Chapter 16
Evelyn was shaky as she pulled a chair out and carefully lowered herself onto it. She heard the front door close and felt her tears start to sting her eyes but she blinked them back.
She had done it again.
She’d given in without much of a fight and let him use her body as he always did. She’d wanted him to do it. How could she have reacted so strongly to him when she had been so angry with him? What was that? It had been almost violent, nothing at all like how it usually was between them, even the times she wanted it a little rough. It had been terrifying how she had gone from one strong emotion to another so seamlessly until she had been unable to distinguish between love and hate. Because she was sure she felt a little bit of that for him now.
A little bit of hate for making her love him. A little bit of hate for how he so easily manipulated every situation. A little bit of hate because she couldn’t resist him even now when he had left her stranded again.
That thought made her stand and rush towards the door but once she pulled it open, she saw he was long gone.
“You fucking bastard!” she called into the night before she ran back into the house to look for her phone.
She ignored the warm seed she felt between her legs as she dialled his number, but as it had happened the whole week, it went straight to voicemail. Because once again that man was showing her that her feelings didn’t matter at all.
All her anger deflated as she cut the call without leaving a message. She felt so cheap. She had been sure the night would end with her being told she had to start packing her stuff, not this. She would have thought not falling in love with him would be the most important rule for a man like Roman. Though it would have hurt to be rejected so blatantly, she had been prepared for it. But here she was, stuck again and it was dark now so she had even less hope of trying to direct a taxi to her through the narrow roads.
The last thing she wanted to do was walk for so long down those country lanes by herself because that was a horror story waiting to happen. It looked like it was her only choice though. She couldn’t be stuck here for another week.
Upstairs, she stripped and stepped under the shower. Roman’s face when she had told him she loved him kept flashing in her mind, and then the way he had laughed after she’d poured her heart out. Her chest squeezed as she tried to push that from her mind.
Was it so hard to believe that she was in love with him? He was right, she didn’t know anything about him other than the little bits she found online and in the papers. Maybe it was just lust. Maybe it would go away once she managed to leave him.
She was picking out a pair of pyjamas when she asked herself again how she had ended up here. It was a Friday night and she was going to sit in front of the telly like her parents did.
Unless...
She rushed to pick her phone up from the nightstand and quickly dialled a number. It was picked up after a couple of rings.
“Eve?”
“Hi Brendan,” she said.
“I thought you’d erased me again,” he laughed.
It sounded very quiet in the background, so she hoped he was at home and not busy. A little voice asked her what she was doing. Brendan hadn’t made the fact that he liked her a secret, and she knew he would jump through hoops for her. It was the reason she hadn’t called him the whole week because she knew she couldn’t give him what he wanted right now. Maybe not ever.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you. Turns out I’m not quite done with work,” she said.
“You have to work your notice?” Brendan asked.
“Something like that. Um... are you busy tonight?”
“No,” Brendan answered quickly. “I mean, I was just going to order a pizza then watch TV before I have an early night.”
She felt like a bitch for asking, but the words came out of her lips anyway.
“I’m kinda stuck at a client's house outside London,” she started. “Could_”
“Send the address, I’ll be right over,” he said straight away.
“Thanks, Brendan. I’ll transfer some fuel money to your account and then you’ll probably have to call me once you get to the main road so I can direct you.”
“You don’t need to give me any money, Eve. Send the address and I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
She knew he was just saying that. The one thing she and her university friends had bonded over was the fact that they were always skint. She remembered the early days when they used to share a bag of chips and a bottle of cheap cider on a Friday night while watching somebody’s Netflix because they had no money to go out like some of their other friends.
She would transfer some money to him anyway.
“Thanks, Brendan. I owe you,” she said gratefully.
She sent him the address with clear instructions on where he was to stop to call her so she could direct him. It was where the taxis always got lost, and none of them ever had the patience to follow her directions.
Then she picked out some clothes to wear and picked up the bag that had been packed for a week. It would be late once she got into London. She didn’t want to get to Birmingham in the middle of the night to disturb her parents so she would probably have to go back to the little dive she had rented when she had left Roman. It would be easy to get the train from there.
An hour later, Brandan called to say he was at the main road so she told him to put her on speaker and drive slowly so he wouldn’t miss the obscure turns. By the time she saw the headlights of his car, she had already locked up the house and was waiting for him at the main gate.
“Wow! What sort of client is this? I thought you were doing a typist job,” Brendan said when she strapped herself into his passenger seat.
“I had to bring some paperwork, but the taxis kept getting lost when it was time for me to leave,” she lied.
This was why she preferred to stay away from her friends. She hated lying. And even though she had decided she would break all of Roman’s rules, she didn’t want to dirty his name if she could avoid it. She didn’t know why. Maybe a part of her still hoped that he would one day change his mind about her. But the more practical part of her told her to stop dreaming and get out while she could.
Brendan kept the conversation flowing all the way back into the city, and she found herself relaxing for the first time in days. He was so easy to get along with, which was why they had become friends in the first place. He was sweet, attentive and caring. Though there was no spark, he was the type of guy she should have set her sights on. Not Roman. Not someone so cold.
“I never got to order that pizza. Why don’t we go to mine first and have something to eat before I take you to your flat?”
It was an easy yes. This would be her life after Roman. She might as well get used to it now.