Page 16 of Try Hard

Fia

E ve was by the front door, hands in her pockets looking casually cool, when Tanika led me over at the end of the brunch.

Since we’d eaten, Tanika had been basically stuck to my side, and, while catching up was all good and well, all she’d wanted to talk about was Eve—though she was unwilling to leave me alone with the woman.

“It’s been so fun getting to catch up,” Tanika said as we got closer to Eve, Kim, and, of course, Sammy. “I’m so glad we’re going to see more of each other for the hen night and the wedding!”

I hummed. “Hopefully, during at least one of those events, you’ll be more interested in talking about your life than mine.”

Tanika giggled, slowing us. “Look, Kim would have invited you either way, but you have to admit she’s doing the Lord’s work.”

I looked at her, baffled. “Which lord?”

She waved me off. “It’s just a saying, you know.”

“What I know is that you two are trying to conspire on some wild suspicion you have about a crush I had twenty years ago.”

Tanika rolled her eyes. “She was your gay awakening. That’s like a first love, right? It’s never going away.”

“Who told you that?”

She shook her head absently. “Pretty sure I read it somewhere.”

“Of course you did.”

“Ugh. Just go with it, Fia! The universe is colliding to bring something good into your life. You should take it.”

“We’ve got bigger problems than who I’m dating if the universe is colliding .”

Tanika simply grinned at me, marched us over to the group by the door, and practically pushed me into Eve. I’d have glowered at her if Eve hadn’t looked so happy about our arrival.

Kim gripped one of my arms. “Oh, my god. Hun! We barely got a chance to chat today.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Tanika’s barely left my side. I’m sure she’d be more than happy to tell you every word I’ve said.” I shot Tanika a dark look but she simply looked as delighted as Eve’s laugh suggested she was by my snark.

Sammy seemed less amused.

Kim gazed excitedly between me, Eve, and Tanika like she’d never heard better news in her life.

Does she remember this is her pre-wedding brunch?

Tanika nudged her. “Give you all the deets later.”

I had never regretted being friends with the two of them more.

Whether she sensed my discomfort or just felt the need to touch everyone near her, Eve’s hand found my back again, and it was oddly comforting. Her palm between my shoulder blades, tucked under my hair, felt more grounding than anything.

She kept her other hand in her pocket.

Kim grabbed Eve too, looking expectantly between us. “I’m so excited to see you both at the hen. It’s going to be epic. Maybe you could arrive together. Wouldn’t that be great?”

I pressed my lips together, shooting Eve a glance. She looked deeply amused by Kim’s incredibly obvious efforts.

“I can give you a lift, if you need?” Sammy cut in, clearly only speaking to Eve.

Eve smiled sweetly but shook her head. “No need. Thank you, though. I’m perfectly capable of getting myself—and Fia here—to the venue.”

I narrowed my eyes at her but didn’t say anything.

“Well,” Sammy continued, undeterred, “maybe we should exchange numbers, you know, just in case something comes up.”

“Oh, I can just let Kim know if it does,” Eve said, her thumb rubbing softly over my spine.

Sammy laughed, waving a hand in Kim’s direction. “Yeah, but she’ll be so busy celebrating, and you don’t want to bother the bride on her big night, do you?”

With the proximity of her body, I felt more than heard Eve suck in a deep breath. She knew just as well as I did that we weren’t getting out of this easily.

“Do you have a pen?” she asked the group, and her hand slid down my back as she leaned over to grab one of the business cards on a counter by the door.

Sammy lit up, clearly believing she was getting Eve’s number. She didn’t know Eve very well.

Sammy scrambled around for a pen, finally acquiring one from the bartender, and positively ran back over to us. She tried to hand it to Eve, but Eve simply held the business card out to her.

“Why don’t you write your number there, and, if anything comes up and I can’t reach Kim, I’ll have it available?” she asked, not unkindly.

“Oh. Okay.” Sammy looked thrown for a moment but quickly rallied and scribbled down her number, name, and a little heart.

She did not know how to take a hint. I wondered how often Eve had to deal with stuff like that. She’d seemed easygoing about it with Margot, but surely it got grating after a while? Or maybe it wasn’t that annoying when you enjoyed people the way she did. I wouldn’t know.

“Well,” Eve said, smiling at Kim, “we’d better be off.”

The way her statement made it feel like we were a couple sent a wave through me, only amplified by the way she stepped in to hug Kim and Tanika without taking her hand off me. It simply trailed down my back and hovered momentarily at my hip, making my throat tight.

“Text me,” Tanika whispered, voice loaded, as she threw her arms around me in a parting hug too.

I stepped back, nodding reluctantly. I’d text her, probably, but not with the gossip she was clearly angling for.

If I didn’t, she’d only text me incessantly until I did.

She’d done that once before, back when we both had Nokias and pay-as-you-go plans that charged fifteen pence per message.

I’d been out of credit one weekend and she’d messaged me over and over again until I’d gone to the shop, bought credit, and finally replied to her. It hadn’t even been anything important.

Kim’s hands fought for real estate on my back as she pulled me into a hug too and collided with Eve’s hand.

Still, instead of pulling back, Eve simply drifted lower, getting down to my waist. Which was exactly where she kept her touch as she led me out of Sunny Monday’s and towards the cars outside.

