Page 18 of Jaime
I’d been a bit surprised when he’d stopped himself from saying he wasn’t into men. The way he looked at me said otherwise, but it could easily just be admiration too. By his age, he would know.
“I’m going to add a stop,” I told the driver.
He nodded as I added one on the app, directing us to my house.
My place in Gaynor Heights was close by. As we pulled up to my place, I suddenly felt self-conscious.
First, spending a load of money on a virtual stranger, then bringing him to my house, which made his apartment look even smaller by comparison. I hoped he didn’t think I was stuck-up or a showoff.
I wanted Jaime to like me. That much was obvious to me. Just as much as I wanted Evie to be safe and happy, I wanted to get to know Jaime.
One day together and it already felt like our energies matched. I was drawn to him the way I hadn’t been to anyone in years.
But he wasn’t into me that way, I reminded myself. And that was fine. It wasn’t why I was doing this. I’d always felt that if I could make a difference in one child’s life, all my years of work would be worth it. This was that child. There would be more, too, but I had chosen Evie and Jaime for obvious reasons. I couldn’t allow what had happened twenty-six years ago to happen again.
“I’ll just be a second,” I said, “Unless you want to come inside while I grab some stuff?”
“I’ll stay with Evie,” Jaime said.
I nodded and hopped out of the car as soon as it rolled to a stop.
I froze the second I was standing in the parking lot, looking up the steps at the front door. Evan was standing there, waiting for me.
For a moment, his eyes lit up when he saw me. Then, noticing I hadn’t moved, Jaime opened his door window.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
From his angle, he couldn’t see the front door, but Evan heard his voice and seemed to inflate with anger, crossing his arms.
“Nice,” he spat. “Really nice. Set up a date with me and blow me off for someone else without even canceling on me?”
I cringed.
“Ah... shit.”
“Yeah,” he said, rolling his eyes and marching down the steps.
I expected a slap or something, but Evan just bent down at my open door and glared inside.
“Don’t expect him not to blow you off too,” he said, then paused, finally noticing Evie.
He grinned and stood, patting me on the shoulder.
“Yeah, that looks likewaymore fun than me.”
Chuckling, he walked away, leaving me wanting to bury my head in the ground.
I bent down slowly to look inside.
Both Jaime and Evie were watching me with wide eyes.
“Uh... I’ll be right back.”
I practically ran inside, straight to my bookshelf, collecting one of each of my books as a gift for them. The whole while, my stomach squirmed. The last thing I wanted was for Jaime to think I was just trying to use him in some sinister way.
I climbed back into the Uber with my tail between my legs, silently cursing myself for forgetting to cancel with Evan.
“Here,” I muttered. “For you to read to Evie.”
