Pool party

Eva's Pov. 

"Incoming!!"

My eyes widened in shock as the large ball of snow came hurtling straight at my face. I paddled the sledge hard, ducking sideways but I was already too late.

The snow hit me square in the cheek. Cold. Wet. Merciless.

I toppled sideways off the sledge and landed flat in the snow with a sound that was embarrassingly loud.

"Chloe!"

She was already loading another one.

"You started it!" she shrieked, launching it before she even finished the sentence.

"I did not—" It caught me in the shoulder. I sputtered. "Oh, that is war."

I grabbed a fistful of snow and launched it so hard it knocked the scarf clean off her head. She screamed. I screamed louder. We went back and forth until we were both completely out of ammunition and breath, and then we collapsed side by side in the snow like two people who had narrowly survived something.

For a long moment neither of us spoke. Just the sound of our panting and the faint crunch of frost settling around us.

"I think I swallowed snow," Chloe announced.

"Good."

She burst out laughing. So did I. It came easy — easier than it had in weeks. I lay there staring up at the grey-white sky and let it.

"Okay but listen," Chloe said, turning her head toward me without actually sitting up. Her hair was an absolute disaster. She looked completely unbothered by it. "Tonight is going to be perfect."

"Mm."

"Don't mm me. You're going to have fun, Eva. Actual fun."

"I'm having fun right now," I said, gesturing at the general snow situation.

"This is pre-fun. A warm-up." She propped herself up on one elbow. "Blaise is coming tonight."

"Okay." I rolled my eyes.

"And I told a few others. Josh, maybe Daniel, Priya definitely—"

"Chloe."

"—and I'm just saying." She gave me a look that was somehow both innocent and calculating. "There are going to be options."

I turned my head slowly to face her. "Options."

"You know. Guys. Hot ones! With Abs and the V waist thing. The making-out-with-strangers-to-forget-your-heartbreak pipeline is clinically proven—"

"That is not clinically proven."

"—to work," she finished, completely ignoring me. "You could kiss somebody tonight, Make out! Have goood sex!. Somebody new. Somebody who does not behave like a Sleazeball or an asshole"

I snorted.

"I'm serious!"

"Chloe, I'm not kissing anyone tonight not to mention make out!” I dragged the word. “With-a-stranger.

"Just think about it. Those guys are way too hot."

"I've thought about it. No."

She dropped back down into the snow, satisfied in that way she always was when she'd planted a seed she knew would grow whether I watered it or not. I looked back at the sky.

A beat.

Then I pulled out my phone and checked the time.

"Okay, we have to go back soon." I sat up, brushing snow off my sleeves. "Half an hour tops."

"One more run."

"One more."

We grabbed the sledges and climbed back to the top of the slope. The garden looked different from up here — all white and still, the estate sitting solid and warm at the bottom with its dark stone and golden windows. Cold air bit at my ears. My fingers were going numb inside my gloves. I didn't care even a little.

We pushed off.

The hill was steeper than I remembered or maybe I just didn't care the last time. The sledge picked up speed fast and the wind tore at my face. I laughed before I even meant to —

And then something slammed into me from the left. Hard.

The sledge spun. I went sideways, tumbling into the snow bank at the edge of the run with a very undignified yelp.

"Hey!" Chloe's voice came sharp from somewhere behind me. "Watch where you're — oh my God, what is wrong with you?! She could have been hurt!"

I sat up, blinking snow out of my eyelashes. A figure was already turning back toward me, unwinding the scarf from around their face.

"Eva, are you—"

I knew the voice before the face appeared.

My stomach dropped.

Dominic Callahan stood there in a dark coat, scarf half-unwound, looking at me with that expression he had; not exactly alarmed, not exactly calm. Something in between that I could never quite name.

"I'm sorry," he said, and he meant it. "I didn't see you coming off the slope."

"It's—" My voice came out strangely. I cleared my throat. "It's fine. Really. I'm fine."

He reached his hand down.

