I look over at her, and she, too, is in shock. I wish I could tell you that I had a plan, but I can’t. When Manning told me he was going to take Becca out for dinner, I casually invited myself. He didn’t think anything of it, and I can tell from everyone’s face at the table that they have questions.
“Well.” Manning is the first to speak. “This is.” He puts up his hands and tries to find the words. Evelyn looks at him and then at Becca.
“This is great that you can join us,” Evelyn says. “We owe you guys so much for all of your support, and I wish that we could explain to you guys exactly what it means to us.” She looks over at Manning.
“Thanks for the invite,” I say and rub her shoulder with my thumb. I missed her. It’s fucking nuts, but I fucking missed her. I caved last night and texted her without trying to sound like a lovesick puppy. I was shocked she answered right away, my finger pressed the FaceTime before I thought out the game plan. Then her face filled the screen, and all the thoughts and plans were out the window. “Have you guys ordered yet?”
“No,” Manning says, his eyes looking at me, asking me all the questions. I can feel Becca get stiff beside me. “I don’t mean to be nosy. But when?”
“I guess it started at Candace’s party and it’s been slowly gaining speed,” I say and look over at Becca, and her face tells me that she is not okay with any of this. But she puts on her poker face, and I can tell when she does it. A shield comes down. If you know her eyes, you can tell.
“Enough about us,” she says, plastering a smile on her face. “How is everything going with you guys?”
Evelyn doesn’t notice her change, but Manning does, and I know that he’s going to let me off the hook for Evelyn’s sake, but he is going to have words for me later. “Things are actually calming down.” She looks over at Manning, and her smile gets even bigger. “It’s almost as if it’s yesterday’s news.”
“There is always a bigger story,” Becca says. “Big news today, cat litter news tomorrow.”
“I’ve never heard that saying,” I say from beside her, and she doesn’t turn to look at me.
“I was mostly worried for Jaxon,” Evelyn says and you can see tears coming to her eyes as she blinks them away. “I didn’t want him to feel any of the negative that was coming our way.”
“Well, at least one of us cared about that,” Manning says. “Murielle was more than okay spilling the beans to him that Evelyn and I were a couple.” He puts his hand on hers, she turns it over and their hands link. I look at them and I have the sudden need to hold Becca’s hand. I sit back watching how they act, and it scares me when I finally realize that this is how I feel about Becca. I mean we haven’t said the words out loud yet, but I love spending time with her. I love when we talk, and I love when we don’t talk and all we do is sit there in our own little world, but knowing we are just next to each other comforts me in a way I didn’t know existed.
The meal goes off with the subject staying light. Becca is still acting the part, and I hate it. When we get up to leave, I grab her hand, and I’m surprised she lets me, to be honest. We walk out, and she hugs Manning and then Evelyn, thanking them for a lovely dinner.
“Where are you parked?” She looks at me and asks, and I just point at the SUV.
She walks with me. “Becca.” I say her name, and she turns around.
“No,” she says, looking around again to make sure that no one is looking our way. “We are not doing this in the middle of a fucking public parking lot where people can hear us, or better yet take a picture of us.” She opens the SUV door and gets in. I walk around the SUV and get into it, making my way to her place since it’s closer.
The doorman comes to the door, opening it for her. I get out, grabbing my bag and walk in with her. She can be mad all she wants. I’m not leaving here tonight. Her eyes go to the bag, and she doesn’t say anything either.
She walks ahead of me to her bedroom once we get into her place. I place the bag on the bed and then turn to her, but she doesn’t wait another second. “What the fuck was that?” she asks, pointing at the door.