“So,” she smirked, “when you discovered you liked eggs and cheese, you never had the idea to…I don’t know, combine them?”
“That requires cooking.”
“Oh my god,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re pathetic—like a toddler.”
“Yes. Yes I am. You came just in time to save me.”
Her hand paused midway as she reached for a piece of cheese. “What am I going to tell Ryan?” she asked, her face falling as the realization of own situation hit her. Laughing over eggs and cheese had suddenly become a serious matter as she came face to face with real life again.
“Why do you need to tell him anything? He left you,” I reminded her gently, grabbing a piece of cheese for myself.
“It’s not that simple,” she answered. “I’ll have to go back there. I have to find a place to live.”
“Live here,” I said, the words leaving my mouth as quickly as my heart leapt at the idea of having her forever.
Her eyes met mine, as fear and doubt seemed to swipe away her features.
“You’re even crazier than I thought,” she whispered, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Yes, I am. When I’m around you, I feel crazy, delirious, and for the first time since I woke up, I feel truly alive. What I feel for you doesn’t make any sense, Everly. None of this does, but if we’re going to do this—then let’s do it. If there’s anything I’ve learned about life in this little do-over I’ve been given, it’s that there’s no time for half-assing your way through things.”
Her eyes filled with worry as she busily bit down on her bottom lip, obviously contemplating my words.
Feverishly shaking her head back and forth, she said, “I can’t depend on someone. Not again. I can’t be that person.”
“But I don’t want you to be anywhere else.”
“So charge me,” she suggested. “Make me pay rent.”
My eyes widened in shock. “Now you’re the one out of your mind! Why would I do that? I am the last person on earth who needs more money, Everly.”
“And I am the last person on earth who needs to be dependent on another man. Please, August. Let me do this. I should have never moved in with Ryan, and let him handle the majority of the rent. It gave him power—power he never used, but still it puts me at a disadvantage. I can’t ask him to leave and now I’m left without a home. I can’t jump from feeling powerless with one man to doing the same with another. Especially—”
I held up my hand to stop her. “I get it,” I said, taking her hand in mine. “I don’t like the idea of you giving me money, but I understand the need for it. Do what you need to do, as long as it ends with you here every day.”
“As long as you agree to me taking over the cooking again,” she smiled.
My heart skipped a beat just seeing her smile. It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. “Deal. But I have one caveat of my own.”
“Okay,” she said, her eyebrow peaking in interest as she picked at the mostly cold eggs. “I want a fresh start. No more comparing me to the man I was. I understand you can’t forget, and I don’t want that. I just want the opportunity for you to know me and who I am now. I want you to fall in love with the August that exists today.”
“I want that, too,” she whispered, pushing the tray away to crawl into my lap. “We’ll go out later,” she breathed into my ear.
“Good idea,” I agreed.
And we did.
Much, much later.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Everly
I needed clothes.
And a toothbrush and well…everything else that wasn’t currently lying in the bottom of my purse—so basically everything but a tube of Chapstick and a stick of gum.
I really wish in August’s effort to move on, he’d at least kept a few things of mine. A single shirt. A pair of pants, maybe? In my attempt to move on, I’d left everything from our life here, walking away with very little to call my own. In that moment, I’d never expected to miss any of it.
I’d been camped out here at August’s place for nearly two days, and even though I was enjoying lounging around in his t-shirts and sweats, carrying around the smell of him everywhere I went, I was starting to feel like a bum and desperately wanted some things of my own.
Like a razor.
And deodorant that didn’t smell like a dude.
Also, I had to work tomorrow. So wearing the rugged August apparel needed to come to an end quickly.
I had two options. I could deplete my savings account and go out and buy an entirely new wardrobe, shampoo, and every other thing a girl needed, or I could muster up the courage and go back to Ryan’s apartment and pack up my things.