentment building inside her.
“Oh, honey!” their mother, Denise, cooed, snatching the ultrasound picture from her younger daughter’s hand. “She looks just like you!”
“She looks like a blob,” Eva grumbled before she could stop herself. Thankfully, the women ignored her, as if they had been expecting such a grouchy response from her.
“I can’t believe my first granddaughter is coming in three weeks!” Denise cried, kissing the sonogram with excitement.
“I know!” Melissa exclaimed. “I wonder if we’ll ever feel ready.”
“Oh, you’re ready,” Denise told her confidently. “You’re married. That’s the first step.”
An uncomfortable silence followed as both women stared at Eva. It was a deliberate dig at her, but Eva pretended not to notice, shoveling another spoonful of chocolate ice cream into her mouth with defiance. She didn’t need a husband. Who needed a man when she had chocolate ice cream?
“So, uh, Eva,” Melissa said delicately. “Are you seeing anyone?”
Here it comes, Eva thought furiously. She felt like she should count her blessings; they had made it through dessert before the shame fest commenced. And at least they didn’t start with the males in the room, she admitted. I get enough of that at work.
Typically, the entire family would pipe in their two cents about Eva’s lack of romantic prospects, as if they were all the pillars of relationship advice.
“It’s okay if you aren’t!” Melissa quickly added, shooting her mother a warning look. “I was just thinking that Jake has some friends who would love to meet you—”
“Ah, yes,” Eva interrupted, recalling the men with whom her brother-in-law had matched her in the past. “Another blind date with one of Jake’s lawyer friends sounds excellent. Any chance that the guy with the wife is available? Or how about the one who lives in his mom’s basement? He was sexy. I love a man in Batman pajamas.”
Melissa’s mouth became a fine line. Before she could answer, though, Denise spoke, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“At least Melissa and Jake are making an effort to set you up with someone! When was the last time you found your own date?” her mother retorted. “You’re going to be alone for the rest of your life if you don’t stop being so picky!”
Eva raised a dark eyebrow and smirked slightly. “So your advice is to settle?” she choked. “It’s better to settle on some married guy or serial killer than it is to be alone?”
“No one is saying that you need to settle—” Melissa started to say, but Denise was not finished.
“Eva, for such a smart girl, you really are thick sometimes!” their mother snapped. “Life is about compromise. If you sit around waiting for Mr. Right, you’ll never find anyone who measures up to your standards.”
Eva felt her jaw lock as she stared balefully at the women. It was the most tired, infuriating argument they always had; one that left Eva feeling miserable for days afterward.
Why do I have to get married to be happy? she wanted to scream, swallowing the bile in her throat. Just because Melissa is married doesn’t mean that I need to be. Yet it didn’t seem to matter how she explained that to her family. They were convinced that she was miserable because she was alone, and nothing she could say would alter their perception.
Eva had dated, of course, but the idea of a relationship was tedious and disappointing to her. The men she had known had never measured up in any remarkable way, leaving Eva feeling as if she had wasted precious time already on an experiment of which she already knew the result.
No one really understood Eva—not really.
But what do they care? Eva thought bitterly, eyeing her family with mild anger. The illusion of happiness is more important than happiness itself, I suppose.
Eva would never admit it to anyone, much less to her mother and sister, but she did long to settle down someday. She was simply worried about investing her love and energy into the wrong person, someone who would break through her hard to know exterior and then decide he did not like what he saw underneath.
Since Melissa’s pregnancy, it seemed as if their mother had upped the pressure tenfold, and Eva was beginning to hate being around her family because she knew exactly how the night would end. She had to do something to stop their meddling, or she would have to move out of Scarlet Oak. She couldn’t deal with them and their repeated spiels anymore. She had enough stress at work without adding this crap on top.
“Eva, we aren’t trying to make you feel bad,” Melissa told her pleadingly, her crystalline eyes wide with compassion. “We are just worried about you. You seem more despondent than ever.”
And their pity is the icing on the cake, Eva realized, a knot forming in the pit of her stomach. She would never be free of their scrutiny.
Unless…
An idea popped into her mind then, formed by pure desperation and the desire to be left alone.
“Eva—” her mother started again.
“Did it ever occur to you that I have found someone and I just didn’t want to tell you about it?” Eva interjected. “That maybe your judgments have kept me from bringing my boyfriends around here?”
Melissa and her mother looked at her, taken aback. Slowly, a smile formed on Denise’s lips.
“You have a boyfriend?” she cried gleefully, rushing to embrace her oldest daughter. “Eva! Who is he? When can we meet him?”
“Is it serious?” Melissa asked skeptically, and Eva felt her back tense at her sister’s cynicism.
Is it so hard to believe that I would find love? she thought, annoyed. Does she think that I need her and Jake in order to find love?
