I cringed internally, remembering my taunting remarks about having a“grown up job”.
“Loving what I do isn’t as important as having a steady paycheck. What I love or want has never mattered much to them.”
I sat back in my chair, a frown tugging down the corner of my mouth. “I always thought you were really close with your family.”
She smiled, chewing thoughtfully. “Oh, I am. They love me. They just have strong opinions about a lot of things and have no issue letting me know. Repeatedly. Me wanting to go off and take a chance in the big city, wanting a career that has no job security or stability has been really hard for them to accept. They want what’s best for me. And they don’t think this could possibly be best.”
“Other people don’t get to decide what’s best for you.”
She shook her head, swallowing another bite of food. “You’re right. They don’t. Sometimes I think I’m a disappointment to them. They would rather have a daughter that smiles and nods and does as she’s told, but they got me instead. I’ve always been too hardheaded and strong-willed to make them proud.”
My throat felt like it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper. How could anyone be disappointed in Eve? I’d wrestled with similar feelings when I was younger, but I’d at least had Maria to set me straight.
“I love how hardheaded and strong-willed you are. Those are two of my favorite things about you.”
She smiled. “I always thought my boobs were your two favorite things about me,” she teased.
I laughed. “They’re definitely towards the top of my list,” I answered, spearing a strawberry with my fork.
“What about your parents?”
I heaved a sigh. I should have expected that she’d ask about them. I didn’t like to look too closely at my relationship with my parents, and it had been a while since anyone had cared enough to ask. “What about them?”
“Didn’t they care one way or another what you did as a career?”
My lips quirked up in a rueful smile. “Nah, they didn’t have much of a preference as long as what I did was legal. I expect they were just happy to have me out of the house, so I wasn’t their responsibility anymore. I don’t think either of them really wanted a child. I was a momentary hiccup to their career pursuits. My mom’s a lawyer and my dad’s a surgeon. My nanny, Maria, raised me until I left for prep school. I’m sure they love me in their own way. They just aren’t the warm, nurturing types.”
She gave me a sad smile. “I’m not sure which would be worse, having overbearing parents or underbearing.”
I waved my fork at her. “You’re making up words now?”
“What’s the opposite of overbearing, then?” she challenged.
I thought on that for a moment, unable to come up with anything better, I conceded. “Underbearing sounds about right, I guess.”
I steered the conversation away from our family, scolding myself for bringing it up at all. We were friends, sure. But fuck buddies didn’t do the deep discussion about family. I should know. I’d had plenty of those in the past.
I swallowed down the bad taste in my mouth, taking a bite of my omelet and a drink to wash it down. I hated grouping Eve with the other women I’d slept with. She was a category all her own.
I shook my head, discarding that thought. I’d slept with her twice. This was just the excitement of being with someone new. The sex was fun.
And Eve was... Eve.
She was indescribable.
Confident despite the nerves, beautiful and sexy and playful and stubborn and funny. I didn’t know if she was a woman I’d ever fully get out of my system. Part of me was always going to want more of her.
After we finished eating, I cleared off the table, setting the dishes in the sink to wash later.
“You wash and I’ll dry,” Eve said, moving to stand next to me by the sink.
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll wash them later.”
“I don’t mind,” she said.
I shrugged and filled the sink with warm, soapy water. We did the dishes in companionable silence for a few minutes, but when I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye, her brows were pulled together in thought.
“What’s happening in that pretty little head of yours?” I asked, passing her another plate to rinse before I moved onto scrubbing the skillet.
