Home / Romance / To Duet With You / On a Friday in a cafe

Share

On a Friday in a cafe

Author: Arasy
last update Last Updated: 2022-02-28 09:29:51

It’s not like she’s actually expecting to see him again. The pleasantries are exactly that, things you say but don’t really mean it. And yet, on a Friday afternoon she is preparing her essay for the Contemporary Literature class when she is forced to remember Evan again.

“Claire, there’s a hunk downstairs asking for you.” Tessa winks at her. “Finally, it was about time you had some fun.”

Somehow she already knows who her roommate is talking about, which is quite easy to explain actually: Claire doesn’t do boys anymore.

They approached her at first, but the disgusting jerks only want sex, so she started to avoid the male population as plague, and eventually everyone got the hint.

“Green eyes, tall, brown hair, looks like he came straight out of a magazine?”

“Yes! Is that your boyfriend?”

She shakes her head.

“No, someone I knew from high school, he just transferred here recently.”

“Well, if you're not going after him, please introduce me.”

Sighing, Claire just closes her book and grabs her jacket, ready to go out and see what Evan wants from her. The reasons why she can’t ever get along with anyone from the Brown family isn’t something she’s about to explain Tessa. They are on good terms, enough so that they decided to keep being roommates after their freshman year, but they aren’t that close either. Maybe saying that she avoids the male population isn’t accurate. She just doesn’t like to put effort into relationships and friendships. In the end it is just a waste.

“I’m going to the library. Can you please clean up your desk one of these days?”

“Why? We know your hands are itching to do it for me.”

“Bye Tessa.”

“Do me a favor and hold onto this “classmate”, maybe that will help improve your mood, Miss Bossy.”

***

He is sitting on the steps of the stair at the entrance, his head turning from the road to the doors after she opens them, and Claire sees him smile with something akin to relief painted on his face.

Why?

“Hey!”

“Hi Evan.” She makes an effort to sound nice, but… “Now this is a surprise.”

How does he even know where she lives?

“I asked around. You know, for some reason I had this idea that everyone would know who Claire Gardiner was. That you would be super popular on campus.”

Since she was an attention-seeker who settled for being second best to Hannah…

“Things have changed.” Claire shrugs, refusing to elaborate on something they shouldn’t talk about.

Evan stands up, and being one step below her on the stairs, he still manages to match her height.

“Do you want to go for that coffee now?”

He’s always been the persistent type.

“Fine. Do you know that coffee shop that’s on the 4th? They have the most delicious banana muffins.”

“Really?”

Those have always been his favorite.

***

She thinks it’s okay to satiate her curiosity and ask why he transferred from L.A. After all, he was the one seeking out her company.

“I couldn’t afford the tuition anymore.” He says, as if it was that simple. As far as she knows, his family is loaded with money. Mr. and Mrs. Brown made a point to throw the most lavish parties since the first day they moved to Green Valley. As if sensing her confusion, he explains further. “My mom was helping me pay for school, but she is having some difficulties.”

She’s still confused, until something clicks in his mind and she realizes he isn’t talking about his stepmother. Rick had never mentioned their biological mother, and neither had Evan, as far as Claire knew. So she was, in fact, still in the picture.

“But what about your father?”

He winces. “We… had a fall-out of sorts.”

Touchy subject. She decides to keep eating in silence, but the thing about making conversation with someone is that you have to fill the awkward silences with anything. It’s Evan who takes that step, again.

“What about you? Have you gone to Green Valley recently?”

Or maybe is retribution for reminding him of unsavory moments of the past.

“No. I’m too busy with school.”

“Oh, right. You are still working on music, right? I saw on the bulletin board that the  Christmas Concert is set for mid-december, so you must be busy.”

Suddenly her muffin doesn’t taste good anymore.

“Actually, I don’t sing anymore.” She says with a smile, doing her best attempt to brush it off. “I’m more interested in literature these days.”

People change. He’s changed too, going from the Brown’s golden boy to someone who might or might not have been disinherited by his father.

“We should go. I still have homework to do.”

He nods and follows her as she stands up, ready to leave the shop. But then, right when she thinks there’s nothing else to say, he asks: “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why don’t you sing anymore?”

She clenches her fists.

“I can’t.”

“Is it because of…” How much she wishes he wouldn’t mention that person. He doesn’t. “Because of the injuries you got then? But the doctor said there wouldn’t be long-term effects.”

She turns to look at him.

“How do you know about the problem with my vocal chords?”

This was something she never wanted anyone to know, for a matter of pride more than anything. So she hid it from everyone, even those who cared enough to support her through the trial, and she did not use it against Erick either.

Claire thinks of it as her secret. Evan isn’t so close to her that he should know.

“I visited you when you were at the hospital.”

He did?

“Or well, I intended to. But Kat helped me see I would be the last person you would have liked to see back then.”

No, that would be Erick. But just like she feels his pity like a slap on her face now, it would have been so much worse when everything was recent.

She purses her lips and gathers the courage to cross the doors of the cafe.

“Claire, wait.”

“We don’t have to do this, you know. Being friendly, or hanging out with each other.”

There’s a frown that ruins his perfect face, but then she sees his shoulders falling, as if he’s resigning to this truth.

“I’m sorry.” He whispers, “I guess I was being selfish. Of course you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you,” she blurts out without thinking. “I just… Evan, I appreciate what you did for me back then. Truly. You are one of the nicest people I have ever known, and I know you are nothing like your brother. But still-”

“I’m his brother.” He offers a weak smile of understanding. “I know. Take care, Claire.”

