“Before I forget,” Alisha said at the start of their first department meeting of the semester. “We’ve been asked who we want to send as department representatives on the D.C. trip this summer. Eva, I assume you’d like to go?”
“Please.” Eva tried not to scowl when she saw Lily glance over at her in shock. No doubt Lily was wondering why Eva would volunteer to spend her time chaperoning forty teenagers. Which was fair—it didn’t exactly seem like something Eva would like to do. But it meant a trip back to the city she’d called home for so many years, and the chance to catch up with people she hadn’t seen in too long. “We should be able to have full use of the labs at Georgetown again. I’ll double-check with my former colleagues.”
“Excellent. Anyone else want to take the second spot?”
They hadn’t the last two years, leaving it for Alisha, and Eva doubted it would change now.
“Lily?” Alisha said, and Eva tensed. “It’s a nice break. We take them around the Smithsonian. Might even be able to get them into the chemistry department if Eva can manage it.”
Christ, Eva hadn’t considered Lily. Had been trying her hardest to not think of her at all. But surely, she wouldn’t say yes. Not after everything. Lily’s gaze flickered once again to Eva, settling on her face, and Eva ground her teeth.
“I don’t know if I feel ready for that,” Lily said, after what felt like an age. “Maybe next year?”
“All right. I’ll go along then.” Alisha made a note on the sheet of paper in front of her, and Eva breathed a sigh of relief.
Eva could still feel Lily’s gaze on her face, and not even a poisonous glare could get her to look away.
It drove Eva wild, because didn’t Lily know how much harder she was making this? Eva couldn’t think straight with those blue eyes resting on her. Eyes that seemed to see too much, things Eva didn’t want to show—things only Lily seemed to bring out of her.
Lily barely looked away from Eva for the remainder of the meeting. It had Eva cornering Lily in her classroom—the first time they’d spoken since Eva had slipped out of her grip in a cloud of shame—once the meeting was over, filled with a reckless kind of anger. “Will you stop it?”
“Stop what?” Lily said, like she was oblivious, like her eyes hadn’t been following Eva around all damn week.
“Stop staring. If I’d have known you were incapable of any semblance of self-control, I never would have—” Eva cut herself off abruptly, unwilling to verbalize it. Not here, when she never knew who might be close by, listening in.
“Never would have what?” Lily’s spine straightened, and there was that spark, present again, that challenge in blue eyes that had gotten them into this mess in the first place. “Kissed me?”
Eva felt her lip curl, and she resisted the urge to glance over her shoulder.
“Have you forgotten you were a willing participant?”
“A severe lapse in judgment,” Eva said, her teeth gritted. “Something that will never happen again.”
“Oh, gee, how will I ever cope?” Lily raised a hand to her chest. “I’m not that desperate.”
“Then why can’t you keep your eyes off me?”
“You noticed?” Lily skirted around the edge of her desk, stopping so close Eva could feel the heat of her. They stared at one another, both breathing heavily, and Eva’s mind flashed back to the last time they’d been this close. To the heat of Lily’s breath on her lips, to the feeling of her mouth, moving against her own. “Have you been staring, too?”
Eva ground her teeth. “Of course not.”
“I think you have.” Lily’s voice was low, and Eva felt her traitorous heart beating fast in her chest. “I think you—”
“Stop it,” Eva growled, because she couldn’t stand to hear another word.
“What are you so afraid of?” Lily swayed closer, and did she know how dangerous the game she was playing was? “Feeling something?”
Eva’s lip curled, but before she could say anything, there was a light knock on the door, and they both sprang apart.
“You read—oh.” Mei paused in the doorway, brows drawing close as she looked between the two of them. “Sorry. I’ll meet you at the bar?”
“I’m coming now.” Lily seized her bag and breezed past Eva without another word, and Eva stared after her, jaw clenched, furious that Lily had had the last word.
Her mood was improved only by the ding of her phone an hour later.
Thank God it’s the weekend.
Eva echoed the sentiment.Long week?Hers certainly had been. She felt like she’d lived a lifetime in the last seven days. Five more months until the end of the year. If Eva could make it that long without either kissing or killing Lily she’d count it as a victory.
