Page 43 of Try Hard
“I love this song,” she whispered, still watching me, her arm on the arm rest and so close to me. I could see the line of every toned muscle.
“Me too. But you really can put something else on.”
She shook her head. “I want to know what you listen to.”
I side-eyed her. “Poser indie rock.”
As if to prove me wrong, the song ended and a soft, beautiful Lilla Vargen song kicked in.
“Of course,” Eve said. “This suits you. I’d have guessed something like this, but I’m delighted to be surprised too.”
I breathed a laugh. “I like the poser indie stuff too. Just so you know.”
“Except when you need your pop hits.”
I smiled ruefully at her and handed her my phone, giving her free range of my playlists. “Except then.”
She lit up, brushing our fingers together again as she took the phone. “I like the poser indie stuff too,” she said as I put the car into gear. “And pop music.”
Chapter Fourteen
Eve
Iwas positively incandescent with joy sitting beside Ophelia, in her car, scrolling through her playlists and being absolutely delighted at both how vast her musical tastes were and, often, how much we had in common. Even with some of the lesser known artists I enjoyed, which felt like winning the lottery.
When we were halfway home, she cleared her throat. “Are we going to your mum’s or your dad’s?”
I looked up from her phone and smiled at the gentleness in her voice. “Dad’s would be great. He lives on Woodgrove Road.”
“Are you ferrying between the two?” Her brow creased but she kept her eyes on the road.
“A little. I’m sleeping at my mum’s, but I like to see him too. He just doesn’t have as much space as she does.” I hesitated, wondering how much she wanted to know, but, when she glanced quickly at me, I knew she was open to whatever I wanted to say. “They get along well and everything’s fine between them, but he sort of… felt like he’d never find someone else after thedivorce, so he moved into a… studio? It’s big for a studio, but like, kind of open plan. You know, bachelor pad vibes.”
She smiled good naturedly. “That’s fair. It must have been a hard time for both of them.”
I swallowed, nodding. “It was.”
“And for you.”
My eyes traced her profile. So perfect. The slightest little upturn at the tip of her nose. She had one of those noses people paid surgeons good money for, while I was lucky that mine had somehow stayed in place through multiple fractures.
She frowned. “Sorry. You aren’t required to talk about that.”
“No, no. It was… tricky for me too. I just… I was thinking about how sweet it was of you to consider that.”
She visibly relaxed, checking over her shoulder mostly to look away, I imagined. “Well, just because you were an adult when it happened doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard.”
“Yeah, I guess. Not quite as world-changing as when you’re a kid, and all I really want is for them to be happy and, if that wasn’t together, I support that for them. But, it was a little weird. Getting used to calling two different places, visiting two different homes. Suddenly worrying about whether either of them is lonely. It’s an odd thing knowing your parents are human and likely crying over the collapse of their marriage but not being sure how to help or what to do.”
She was quiet, considering my words. Ophelia had always been like that—thoughtful, considerate. Teachers commented on it repeatedly when we were at school. It felt like they’d never met a student so measured before.
The playlist switched to an upbeat song that absolutely did not fit the tone of the conversation, but I simply smiled at her phone and let it play.
“I’m sure they were simply grateful not to lose you, and to get through it as amicably as possible,” she said softly.
I nodded, leaning my head back against the seat again to watch her. I liked seeing more of this side of her—who she was when it was just the two of us. “Yeah. They’ve both stated many times that they’re in such a better place with each other than they were at the end of their marriage, and, whether or not it’s a little unusual, our family works.”
She smiled. While she drove, concentrating so fully on the road, her expressions seemed to come more freely.
