“It’s not.” Evie felt a lump form in her throat. If Paula, a woman she’d had mostly superficial conversations with, couldfigure it out, why couldn’t Tommy and Alex? “But I appreciate the effort they’ve put in.”
Swallowing her frustration, she turned as Cole approached, hugged her, then let Lana do the same, and said hello to them.
She spent most of the night completely avoiding Thorn, which was easy to do considering he was taller than everyone by quite a bit, and she was shorter or the same height as most people. The minute she saw him moving toward her, she’d make an excuse and slip into the crowd. She knew she was being both rude and a coward, but she had no interest in talking to him.
Alex finally tracked her down and wrapped his arm around her waist, insisting on introducing her to people. Not wanting to appear ungrateful or start a fight, she allowed him to move her around until she couldn’t handle it anymore. She excused herself to go to the bathroom, then went back up to the rooftop, needing air.
At ten-thirty, Tommy came to find her, explaining it was time to cut the cake, and led her back to where everyone had gathered around a large eight-tiered cake decorated with so many flowers that it tipped into garish territory rather than elegant. But that was the theme of the whole evening. From the decorations to the music to the people dressed like they were at a rave, she could tell someone had tried to keep it to her more clean, classy tastes, but had failed spectacularly.
She smiled awkwardly as the DJ announced it was birthday cake time, and everyone stood around, drunkenly singing Happy Birthday. She cut the cake, and when she saw it was red velvet, quite literally the only kind of cake she hated, it was the last straw. She waited until attention was off her again, then walked away.
She was heading to the elevator when she felt Thorn’s massive hand clamp onto her shoulder and closed her eyes. She’d forgotten to watch for him in her upset, and now she had to face him. She let him guide her to a quiet area and stood there silently as he stared at her, his face expressionless, which told her he was angry and trying to hide it.
“You are avoiding me.”
“Yes.” Evie nodded. No point lying about it. She’d been pretty blatantly about doing it as the night went on and her agitation rose.
“Why?”
“Why would I want to be around someone who has barely spoken to me in five months?” She snapped, unable to hold back anymore. “Leave me alone, Thorn. I’m not in the mood for this right now.”
His expression softened immediately, and she saw remorse creep into his eyes. “Mališa, please.”
“No! Don’t call me that!” She shook her head, feeling like she couldn’t breathe for a moment. “Just stop, okay? I’m happy you’ve found someone, but I don’t appreciate being treated as disposable, and I really don’t appreciate you bringing her to my birthday party. But since no one else has figured out my birthday is supposed to be about me and what I want, why would you?”
She could see her outburst had shocked him, but she didn’t care in that moment. She spun on her heel, feeling like she was about to be sick. She pushed through the crowd, heading to the stairs instead of the elevator, and ordered an Uber in the relative quiet of the stairwell.
She was only standing in front of the club for a few minutes before her ride appeared. She had just buckled herseatbelt when the door opened, and Aaron started to climb in, almost sitting on her.
“Sorry,” he said hastily, not looking at her. “I thought this was mine.” He quickly started to close the door, but Evie stopped him.
“Are you going back to the Tower?” she asked, knowing he was leaving for a mission in the morning and usually spent the night there since it was closer to JFK airport than his and Paula’s place in Astoria.
“Evie?” He poked his head back in, looking at her in confusion. “What are you doing?”
“Going home.” She swallowed hard, not sure why she suddenly desperately needed him to keep her company. He was not who she would’ve usually wanted anywhere near her when she was emotional like this. “I’m tired.”
“Right.” He gave her a long look, and a spark of understanding crossed his face. “Yeah, I’m going to the Tower.” He shut the door, and a minute later climbed in on the other side. A slightly awkward silence descended over them as they drove away.
“Where’s Paula?” she asked, unable to bear the quiet any longer, needing to be distracted from the swirling emotions building inside her.
“Still partying it up. I have to leave on an early assignment tomorrow.” He shifted, and she could tell he was observing her carefully. “Once she gets a few drinks in her and relaxes, she doesn’t stop until the sun comes up. She and Nissa were tearing it up on the dance floor when I left.”
“Ahh.” She nodded, the nausea washing over her again. Apparently, everyone was having a great time at her birthday party but her.
“So why are you really leaving?”
“That party isn’t for me.” All the anger and bitterness came out in that one sentence, and she faced the window, watching the streetlights blink by in a desperate attempt to keep from bursting into tears.
“Pretty sure ‘Happy Birthday Evie’ was on every available item they could put it on.” His voice was gentle, but she could hear a hint of confusion beneath it, and she took a deep breath, trying to squash all the nasty thoughts racing through her brain.
“Oh, it was just an excuse to have a party so Tommy and Alex could celebrate the little bromance they have going on.” She rolled her eyes, knowing she sounded like an ungrateful brat, but she had just enough alcohol in her that it came spilling out. “The cake was red velvet, Aaron. Guess who hates red velvet?” She jerked her thumb at herself. “Open bar. Guess who doesn’t really drink.” She gestured at herself again. “Held the party at a club. Guess who hates clubs?”
“You.” Aaron watched as she nodded and looked out the window.
“Now guess who likes all those things?”
“Tommy and Alex?”
