“Is it just me, or does eight p.m.feel obscenely early to be leaving?”Eve asks, shutting down her laptop with a satisfied click.
I glance at the clock on my computer screen, then around the nearly empty office.Joshua left an hour ago for a family dinner, Steven’s been gone since six-thirty to pick up his kids, and Flora practically sprinted out the door at five on the dot.We’re the only ones left in our section.
“Early for us, maybe,” I say, stretching my arms above my head until my back pops.“Normal people call this late.”
“Normal people don’t run marketing campaigns for luxury yacht companies,” Eve retorts, shuffling a stack of papers till they’re all aligned and slipping them into a file.“Normal people probably eat dinner before nine p.m., too.”
I watch her gather her things—the ritual I’ve become oddly fond of.First the laptop, then the files she’ll inevitably look at later even though she claims she won’t, then her jacket, then a final scan of her desk to make sure she hasn’t forgotten anything important.
“You know what?”I say, the idea hitting me suddenly.“We should go to a restaurant.”
Eve pauses, her hand halfway to her jacket.“A restaurant?”
“Yeah.Like, an actual restaurant.With menus and waiters and food that doesn’t come in plastic containers.We’ve been eating at the apartment for two weeks.We work, eat, and sleep.Even Luis has stopped showing up because he thinks we’re the world’s most boring couple.”
“Caleb—”
“Come on, Eve.”I pull her chair closer till it hits mine.“I’ll pay.I even got you a gift.”
“A gift?”she asks slowly.
“Yeah.”I grin at her.“And it’s something you’ll actually like.But I’ll give it to you only if you go out to eat with me.”
Eve studies me, as if weighing the pros and cons.“Fine.I don’t want to go out, but I do like gifts.”
The seriousness with which she says it makes me smile.This is Eve, unabashedly honest.There are no games with her.She likes something, she’ll say it.If she doesn’t, she’ll make sure I know it.
“Where do you want to go, then?”I take out my phone, ready to look up some places when she interrupts me.
“Actually…” Her face lights up with genuine excitement.“There’s this place I’ve been dying to try.I’ve heard a lot about it but I never got the chance to go.”The enthusiasm in her voice makes my pulse kick up for reasons that have nothing to do with caffeine.It’s rare to see Eve get excited about anything that isn’t work-related, and the way her entire demeanor shifts when she talks about this place makes me want to see more of it.
“Lead the way,” I say.
We take the elevator down together, standing closer than we normally would in the office.The tension that usually crackles between us during work hours has shifted into something that feels like anticipation mixed with the particular intimacy that comes from spending too many late nights together.
“You know,” Eve says as we walk through the lobby, “this might be the first time we’ve left the building together when we weren’t completely exhausted.”
“Or when one of us wasn’t pissed off at the other,” I add.
“True.”She glances at me sideways.“Though the night is still young.”
The evening air hits us as we step outside, crisp and clean after hours of recycled office atmosphere.Eve pulls her jacket tighter around herself, and I throw my arm around her , pulling her into me.When she leans into me, I glance down at her, slightly surprised.
I hit the button on my key fob, and my car chirps to life in the parking garage.Eve’s gotten into the habit of not driving to work anymore; it just makes sense when we’re leaving together every night anyway.
“So what kind of place are we talking about?”I ask as we walk toward the car.
“You’ll see,” she says with a mysterious smile.“Trust me.You’ll like it.”
“That’s not ominous at all.”
“I have excellent taste in food, thank you very much.”
I unlock the car and hold the passenger door open for her, a gesture that would have earned me an eye roll a month ago but now just gets me a small smile.Little victories.
“Alright, where am I driving?”I ask, settling into the driver’s seat.She gives me directions as I navigate out of the garage and into evening traffic.The radio plays softly between us, filling the comfortable silence that’s developed over these past two weeks of shared commutes.
“Turn left here,” she says, pointing to a street I don’t recognize.“It’s just up ahead.”
