Page 16 of EverGreene
The latch to the glove box clicked as Ever opened it, only to slam it shut seconds later when she realized the box was empty, glaring at me. “You could have told me there was nothing in there.”
Excuse me.I raised my hand in a what did you expect me to do kind of way. Even if I had told her it was empty, she still would have looked inside, anyway.
“Nothing,” Ever said to Katy after retrieving her phone from her lap. “Yeah, we have a real professional stalker on our hands here.”
Actually, you’re my first, but I appreciate the compliment, even though calling me a stalker was a bit harsh.
“No. I’m okay. If he starts taking me down some back country road out in the middle of nowhere, I’ll unload this entire container of pepper spray on him.”
A tad aggressive and unnecessary, but point noted.
“Okay. I’ll call you later to come pick me up, so I can get my car from your place.” Ever placed the phone back in her lap,switching the pepper spray to her other hand. “So, why me? What is it about me that made you think, yup, that’s her. I’m going to start stalking her.”
There’s that word again. I mean, would a stalker find their coworker’s address in their employment file located in a conveniently unlocked filing cabinet, drive to their home, hide just out of sight to watch them after noticing they’d had a particularly bad day at work, while also occasionally sending them anonymous gifts to be left on their front porch?
Okay. So maybe Iwasbeing a tad bit on the stalker side, except I have nothing but good intentions, so that had to count for something, right? Maybe I wasn’t a full-on stalker but more like the Diet Coke of stalkers. Refreshing, and I also wouldn’t murder you later. A win-win, really.
“Are you going to answer me?” Ever asked.
I took my hand and made a zipping motion across my concealed lips with my fingers.
“Seriously? Okay, then. How many other women are you stalking?”
I whipped my head around to glare back at her.What kind of stalker did she think I was?A tad insulting, if you asked me. Doing my best to act as slighted as possible, I formed a zero with my fingers, noticing that Ever seemed to perk up at the news that there wasn’t another woman in the picture.
Interesting.
“Are you some superhero cosplayer or something, then? If you are, you have to be one of the rich ones with all the disposable income you seem to have. Like Bruce Wayne. But instead of Rolexes and fancy dinners, you send practical gifts—a coffee maker, pepper spray, multiple orgasms.”
I snorted, clasping one hand over my mouth to mask any further sound Ever may recognize, nodding after I’d regained control of myself again.
“That’s what I thought.” She kept her eyes on me, but I noticed that she’d placed the hand that was still gripping the pepper spray in her lap. One may call that progress.
We pulled into Ever’s driveway at around ten o’clock. I parked the car, turning my head to look at her. Seemingly understanding what I was looking for, Ever nodded, which told me to cut the engine and follow her inside. The neighborhood where she lived wasn’t exactly in the best part of town. Numerous homes had been boarded up, some in foreclosure, some former drug houses. People who lived in the houses that hadn’t been condemned tended to keep to themselves, more suspicious than neighborly. For someone like Ever—a stranger in a strange town, running from her past—it allowed her to fit right in. No one would ever take the time to get to know her, and she was all the safer for it.
“Are you kidding me?” Ever asked, instantaneously putting me on high alert, my muscles tensing up in response to the adrenaline. “Another package? Gifting me the feather you stole from my costume to assert your dominance wasn’t enough; you had to spend money on me, too, this week?”
I shrugged, offering to take the package from her as she unlocked the front door and flipped on the light switch when we walked inside. Her home was small, probably no more than a thousand square feet or so. Perfect for one person. Nothing remarkable with its bland white walls, but there was promise if you were willing to put in the work.
“Vinny, I swear I didn’t forget about you,” she cooed to something in an aquarium against her wall. Not taking Ever for the type to have a pet, I took a few steps closer to the aquarium and peered inside.
A turtle?
If I had been given ten guesses, I still wouldn’t have pegged Ever as being a reptile mom. Turtles aren’t cuddly. They didn’tgreet you at the door like a dog or jump in your lap while you’re trying to read, knocking the book from your hands like entitled, asshole cats. I guess it made sense, though. Turtles kept to themselves, retreating inside their shells whenever things got too peopley. Actually, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense that a turtle would be Ever’s spirit animal.
In awe, I watched her reach inside the aquarium and brush her fingertips along the painted turtle’s outstretched neck as though she were petting Vinny like a Golden Retriever.
“That’s a good boy, Vincent,” she cooed, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of a turtle for a few seconds. As I watched her, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Vinny’s short, thin tail meant Ever’s beloved male turtle was actually a female turtle, but Vinny didn’t seem at all fazed, so who was I to interfere?
A small, round dining room table stood close to the aquarium, making a perfect landing spot for the latest gift I’d sent to Ever. And just from a quick, cursory glance around, I was getting a few more ideas for things to send in the future.
“Have a seat at the table.” I turned around to see Ever closing the top of the aquarium. She still hadn’t put down the pepper spray, which was understandable when inviting the man who had technically been toeing the line between legally and illegally violating your personal space for the last several months inside your home for the first time. She eyed me up and down as she walked past me on her way to the small kitchen, returning seconds later with a pair of scissors.
Ever sat across from me, where she finally set the pepper spray down on the table and scooted the box to her, slicing the top open with the blade of her scissors. “Honestly. You need to stop. Even if you’re rich and all of this is just a drop in the bucket to you, I have absolutely no way to repay you for this.”
I held out the palm of my hand, miming as though I were writing on it.
“You know, if you would just talk to me, there wouldn’t be a need for you to write anything down. In fact, I hear it may even save time and several eyerolls from me.”
