Page 64 of Sure, Pal

30

Sienna

Early Saturday morning, I sat in bed and stared at my phone in shock. “Babe.” I nudged Evan with my elbow.

“Hmm?” He gave me a confused and sleepy look. God, it was adorable. It made me want to fuck him before breakfast. But then again, I did that every day.

“Ava liked my last three posts. Two of them were about my music, but one of them was a photo with you.”

Evan yawned. “Which pic? Was it a cute one?”

I laughed and shoved his shoulder. “The one at the smoothie shop.”

“Yep.” Evan grinned at me. “That one’s adorable.”

“That’s all you’re going to say? Ava liked it! What the hell does that mean? I’ve had zero interaction with her for like seven or eight months! Don’t you think this is weird?” I still stared at the notification on my phone. Ava Mills Official liked your photo.

Evan shrugged. “I don’t give a shit about what Ava is up to or what Ava thinks. I’m still pissed about the way she treated you when you told her about us. I don’t ever want to see you swept up in her manipulative bullshit again.”

“Ava’s not…” I began.

Evan propped himself up on his elbows and raised a single eyebrow at me. His blue eyes burned into me, daring me to defend his ex-girlfriend and my ex-best friend.

I sighed. “Yeah. She’s manipulative and selfish. But she wasn’t always that way. I miss the loud, silly girl that stepped on my hand in middle school.” I set my phone on the bedside table and lay back on the pillows.

“Come here.” Evan held out his arms to me, and I settled into him. “I know you miss her. I won’t tell you not to. I don’t want to see any shitty people in your life that will take advantage of how good and kind you are.”

“I love you.” I burrowed into his chest. “I’m not going to start hanging out with her again. I hate the way things ended.”

Evan nodded and kissed the top of my head. “If you want to talk to her again for some kind of closure, I get it. I won’t try to stop you. I will freak out if she tries to get you to break up with me, though.”

I laughed out loud. “I couldn’t ever do that. I’m yours, remember?”

Evan laughed and wrapped his arms more tightly around me. “That’s right. I think we should make it a little more official, though.”

A torrent of butterflies rushed through my stomach. “Oh yeah?” I sounded breathless.

“Yep. Been thinking about it for a while. If I were you, I would make sure the next few Sundays are free and dress up nice just in case.”

I looked into his deep blue eyes and smiled. “So, like every Sunday I should dress up and wait around for you?”

Evan grinned back at me and nodded. “Yep. I can’t completely give it away. All you need to know is that I will ask you to marry me, and it will be soon.”

“Is there anything you need to know?” I asked as I traced his kissable lips with my fingers.

“That you’ll say yes.” Evan slid his hands up the back of my t-shirt and kissed my neck.

Of course, I was going to say yes. Of course, I was going to marry Evan. But I sighed and said, “I can’t completely give it away.”

Evan stopped kissing my neck and stared at me with narrowed eyes. I laughed and pulled his face back down to my neck. “Don’t stop. It makes me want to marry you when you kiss my neck like that.”

???

One week later, I got a private message from Ava. Hey, girl. Want to meet for coffee? I just want to talk.

I stared at the message for a solid twenty minutes. Did I want to meet for coffee? Was closure with Ava even possible after everything that had happened? We were both wrong. We both hurt each other in irreparable ways. Would meeting up and talking hurt even more?

As I considered my options, three little dots appeared in my messaging app. Ava was typing something again.