Even if I hated to admit it, her constant touch was reassuring.

Knowing she didn’t know the car I was in, she stopped us and looked at me with a grin. “Keys?”

I blinked. “You want my car keys? You know I’m perfectly capable of driving, right?”

She laughed. “Not for that. I’m just trying to win that Tizer.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her, breathing a little easier now that we were away from the cocktail of Tanika, Kim, Sammy, and all of their emotions about the two of us together. “Kind of cheating if I give you the keys. What if it’s the only car of its brand here?”

“Well,” she said, stepping in front of me and finally dropping her hand, “you are special enough to have a one-of-a-kind car.”

I dropped my chin to my chest and pulled the keys from my pocket. “It’s not unique. But you cannot just start unlocking doors and looking for it that way.”

“I promise,” she swore, her fingers brushing mine as she took the keys.

For someone so active, her hands sure were soft. Warm, too.

I watched her glance down at the keys and start walking through the parked cars, sizing them up.

After a moment, she stopped, facing a vehicle with her arms spread wide. “This one.”

I laughed, walking up behind her. She had a good couple of inches on me, even when I was in heels, and I wasn’t sure what possessed me, but I placed a hand on her waist and said, in a low voice, “I’ll buy you half a Tizer.”

She whipped her head towards me. “I got it?”

I scrunched my face up, bobbing my head from side to side as I continued down the row. “Right make. Right colour. Wrong car.” I stopped in front of my actual car and turned back to her with a smirk.

Her mouth dropped open in shock before she laughed and jogged after me. “ So close.”

“Devastating, truly,” I said, unlocking the vehicle and gesturing her towards the passenger seat.

Like she belonged in the car, she pulled her wallet, phone, and the business card with Sammy’s number on it from her pocket and slotted them into the centre console.

I couldn’t resist looking from them to her. “What are you going to do about Sammy?”

She sighed. “Not sure, honestly. I don’t want to hurt her.”

“She’s not exactly taking a hint. It might be on her at this point.”

She shot me a knowing look and I didn’t want to think about what she thought she knew. “She’s just… enthusiastic and committed.”

“There’s a line.”

Her smile dropped and she shrugged. “I guess… if she’s still as insistent at the hen party, I’ll have a word.”

“You don’t think she will be?”

Eve laughed. “Not at all. It’s overwhelming for a moment, but then you get some distance and you realise that, no matter who someone is, they’re still just a person.”

I looked at her. She wasn’t just sexy tailoring and a ridiculously impressive physique. She was a great person. Always had been. “You don’t see yourself very clearly.”

She lifted her head from the headrest and looked at me intently, making my heart pound and having me almost regretting my words.

The quiet between us as our eyes were locked grew, filling the car around us, and, by the time she finally spoke, I felt like I was shaking.

“How so?” she whispered, and I could feel my neck heating up.

I cleared my throat, pressing a hand to it as casually as I could. “Well, you know, you’re… impressive. I don’t think Sammy’s going to get over you that quickly.” I forced a smile onto my face. “Sapphics don’t have the same ridiculous hang-ups as those insecure guys you mentioned earlier.”

Eve bit her bottom lip, that same expression from when I’d told her those men were wrong about her filled her eyes. Something close to being overwhelmed. “Maybe you just like me.”

I laughed and looked away, starting the car. “Ah, no. Can’t be that. Haven’t you heard? I don’t like anybody.”

“I don’t think that’s true, Ophelia.”

Something about the way she said my name—maybe the fact that she was the only person who used my whole name—pierced through me every time she said it. It was intoxicating, and that was dangerous.

Before I could respond, the car came alive and connected to my phone, picking up from the song I’d been playing when I arrived.

Eve grinned and looked at the stereo. “Eva Pagàn?” she asked as ‘Loud’ filled the car. “You just love those Eves and Evas, huh?”

“Oh, my god,” I muttered, shaking my head.

She laughed. “I just wouldn’t have guessed you were into sapphic pop.”

I tilted my head in her direction. It was ridiculously easy being with her, even when she was teasing me. “Right, because I look like I should only listen to poser indie stuff?”

She was so relaxed and so amused, looking at me like she had all day for it. “Oh, of course. I imagine you listen to that all day, every day, and, then, once a week, you treat yourself with lesbian pop.”

“Wow. I don’t know why you went into interior design when a career in profiling was right there.”

“Ah, nah. I’d rather learn what you like from asking, rather than just guessing,” she said, her voice and her expression softening in a way that made it hard to breathe again.

“You can just connect your phone and play whatever you want.”

“I love this song,” she whispered, still watching me, her arm on the arm rest and so close to me. I could see the line of every toned muscle.

“Me too. But you really can put something else on.”

She shook her head. “I want to know what you listen to.”

I side-eyed her. “Poser indie rock.”

As if to prove me wrong, the song ended and a soft, beautiful Lilla Vargen song kicked in.

“Of course,” Eve said. “This suits you. I’d have guessed something like this, but I’m delighted to be surprised too.”

I breathed a laugh. “I like the poser indie stuff too. Just so you know.”

“Except when you need your pop hits.”

I smiled ruefully at her and handed her my phone, giving her free range of my playlists. “Except then.”

She lit up, brushing our fingers together again as she took the phone. “I like the poser indie stuff too,” she said as I put the car into gear. “And pop music.”