Caleb kissed his boy’s head and patted his back. “I stubbed my toe really hard but thank you for checking on me. That’s awful nice of you.”
“Promise?”
Caleb shut the doors of his heart hard to stay strong for his son and for himself. He smiled. “Cross my heart.”
Chapter Seven
Evie was on her way to work, driving down that interstate with the crisp autumn air blowing through her hair. She let her hand fly out the window, lifting it up and down like a plane taking flight. She turned up the volume on her car’s radio, remembering his kiss.
Once at work, she waited patiently for the electronic double glass doors to open. She took off her sunglasses and strutted in with the biggest smile she could muster. Everyone she saw, she greeted in a chipper tone and even stopped to exchange other pleasantries. No, she and Caleb didn’t make love yesterday morning like she wanted to, but it didn’t matter. It was practically sealed for her that if she could be patient and understanding, that once those divorce papers were signed, he’d be all hers.
And she’d be all his.
Hopefully. Evie was a very hopeful and dreaming woman.
She was a graphic designer for an entertainment company that ran the most influential events throughout the entire Midwest, Jamboree. The name may have seemed very childish and immature for some, and their name was actually snubbed by potential clients until Evie came around and rebranded their logo and stylized their font differently. Now Jamboree looked as influential and mainstream as a company couldhope, offering anything from hosting drag show competitions, to fashion shows, weddings, and all in between. They even threw a party for the Kansas City Chiefs football team when they won the Super Bowl.
Nowthosewere wild times for her. As in, stressful times. She hadn’t been to a football game since then nearly five years ago. Nowadays, she didn’t care much for noisy crowds.
Today was another day to present her project to the project manager to see if she’d approve of her new marketing design for an upcoming commercial that was supposed to air.
Evie put her bag and her purse on her desk while trying to simultaneously juggle her water bottle and her lunch bag. She heaved it all on the desk in one breath and leaned over. As her light-brown hair hung in stylish waves to the side of her face, she winced again as her back started to ache all over once more. Losing thirty-five pounds and going from 250 pounds down to 215 helped with her back pain a lot, but nothing near as to what she had hoped for. There was always this deep ache that screamed between her shoulders right where her bra band would go. And even though it felt amazing to be relieved at the chiropractor’s, it never felt like it went away.
She sighed and rearranged the goods on her desk. “It comes with getting older.”
A thin woman suddenly approached her. It was her former best friend and coworker, Missy. “Hey, Evie! You look nice this morning.”
Evie cocked her head and smiled. “Aw, thank you, Missy!”
Missy studied her for a moment. “You’re wearing a floral blouse again?”
“Of course! How could I deny my signature pattern?”
“You know this isn’t Los Angeles, right? You don’t always have to dress up. You used to come here more relaxed and chill. What happened to you? Ever since you lost weight, you’re all like…”
Evie pulled her hair out of her face and put her hand on her hip. “Like what? You literally just said I look nice.”
Missy waved her hand around in front of Evie and grimaced. “I dunno. Like, different.”
“I think what you mean to say is I’m coming in herenow looking like I actually care. You know, I was really messed up and depressed for a long time after my pawpaw passed away.” She threw her hand to the side and looked that way as well. She said irritably, “And at that time, I would come in here with dirty leggings and unwashed hair, and notoncedid anyone think to check on me. But apparently, I now know why.” She grabbed her water bottle and walked to the water dispenser, shoving past Missy. “You thought it was normal for people to look that way.”
Missy turned and rolled her eyes. She tried hard to keep up with Evie as she protested with her hands out, “I’m saying you were stressed to try to impress everyone in Los Angeles and don’t need to do that here. Perry loves you!”
The water filled to the top, and Evie turned and looked at Missy, who was wearing a gray sweatshirt from college and yoga pants with tennis shoes. Her hair was kept up in a lazy high ponytail, eyebrows needing to be plucked, and her soft freckles dabbled her pale skin all crowned by her black hair.
Evie shifted her hip to the side and pursed her lips. “I could tell you to put some weight on, but I don’t. I could tell you to pluck your eyebrows and wash your hair, but I don’t. This is how I’ve always loved to dress, but I never could due to money or my weight.”
Then she pushed past Missy once more. “You knew that about me in high school.”
Missy looked at her friend walking away. They used to be best friends in high school.Usedto be. But that all changed when Missy got a boyfriend out of nowhere and completely ditched Evie in every moment she needed her best friend. When Evie’s father died, Missy was out having sex with her boyfriend somewhere drunk in a McDonald’s parking lot and blew her off for a week. When Evie’s mother died, Missy had mysteriously ran off to Colorado with her boyfriend and didn’t even tell Evie nor answer her phone. That whole week, Evie had thought her best friend was murdered or abducted the same time as her mother’s death, and so it was not an easy week for her at all.
At the time, she’d tried to befriend Missy all over again to mend their broken friendship, but it would never last long. Missy teased her for buying a shithole house in a no-named town instead of living it up in a high rise in the city. Evie had her moments of boastful spending whenshe was younger, but she was an adult now and learned the hard way she had to strangle her finances to keep herself from going under. Sure, she made a healthy salary, but the cost of living had doubled in the last ten years, and so her salary no longer stretched like it used to.
Evie sat at her desk to compose herself. With her face in her hands, the mounting feeling of guilt lingered with the grudge that she felt she still held onto.
She pushed the thought aside and prepped for her presentation that was due in less than thirty minutes. She popped a vitamin into her mouth and washed it down with water. Then her phone lit up on the desk with Caleb’s name with a message alert! Well, it technically came up as “Contractor,” because she didn’t want anyone to see her phone if she wasn’t around. Evie took every precaution imaginable to protect his identity.
She smiled and opened it. He sent her a selfie, and she glanced around to make sure no one was looking. It was a photo of him smiling in his truck with his baseball hat on backward. The message read, “I hope your day is off to a great start!”