Both of them are supposed to go back in the same direction, but he takes the opposite road and wanders somewhere else. She stands there, staring at his back until she snaps out of it. 

This was the only possible outcome of their meeting.

Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App

Latest chapter

  • To Duet With You   Throw out our cloaks and daggers, it is morning now

    “How could it go like this? You were here just three hours earlier than me…” She complains while pressing the bag of ice to his lips, “and now you have bruises here and there.”“He got it worse.”This is no comfort for her. Claire decided to come because she worried Evan would be alone at a time like this, but she did not imagine he would get into a fight with Rick as soon as they saw each other. That horrible, hideous bastard.She only had to see him for a couple of minutes, but it took all of her strength to remain calm in his presence. Unexpectedly, Evan could not do the same. How did Rick provoke him so?“You did not need to come, Claire.”“I know you wanted to protect me, but I didn't want you to be alone.”“I have to go back to the house tomorrow, after that I’ll pick you up and we can go back home.”He wants to spare her from having to face Rick again, and frankly, she is grateful for it. Since she chose to love Evan, it was inevitable that some encounters would happen even if

  • To Duet With You   Back in town

    Mr. Brown died in a car crash. He was driving drunk, apparently. Evan still doesn’t know much besides the few words his stepmother told him on the phone, and a text message with the details of the funeral.In this kind of situation, Claire doesn't know what to do or what to say except help him pack,“Do you want me to go with you?”She has not been back to Green Valley for so long, and the prospect of doing it now fills her with dread. Evan must know that, too, because he shakes his head and mutters that it is not necessary.“It won't take long. I’ll just be away for a couple of days and you have classes.”Perhaps he just can’t handle that, too, at a moment like this. There is no doubt that going with him means encountering Rick face to face, and she isn't ready for that.“Okay. I’ll take you to the bus station, then.”“I can drive, we’re just a few hours from the town.” He cups her face and kisses her forehead. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”He barely slept a couple of hours, but even

  • To Duet With You   You can run, but you cannot hide from the family line

    Life is like this. She doesn't have a perfect family, with two parents who have been negligent (to put it nicely), a stepmother who could have been her sister, and two young kids who are her actual siblings and have no idea of the messed up world of the adults. Contrary to her expectations, the week goes by without incidents. She suspects her father might have said something mean to Evan again, but he is tight-lipped about it and anyway it appears to have been resolved, so she doesn’t ask any further.Perhaps the only detail that made her feel uncomfortable is that, in such a big house, she still gets woken up by Jossie crying at 2 a.m. Rushed footsteps from Helen always follow and Claire thinks babies are indeed cute, but they suck all of their parents’ energy, there's no doubt about it. They are leaving after breakfast, and she doesn’t get much sleep afterwards. Her gaze falls on her boyfriend, who doesn’t seem to have the same problem.“How unfair…”In the silent hours before the

  • To Duet With You   Let's get a family portrait that looks pretty normal.

    He remembers Claire’s mother was a beautiful woman, and yet she wore a permanent scowl on her face that made her look older than what she probably was. Now he meets Mr. Gardiner’s current wife, and can see the man definitely had a type (blond, slender, with milky skin and big eyes, she could easily pass as Claire’s older sister). It’s disturbing, actually, and he kind of understands how a person could become bitter and filled with hatred after such a betrayal. Evan would be more willing to sympathize with Claire’s mother if her treatment of her daughter had not been so awful. He keeps this judgment to himself, since this visit is already a challenge for Claire as it is. “Well, then I’ll let you both rest until dinner is ready.” “Thank you, Helen.” At the stairs, the little boy is staring at them with curious eyes, but he keeps his distance, and when Evan waves at him, he runs away. A timid kid, then. The baby, Jossie, is too young to remember Claire later, but her brother, Tom, is

  • To Duet With You   One-year milestone.

    Singing from the comfort of home, or sharing her covers through the distance of her channel are very different from being on stage. This is the first time since she was in high school, and how fitting it is that Claire attended this concert in this auditorium exactly a year ago… because that was also the start of her relationship with Evan.“Are you nervous?” He asks.How can she not be? She is drumming her fingers on a desk, thinking of what could go wrong. What if her voice just does not cooperate? If she freezes and humiliates herself in front of the public….You think you are good, but outside of this city you will be just a nobody with mediocre abilities at best.Erick would say something like that. He had said things like that, but she knows there is no value in any of those words trying to bring her down, and there are people outside of Green Valley that genuinely appreciate her.So this is something she must do.“A little bit.” She admits, his thumb stroking the back of her ha

  • To Duet With You   You feel like home

    When August comes, Claire thinks she never had a summer as good as this one. They spent a week with the Fogels in July, and although Halley still has to do her check-ups every month, she is doing good, which also translates in Evan worrying a little bit less. Afterward they spent a good part of the summer looking for an apartment, before finally landing on this one.“Where do you want me to assemble the bookshelf?”“Hmm. What about this spot? And we can have your desk over there.”“I think this corner will do for your videos. What do you think?”“Uhmm, the light is better on this side.”It takes a while to unpack and decide where everything will go, fitting everything in the small one-bedroom apartment is not an easy task, but they manage to do it in one afternoon, and then throw themselves on their brand new mattress completely exhausted.“I like how this looks now.”The bedroom walls are mostly naked, but she can see it slowly becoming their home. It’s crazy she is doing this with

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status