جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 180

Evelyn Theo suggested drinks and I just obliged without thinking much. I found the best dress with an open back and a slit across my thighs because I wanted to make a good impression on him free so many years. We found a corner table and I sat across from him, crossing my legs and told managed to convince myself I was in complete control of the situation. I was not in complete control of the situation. He leaned forward with both forearms on the table and the tattoos on his right arm caught the bar light and I picked up my menu and studied it like my life depended on the cocktail selection trying so hard to avoid eye contact. “You look good Evelyn,” he said. “I know,” I said it so fast before he his compliment even dropped. The corner of his mouth pulled up into a slow devastating smirk and my nipples hardened under my dress. Just like that. Instantly. Traitorously. I kept my face completely neutral and flagged down the waiter. We ordered “Tell me about the firm,

Evelyn They walked in together just as the waiter set down my eggs.Jake came first with that wide warm smile already aimed at Clara and she lit up the way she always did when he walked into a room and I watched it and filed it away because that right there was the thing I had been listening to all summer on the phone. That smile she had when she saw him.Theo was behind him in a white linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up and dark trousers and I picked up my fork and looked at my eggs and told myself to eat.Jake pulled up a chair beside Clara and kissed her cheek and she immediately grabbed his arm and said “Jake this is my mom.”Jake looked at me with a smile that didn’t waver for a second. “Mrs Cole. Clara talks about you constantly.”“Does she,” I said.“All good things,” he said.“Mm.” I set my fork down and folded my hands on the table. “So Jake. What do you do?”Clara groaned. “Mom.”“I’m asking a question.”“She does this,” Clara said to Jake. “She’s a lawyer. She likes cro

Evelyn Clara announced the rooftop bar over dessert and nobody argued with her. We took the lift up at ten thirty. The city spread out below us in every direction, gold and sprawling and relentless. Sophie had her arm through Theo’s the entire ride up, laughing at something Jake said, her fingers curled around his forearm. Clara watched me over her shoulder. I looked at the ceiling of the lift and counted floors. The bar was loud and packed. A DJ in the far corner sending bass through the floor. Lights strung low across the open ceiling. People everywhere with drinks in their hands and nothing serious on their minds. Some who were Clara’s friends who had flown in her . Clara grabbed Jake’s hand the moment we cleared the door and pulled him toward the dancefloor. Nathan peeled off toward the bar. Sophie spotted someone across the room, pressed a quick kiss to Theo’s jaw and disappeared into the crowd with her red dress swishing behind her. Theo looked at me. Then I walked to the r

Clara had told her three times not to bring the work laptop. “Five days Mom. Five. You will survive.” She had brought it anyway and right now at eleven thirty at night she was sitting cross legged on the bed in her robe with a document open and an email half typed to her team because five days without checking in genuinely felt like a health risk. She was mid sentence when the knock came. She frowned at the door and padded over and opened it. Room service. A young man with a trolley and a polite smile waiting for her to step aside. “I didn’t order anything,” she said. “Compliments of villa 412 ma’am,” he said. She stepped aside. He rolled the trolley in and she signed the slip and he left and she closed the door and stood there looking at the covered tray for a moment before she lifted the silver lid. Her stomach dropped. Pasta aglio e olio. Garlic bread on the side. Sparkling water with a slice of lemon sitting on the rim of the glass. Her late night order. The

Theo was still on the terrace when Jake let himself in.He didn’t knock. Just walked through the villa door, grabbed the chair across from Theo, spun it around and sat on it backwards with his arms folded across the top and looked at his uncle with an expression that had been building since Sophie’s phone call ended.Theo looked at the lake.“She cried for forty minutes,” Jake said.“On my phone. Forty minutes.” He added “I know Jake.”Jake watched him for a moment. “You didn’t go back to the room last night.”Theo said nothing.“I knocked at two. Nothing. Knocked at three. Still nothing.” He tilted his head. “Where were you.”“Walking,” Theo said.“Walking,” Jake repeated flatly.“Yes.”“You ended things with your girlfriend and went for a walk.”“Yes.”Jake stared at him. “Bro that’s old.”Jake shook his head and looked at the lake then back at his uncle. “She kept asking me who Evelyn is. I told her I didn’t know.” He paused. “Which is true. Because you have never mentioned this w