“I think I like hearing you call me that a little too much,” he mumbled, and I winked, letting him drag me out into the empty warehouse, chuckling like this was exactly how we were supposed to spend our Sunday morning.
CHAPTER 34
Cooper
The front door slid open and I watched from the lounge as she snuck in quietly. Seb was passed out cold, snoring faintly on the floor, while I sat nursing a half-empty bottle of beer and a smear of dried blood beneath my nose. I couldn’t remember how we got home, only that we did and he’d fallen asleep not long after.
Her arrival brought with it a shift in the air, her presence starting to become palpable in ways I never would have imagined. She studied me quietly, watching me with those knowing eyes - like she saw things no one else bothered to see.
“Were you fighting?” Her voice was cautious, kind.
“You see too much,” I answered, voice thick with exhaustion beyond the fight and the lack of sleep.
She looked confused, like she wanted to argue, but instead she said softly, “Isn’t that what you want?”
Her question threw me. Did I? If I was going to say yes to having anyone see me, it would be her. It had always been different with her. Real.
But the truth clawed out anyway, ugly and honest. “Nope. You’ll leave.”
Because that’s what people did. They hovered on the periphery,never getting close enough or staying for too long. Everyone stayed only for a season and transience was the word of the day.
She didn’t flinch at my words though. Didn’t retreat. Just stood there in the moon lighting, a look of hurt reflected in her eyes.
“I haven’t left yet.” She said so softly, like it wasn’t meant for me to hear.
And that nearly undid me. I looked away, taking another swig of the now warm beer, because if I looked at her again, I might say something I couldn’t take back. Something I wasn’t supposed to say to the younger sister of my best-mate. Something which was becoming more apparent every time I saw Evangeline and she looked at me as though her world turned on my axis. Something I’d inevitably mess up leaving myself with no one.
I hadn’t planned on spending my Sunday at work, but when I awoke with a cold jolt, the kind that grips you before you’re even fully conscious, I knew I was alone. I didn’t even crack an eyelid, instead reaching out to find nothing but empty sheets. My heart was in my throat before I dared open my eyes and that instinctual panic was like muscle memory. The stomach sinking feeling that she’d left was my first thought, and even now, the ache still lingered, like the final dregs of a three-day headache.
I’d come to realise there was a part of me now that always expected it, like I was wired for absence. The sheer relief when I saw her car outsideGolden Spadeswas unmistakable and actually laying eyes on her in the office, hand on her forehead as if she couldn’t quite solve whatever she was examining, tangible.
And so my initial plans of finishing cleaning the backyard went out the window and I spent the day at the distillery. Because even when we were busy doing our own tasks, just knowing she was somewhere in the building, the occasional hum of her voice or the tapping of her fingers against keys, made the place feel steadier. Mademesteadier.
We triple-checked the ledger against the barrels for Label 52225 and still couldn’t work out how there was a discrepancy. She was right, the numbers weren’t adding up. Which was perplexing to me and practically stomach ulcer inducing for Evangeline. Although, it was with a furtive delight that she also hadn’t solved the cipher, the one buried in plain sight, whispering her name with every drop of whiskey aging in those barrels.
Label 52225wasEvangeline.
A name I assigned years ago, almost without thinking after Seb spoke her name one day and I started dreaming about her again. He’d been so proud that she started her Finance degree because it was a passion he knew she always had, and while the years since I last saw her were long, I remember also being overwhelmingly impressed. That feeling lasted for weeks, at her tenacity and drive to do what she wanted no matter how hard the journey was. And it was with those thoughts swirling, that it felt like I needed to pin her down, even if only in code. A strange, silent act of recognition I didn’t understand at the time. Now, seeing the impact she had on even the most minute aspects of my mental and emotional state, it seemed my subconscious knew before I was fully aware. She was always there, if only on the periphery.
When she first explained linking numbers with letters earlier, I thought she knew. Thought she worked it out and it was with a small puff of relief I realised that wasn’t her focus - for now.
And this was another reason I was glad she was here - her brain was always firing, always seeking answers. Another was the thorough forensic analysis she was conducting while also cleaning the books. A task she’d undertaken of her own volition and one which was clearly needed. Either something was miscounted, misrecorded or missing entirely and it had gnawed at me all afternoon.
Evs eventually headed home to do some ‘baking and true crime listening’ before a visit to her mum’s house tonight, and when Seb said he was busy at the club for the next couple ofhours, I’d hit the gym before agreeing to swing by his place for a quick catch up.
We hadn’t caught up recently, someone keeping me a little busy these days, and when he opened the door and greeted me with one of his shoulder-thumping, rough around the edges hugs, I was glad I came.
“It’s good to see you, bro.”
“Was wondering if you’d died,” he answered. “You been sleeping at the Distillery again?” There was a subtle undertone to his voice.
“What is it you really want to ask?” I shot back with a grin.
“Piss off, dickhead. Just tell me how things are at work?” He paused, “And living with Saint Eva of the Inquisition?”
My chuckle tumbled out of me as we walked further into the apartment where Marlee caught my attention, clapping as she watched a replay of a Hearts match.
“Better not let your sister hear you call her that,” I joked, heading for Marls to greet her.
