Page 22 of Tattoo My Heart
I take a moment to think of a good enough reason. I let out a sigh of relief when a lightbulb comes on in my head.
“I have a boyfriend.”
EIGHT
“There ain’t no fuckin’way she has a boyfriend,” my buddy Alex declares after I am done telling him and James about my encounter with Evelyn earlier today. “She was just trying to get rid of you.”
In all honesty, I just wanted to tell James about it. But Alex bulldozed his way into my house as soon as I started talking to our other friend.
“He’s not wrong,” James agrees.
I roll my eyes toward the ceiling.
“I figured as much. I need to come up with a better plan.”
My knee bounces up and down from where I’m sitting at the breakfast bar in my large kitchen.
“Dude,” Alex snickers. “I didn’t know you wanted to bone your sister.”
I turn surprised eyes his way.
“She is most definitelynotmy sister. And the fact that’s where your mind went is very concerning,” I warn him.
“What am I supposed to think?” His eyes are big in his head now. “You never talked about her in any way, and now you wanna fuck her?”
All of a sudden, I feel anger.
“That is not what this is about,” I point a finger at him in warning. “And don’t you dare repeat that again.”
Alex gives me a surprisingly serious face. “I’m sorry, man. No disrespect intended.”
I roll my eyes again, already putting him out of my mind.
“What about the app?” James intervenes. “Did she respond to your message?”
My hand automatically goes to my cell phone. I unlock it and get into my account, so anxious to see if Evie answered to my message on there.
“Nothing yet,” I mutter through my clenched jaw. I feel inexplicably angry. What is the holdup anyway? She is the one who signed up for this before I did.
“Carrie told me last night that Nancy wanted to hook Evelyn up with some nephew of hers.”
James’ words remind me of what Evie’s employee was talking about yesterday when I was at her shop.
“She wants nothing to do with that,” I declare with conviction.
“Maybe you should be more worried about it, dude,” Alex, the surprising voice of reason tells me.
“Why’s that?”
“Because what if she hits it off with this guy? Then she doesn’t need you at all. For anything. She’ll bring him to the party, they’ll get married, have babies…”
I cut him off in an instant.
“Your obsession with people making babies is really disturbing lately, so you know.”
“Fuck,” Alex shudders and rubs his hands up and down his face. “Don’t I know it! Ever since Mona said that shit to me, I can’t even touch her anymore.”
Both me and James turn surprised eyes his way.