“I’d say it’s quite serious,” Eva retorted, “since we’re engaged.”
A shocked silence fell over the kitchen.
“What?” Denise shrieked. “When did this happen?” She grabbed at Eva’s left hand, her eyes narrowing. “Where is your ring?”
“It’s being sized,” Eva fibbed, color seeping into her cheeks as her mind raced to keep up with her deception. She had clearly not thought this through. “It was too big.”
“Well, who is it?” Melissa demanded, folding her arms above her swollen belly. “When can we meet him?”
Eva gnawed on her lower lip and shifted her eyes toward the kitchen island.
“You’ve already met him,” she replied quietly, hoping that her best friend would forgive her for what she was about to do. “It’s Ben Sawyer.”
* * *
“You’re acting strange today,” Ben grumbled, grabbing Eva’s arm as she tried to duck behind the cubicle again. She had been peeking at him like a chipmunk waiting for a morsel of food for half the morning, and Ben was growing uncomfortable. He pulled her into the breakroom and gazed at her. “What is going on with you?” he demanded.
Eva’s face went pale. “I—I did something stupid,” she mumbled, looking down at her hands. He waited for her to elaborate, but she did not say anything else.
“Eva, you’re freaking me out. I feel like you’re plotting my death or something,” he told her. “Just tell me what happened.”
She inhaled deeply and stared up at him, her chin quivering slightly. She seemed… nervous.
“Please don’t be mad,” Eva begged. “I didn’t mean to do it! It just kind of happened, and I didn’t know how to stop it—”
“Eva, you’re rambling,” Ben said, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Just take a deep breath and tell me what you did.”
She paused and took his advice, inhaling deeply.
“We’re engaged,” she said flatly.
Ben stared at her, a half-grin on his face as he waited for the punchline to her joke. “I—I don’t get it,” he said.
“Never mind,” Eva mumbled crossly, turning to fold her arms over her chest. “It was a ridiculous thing to say, but they’re always on me about getting married, and I just couldn’t take it anymore. The words just fell out of my mouth before…” She trailed off, a flush of humiliation staining her face.
Ben tried to make sense of what she was telling him.
“You… told someone that we were engaged?” he gleaned, and Eva nodded, sighing deeply.
“My family. They—it—I just didn’t know what else to do to shut them up, Ben.”
He studied her helpless face and felt a wave of compassion for her. People at work gave her a hard time, and now it turned out her family did the same thing at home? It seemed like Eva couldn’t catch a break anywhere.
“Well,” Ben said, grinning. “This is all so sudden. I mean, I had no idea you were planning this. If I had known, I would have worn a better suit.”
Eva peered at him, her mouth forming a grimace.
“Don’t make fun of me, Ben. I just thought I should tell you in case you happen to hear about it from someone else. I’ll tell them it was a lie,” she grumbled, spinning to leave. “I would have obviously come up with a better story if I had known I was going to blurt
something like that out at Sunday dinner.”
Ben reached out and gently touched her arm, stopping her in her tracks.
“I’m not making fun of you,” he told her earnestly. “I’m glad you thought of me first.”
Their eyes met, and Ben was surprised to find his heart rate increase slightly as Eva regarded him with plaintive blue eyes. She looked so… lost, and Ben resisted the urge to pull her into his arms and assure her that everything would be okay.
He wondered why Eva had thought of his name first, but he immediately dismissed the idea before it even formed in his head.
She doesn’t love you, Ben told himself. She was cornered and desperate.
“Sorry,” Eva murmured, bringing him out of his thoughts. “I really didn’t mean to drag you into this.”
“I am happy I can be a part of your evil plan,” he replied lightly, and Eva’s face relaxed into a relieved smile.
“You’re willing to go along with this for a bit?” she asked quietly. “I promise, it won’t go on long. I just need a break from their constant nagging. They never let up.”
Ben nodded eagerly.
“I am looking forward to it,” he said, and to his surprise, Eva threw herself into his arms, squeezing him tightly. He found himself inhaling the scent of her honey and vanilla shampoo, a small tingle surging through his body. It was rare for him to be so close to Eva, and Ben tightened his arms around her, as if to savor the sensation.
The moment was shattered when someone sauntered into the room.
“Well, isn’t this cozy,” Collette announced mockingly, entering the breakroom and examining the scene with a slight smirk on her face. “Can I get in on this?”
Eva pulled back, turning away, but Ben shook his head.
“No,” he replied smoothly. “Engaged couples only.”
Eva whirled around, and Collette gaped at them.
“You’re engaged?” she choked.
Ben nodded.
“Yep,” he answered. “Isn’t that right, honey?”
Eva’s eyes grew wide, her mouth parting, though no sound came out of it.