I took it without thinking. Big, warm, even through my gloves. He pulled me upright like I weighed nothing and I had to actively remind my face to stay neutral. Not to blush. 

"Are you sure you're not hurt?"

"I'm sure." I dusted snow off my jacket with more focus than it deserved. "I wasn't even going that fast."

"She was going very fast but you could have been more careful," Chloe said flatly, appearing beside me. Then, because she couldn't help herself— "Happy you came out, Dad. Very festive of you."

He looked at her sideways. "Okay, next time I'll be more careful like you said anyways It was Mateo's idea."

"Sure it was."

He almost smiled. Rewound his scarf, nodded once at me; that particular Mr. Callahan’s nod that meant nothing and somehow everything and kept walking.

I watched him go for exactly one second before I looked away.

"What now?”

"I wasn't going to say anything," Chloe said.

"Good."

"I was just going to say that your entire face went red."

"It's the cold."

"Mhm."

"It's the cold, Chloe."

"Absolutely. The cold. Yes."

I picked up my sledge and walked.

****

By eight o'clock, Chloe's room had become a disaster zone.

There were clothes across every surface — the bed, the floor, the chair, the edge of the bathtub for some reason. Chloe stood in the middle of it all in a gold bikini top and white cover-up, looking like she was born for this and also like she hadn't broken a sweat deciding it.

I had tried on four things.

"This one," she said, holding up a swimming set — a halter top and high-cut bottoms in deep burgundy.

"That's barely a top."

"That's the point. I want all attention on you!"

"Chloe, my chest is going to fall out of that. Can't you see my tits?"

"Your chest is going to look incredible in that. I mean, can't you see how big and full they are." She threw it at me anyway. "Just try it."

I was no use arguing again. Didn't she understand me? So I tried it.

But as I stood in front of the full-length mirror I couldn't recognise who stood there, all I did was stare. F*ucking stare. 

It fit. That was the irritating part. The burgundy was dark against my skin and the cut was sharp and the halter held everything together better than I expected. I looked — I didn't look bad. I looked like someone who was trying, which felt riskier somehow.

I pulled at the neckline. "It's too much."

"It's exactly enough."

"Chloe—"

"Eva." She came to stand behind me, meeting my eyes in the mirror. Her voice dropped just slightly, that thing she did when she stopped performing and meant it. "You're beautiful. Wear the damn suit."

I looked at my own reflection for another second.

Then I stopped pulling at the neckline. I hope I catch his gaze today. 

***

The pool was warm even though the night air was cold and the sky was dark. Snow still sat on the hedges at the garden's edge, the pool itself glowed turquoise and warm under the string lights Chloe had insisted on hanging that afternoon.

People had arrived fast. Music came from somewhere. Someone had already found the bar. Chloe moved through it all like she'd choreographed it, laughing with everyone, touching Blaise's arm when she reached him, the two of them pulling into their own world immediately.

I tried to call her but I decided against it so I stood at the edge of things with a drink I wasn't really tasting. This wasn't what I imagined this night to look like…although I didn't imagine anything. 

My eyes moved around the space without my permission.

The loungers. The bar. The far end of the pool where someone was already in the water.

The doorway to the house….

Empty. I looked back at the pool. Yet no sign of him. Standing there made me realise how one sided this love orr infatuation was. It has always been. Never looked at me differently never noticed me…since forever! I fucking hate that d*ck for messing with my heart.

Breathe, Eva.

I found a lounger slightly apart from the main crowd and settled into it. The music was loud enough to feel in my chest. Warm enough out here that I'd stopped thinking about the cold. I leaned back and looked up at the sky and tried to just be somewhere instead of thinking about being somewhere.

Why didn't any of Eva's hot guys show up. Maybe I could have been whiling away with a hot guy. At this rate I'd even do more than make out with him. Wasn't this party to cheer me up why does it look like it's doing the opposite. 

I didn't notice him sit beside me until he spoke. Immediately a smile curled up my lips.

"You're not swimming?"