Chapter 29-Innocent Crush(1)
Typing away at my laptop, I tried getting as much work done as possible. Evan’s sister was going to arrive this afternoon and he was picking her up from the airport together with Nick. They were familiar to her, the guys in her life who treated her like a princess who needed to be kept locked away in an ivory tower. Glancing at my phone which laid beside my laptop I annoyed myself, Evan would call or text me when she’d arrive. Yet I couldn’t help but t wonder about him. I was too into him, always thinking about him. It was driving me nuts.Exclusive content from NôvelDrama.Org.
I nearly jumped out of my chair when the device started ringing, inhaling deeply I tried to calm my racing heart down and reached for my phone. The display told me it was Laurel and not Evan. Trying to hide the disappointment I answered the phone.
“Hey, Laurel.”
“Hey, girl. You busy today?”
I glanced at my screen, I still needed to respond to a few emails and upload another article. I was quite busy, but like Evan always told me, you needed to make time for the people who you cared about.
“I’m working right now, but if it’s urgent I can free some time to meet up.”
“No, that’s okay.” She told me, her voice telling me she actually meant it, “I had some free time so I figured we could meet up for lunch.” I could hear Laurel moving around the city, probably heading to a restaurant to grab some lunch, “How is Evan doing?”
I didn’t tell Laurel about the girl yet, when we got back from Tokyo we had been working on so many personal issues together. I didn’t have the time to pick up the phone and have a girl talk with Laurel. Now I felt guilty, I had relied on her yet I didn’t take the time to ease her worries as well.
“I totally forgot.” I told Lauren, “Evan is fine by the way.” I told her with a smile, “The girl who texted him is actually his little sister, Priscilla. She’s coming over today, staying for a few weeks or so.”
“Seriously.” Laurel let out a sigh of relief, making me smile, “I’m glad because you know, that boy is fine. I liked the way he took care of me even though he didn’t even know me. He just did it because he knew I’m important to you. A boy like that is marriage material, Zoey.”
I was well aware of that. I knew there wouldn’t be another guy out there for me who’d compare to Evan.
“He definitely is.”
“You’re aware of this?” Laurel sounded excited, getting worked up by something which wasn’t within reach yet, they just started dating, “Should I start dress shopping?”
“No. We just started dating, marriage is the last thing we need to think about right now.” I rolled away from my desk and stared out the window, “We’re working on some personal matters. We talked to my parents and today we’re dealing with Evan’s little sister.”
“You talked to your parents?!” Laurel must have made people around her stop and stare because she was being loud without holding back, “That’s something else, Zoey. You’ve been avoiding that issue for months, afraid to face them. Why did you decide to talk to them now?” Laurel was silent for a minute and then broke the silence with a chuckle, “Right, it’s Evan, isn’t it?”
I couldn’t deny that. He was the one who pushed me to see my parents and open up to them. I was grateful to him for pushing me like that. Things weren’t as strained as they used to be. My mother was finally supporting me, it was my father who still needed to let go of his fantasies about me and my future. I hoped that he’d eventually see that I was doing okay on my own and that Evan wasn’t some boy who I was having fun with. He was my future.
“So what’s wrong with his sister?” Laurel continued, not giving me time to respond, “She trouble?”
“No. She’s never around, but Evan wants her to be around, yet he’s afraid to tell her that.”
“I see.” I could hear the smile in Lauren’s voice, “I’ve decided to start looking for a dress.”
Groaning I covered my eyes with my hand, trying to ease the frustration I felt with Laurel bringing up marriage again. I couldn’t let myself fantasize about that yet, it would crush me if Evan wasn’t on the same page as me. I couldn’t let Laurel plant that idea in my head, I needed to let it go.
“Stop it.” I told her quietly, “Let us figure things out first, then we’ll talk about marriage.”
“Sure.” Laurel didn’t sound like she listened to me at all, “But just so you know, I think that Evan is thinking marriage too. Why else would he be focusing on fixing things which could potentially become an issue in your future?”
“I don’t want to get my hopes up, Laurel.” I told her quietly, gripping my phone tighter in my hand, “I’ll admit that Evan is definitely not the guy I thought he was. He’s amazing and yes I do love him. But he was the kind of guy who didn’t do relationships, only casual sex. So I don’t want to get in his space and push him, things need to come naturally to us.”
“You’re right.” Laurel agreed, “There is just one more thing I’m going to say and then I’ll drop it, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Don’t you think that he was sleeping around like that because he was searching for something, or better yet someone who made him feel something deeper than lust?”
“Laurel…”
“Just think about that. Gotta go, I’m going all out and eat sushi for lunch.”
I laughed, shaking my head at my crazy girl, “Thanks, enjoy your lunch.”
“Bye girl, good luck.”
Ending the call I rolled back to my desk and placed the phone down beside my laptop again. After that call, I couldn’t focus anymore. Laurel’s words were floating around in my head, making me wonder about Evan. I knew he was never serious about any of his women, simply because they didn’t interest them. Yet he never stopped sleeping around. Was he actually searching for someone who he felt something more than just lust or was it something else? I couldn’t help but to think about his past which he told me nothing about, I wondered if the problem was much more complex. I could be wondering about those things all afternoon, but that would only be a waste of time. Instead, I got up went to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee and powered through my work, getting shit done. It felt good turning my mind off and focus on nothing at all, just working on auto-pilot. I kept repeating to myself to be patient and let things flow naturally. Eventually, we’d get there.