“Are you going to a nightclub?”
“What business is it of yours?” Lily folded her arms across her chest. “I haven’t asked where you’ve been every night.”
Eva arched an eyebrow, and Lily tried not to grind her teeth. Why had she said that? She didn’t want Eva to think she cared.
“Jealous?” Eva’s mouth curved into a smirk, and Lily wanted to wipe it from her face.
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“So you don’t want to know where I’ve been?”
“What’s it to me?” Lily shrugged. “You’ve made it perfectly clear you want nothing to do with me. Although you’re the one that keeps breaking the rules. You told me never to talk to you again, and yet here you are, striking up another conversation. Why is that, do you think? Do you miss me?”
Lily was treading dangerous water and she knew it. Eva’s eyes flashed as she took a step toward Lily, her hands clenched into fists by her sides.
“I don’t think about you at all.”
“Liar.” Eva must, for this trip to have bothered her so much. Eva must, to be doing everything she possibly could to avoid being alone with Lily—to avoid a difficult conversation like this where there was no escape, where she was trapped, where she was forced to confront all of the things they’d both been trying their best to ignore.
And, like a wild, cornered animal, Eva was preparing to fight back, preparing to spit fire, preparing to tear Lily to shreds. But Lily could take it. It wouldn’t be the first time Eva had tried, after all.
“I bet you think about me all the time.”
Lily knew she couldn’t stop thinking about Eva. What Eva was doing, who she was with, whether she’d reply if Lily picked up the phone, or delete it without even reading the message.
“Now who’s flattering herself?”
“Who’s avoiding the question?” Lily fired back, watching Eva’s lip curl.
“Why are you like this?” Frustration laced Eva’s every word. “What do I have to do to get you to leave me alone?”
“I have been,” Lily said, affronted. “Unless you still think my presence here on this trip was all part of some big conspiracy. You’re the one who can’t seem to help wanting to have the last word.”
Eva glowered, and Lily knew it was because she was right. Lily had no desire to chase someone who wasn’t interested, no matter how much she might want Eva’s veneer to crack.
“So I should be asking you—why can’t you leave me alone?”
Part of her asked the question because she knew it would piss Eva off, but a part of her also wanted to know the answer. Lily didn’t think she’d get one, but Eva paused, head tilted to one side, studying Lily like she was a particularly stubborn problem.
Which, Lily supposed, she was.
“I wish I knew,” Eva said, her voice unusually soft. “If I did, then I could stop—” Eva cut herself off, and Lily desperately wanted to know what she was going to say.
“Stop what?” Lily took a daring step closer. “Talk to me, Eva.”
“I can’t.”
“But you did. Just because you didn’t know it was me, it doesn’t change anything—”
“It changes everything! You think I’d have told you half those things if I’d have known it was you?” Eva’s eyes were blazing. This had been a long time coming. Maybe this confrontation was what they’d needed all along. They’d never talked about what happened and how they felt, not properly—maybe if they cleared the air, everything would be all right.
“I think you’d rather saw off your own hand than tell me anything remotely personal,” Lily said, hoping it might make Eva crack a smile.
She didn’t.
“But I can’t pretend you’re a stranger knowing everything I do about you. We could be friends.” Could be more,Lily thought, remembering Eva pressing her against a wall, Eva’s mouth hot on her neck.
“I don’t need a friend.”
