Page 46 of The Fine Art of Faking It
She dropped the napkins in a heap. “Look, Davis. I’m trying my hardest to continue intensely disliking you, and you’re not making it very easy.”
His lips quirked. “I’m not sorry about that. Don’t you think it’s time we moved on from high school?”
Eden raised her gaze to his. “Where would we go from here?”
He stepped in closer, his arm brushing hers. “I’d like to get to know you without the pitchforks and I Hate Davis Gates t-shirts.”
“I only wore that once.”
“To my graduation.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve been dazzled by my ability to scrub a toilet and make crepes,” Eden said lightly.
“Cards on the table? I’ve been dazzled by you since I was sixteen,” he said running a finger around the icing of his cupcake and bringing it to his mouth. “That hasn’t changed.”
“Have you been drinking?” Eden whispered, leaning in to smell his breath. This was not how she’d seen her day going.
“No,” Davis laughed. “I’ve been living under the same roof as you and it’s bringing everything back. I liked you a lot at seventeen and eighteen when you were badass. Enough to think about you all those years I was in California. But now? Seeing the woman you’ve become up close, I’m floored.”
“Davis…” Eden didn’t know what to say to that. There was a time in her history that those words from this man would have had her throwing her arms around his neck. Even now, hearing them plucked a heart string or two.
“You can’t deny the attraction.” He stepped in closer and like clockwork, Eden’s body revved at his proximity.
Flustered, she took a step back. “I’m working right now. I don’t have time to discuss this… this… whatever the hell this is.” She kept her voice low.
“I know I’ve thrown you for a loop,” Davis began.
“You haven’t done anything to me,” she said primly, despite the fact that her heart was climbing its way out of her throat. “I need to serve the tea.” She took another step back to put some distance between them.
“Davis. We have a problem,” Claudia said, appearing next to them. She pointed to her brother. Rubin was flapping his hands like a baby bird trying to take off.
“I’m on it,” Davis promised. He crossed to the boy who was by now in full-on distress.
Rubin dropped the tablet to the floor and covered his ears, rocking side to side. He wailed, fat tears running down his little cheeks.
Eden felt her heart break for him.
“It’s too loud,” Claudia yelled.
“Okay, buddy. Let’s get you out of here,” Davis said, making a move to pick him up.
“Hang on. I got this! Guys, we have to be quiet for Rubin,” Aurora announced, pushing her way into their little circle.
Rubin threw himself back onto the rug. Eden recalled the handout Davis had given her.Loud noises and bright lights, she thought. She flicked the switch turning the overhead lights off. Davis shot her a grateful look.
“What do we do?” a girl in a bright yellow dress with embroidered duckies on the skirt asked, leaning down.
Aurora shooed the kids back from Rubin. “Okay, people! Everybody be quiet and lay down!” She flopped down on the floor near Rubin and lay still. She gestured for the girl to do the same.
The other kids followed suit around the room. Eden looked at Davis, shrugged, and joined them. The floor was hard and cool beneath her. But Davis was warm beside her.
“We should probably hum something,” Aurora told them in a stage whisper. “Rubin likes music.”
A quiet argument about exactly what to hum ensued. Claudia finally won by insisting that since it was a birthday party, they should be humming “Happy Birthday.”
“We don’t have to worry about any litigious repercussions,” she whispered. “The copyright ended in 2016.”
The party guests began to hum, painfully out of tune. They sounded like a defective kazoo band.
