Evie James

Elias smiles to himself, because, he’s already very soft for the two little girls, giving them nicknames and worrying about them, talking to them when he’s got his head in Casey’s lap. It’s all very sappy and soft and he can’t really deny that side of him anymore. He can however, cover it up with snark. “I’m sure nothing will change once those terrible little womb goblins are born” he tries and then he nods, shrugs, conceding. “I guess my priorities will change a bit though. They’ll probably need a lot of attention, but don’t think that means  you’re getting out of hanging out with me” he says, pointing an accusing finger at her before he goes back to looking through the children’s clothes. And doesn’t that just prove how much his priorities are changing already. “Yes well lets hope my kids are dumber than you were because I can’t lie, on principle” and he’s joking at that, knows that if Casey heard that joke she’d probably punch him in the dick. His eyebrows went up though, at the dress she was holding up, so he made his way over to side of the rack she was on to get a closer look  “They’re simple enough to still be in when they’re older, we’ll get them” he says, but just as he’s about to go back to sifting through the rack, he hears her words and stops, freezes, and narrows his eyes, can feel the protective side of him take the lead “I’m sorry what?” he asks, but he knows he hears her right “Are you all right? Did they get him, or has the NYPD once again been incompetent?”

“Womb goblins,” Evie repeated, finding the term absolutely hilarious. Some old biddy looked at them in absolute horror and walked off, but this only made Evie laugh harder. “Of course, nothing will change, so if Casey has the babies on an early Saturday evening, I’ll expect to see you in your usual spot at LUX? She’ll pop them, babies, out and you’ll be drinking an hour later?” But then he admitted to his priorities changing and of course they would. Evie wasn’t anti-child, she wanted all of that for herself at one point and then seeing Wes again had brought those fantasies back a little. “How the tables have turned. You wanting to spend time with me, I’ll never get over it.” She really should be used to it by now. They had been back in each others lives for a little over four months now. “Perfect,” Evie clapped her hands together in glee and through the two dresses over her arm, “My treat.”

Evie shrugged as they talked about her break-in. She had tried to spin it in a light-hearted way, but it was difficult to do that, “No they got him. But thankfully my security was in the living room. He was smart actually, he saw the guy’s head before he actually climbed over the railing, so he hid out of view until he was halfway through the window, then he grabbed him and floored him. Performed a citizen’s arrest and waited for the cops to show up.” She explained how the situation had gone down. “He was really creepy though; the guy I mean. I walked out because I heard the commotion and he started shouting about how much he loved me and how we were going to get married…”

It was crazy how great Jason actually felt since getting back from his trip. Was that what a month away from your crazy ex did for you? If so, he’d have to make a habit of leaving Melanie to stew in her life more often. Jason felt relaxed, well rested despite how hard he’d worked over there, and he was sure it was visible on his features too.

Evie looked breathtaking and it was getting harder to deny the feelings that were developing. Maybe he needed to speak to her about it, express it, see if she felt the same. Maybe they could really become something.

When she was seated, Jason shrugged and gave a smile at her compliment. ‘Yeah? I changed my hair, thought I would grow it out a bit — but hon, look at you! You look amazing!’ He smiled wider, brighter, and took Evie’s hand as his eyes gave her a once over.

‘That dress is stunning - and I’m sure it’ll look just as great on my bedroom floor later.’ Jason didn’t pause for breath as he picked up the menu and clicked his fingers for a waiter. ‘We’ll have two bottles of your best champagne — aaaand… keep them coming until dinner is finished, okay?’

Evie hoped that the surprise in her tone didn’t insult Jason but the truth was… he looked good. He looked so different, so much so that she hadn’t recognised him and had assumed that he wasn’t even here yet. His hair was longer and it did him the world of good.

She blinked and brought herself back into the moment, “You look good, you should definitely keep the hair,” she’d have never said it to him, but their connection hadn’t exactly been based on physical attraction. He hadn’t been her type in that department. But his personality and his wild ways and the fact that he was good in bed… all of those things were what kept her coming back.

Shaking her head, “Nothing about me has changed, I’m the same as a month ago…” Had he really been gone a month already? In the time they had been sleeping together they had not been exclusive, however they’d spent most free time together and so it had felt weird to call up… well the other guys she had gone to before Jason, when it had been such a long since she’d called them. So she had gone without for a month and now… now there was Wes.  Her eye’s widened when Jason took her hand, they were in public. She gently pulled her hand back and subtly glanced around her.

Still grinning, Jonny gave her a questioning look after hearing her reply. “Oh, so someone you don’t want to be scared off then..?”, he teased, giving her a curious look. His grin quickly faded though when she mentioned that fan. “Wait, someone broke into your apartment?!”, he repeated, some part of him hoping it was only a joke. “I… no.”, still a little confused, he slowly shook his head, “I mean nobody who deserves any.. pointless disliking…”

Evie shrugged, the situation with Wes was still up in the air, she didn’t really know what was going on there but was happy to find out. “You’ll be the first to know if anybody needs scaring off, I promise. But yeah, I was in the bedroom at the time but my assistant and security were in the living room when he hauled himself through the window. He was arrested sharpish. But… he was arrested by my ex-boyfriend, who I didn’t even realise was in New York, so that was a shock to the system.” Evie allowed herself to laugh, “Nobody deserves pointless disliking, but I’m your sister so it’s what I do best.”

Leonard rolls his eyes, although a smile on his lips is a perfect giveaway that he is only teasing her. “I know you do, so predictable.” He decides to ignore the papers completely for now, though. “I didn’t know work could be so frustrating, that’s all.. if you take me to the nearest decent bar I can drink myself to oblivion, sounds perfect.” Leo makes his way towards Evie, linking his arm with hers and gently dragging out of the lobby. “What are you doing here anyway? Came to visit me?” 

“You say that like you don’t love to party too,” But she recognised the teasing smile on his face. Evie listened to her friend, her work was frustrating in a completely different way and for the most part, was extremely fun. “Doesn’t this hotel have a bar? Or are you saying it’s not decent,” she teased with a grin as he linked his arm with hers and dragged her out of the lobby, “Actually, I have a meeting set up in meeting room one. But… I think I’ll accidentally forget it was even happening today.”

Admittedly, he needed to see Claudine considering he hadn’t seen her in a month, but he was too excited to see Evie. It’d been too long for them, and Jason had actually been good and well behaved. After his quick text to Jennifer who reserved a table at a lovely restaurant in Manhattan, Jason had let Evie know and made his way over. It didn’t take long for him to get ready and he’d even let his hair grow out a little.

Maybe she’d like it even more. Jason couldn’t believe that he was actually thinking about what someone else thought about him; that he actually wanted to make an effort.

Shit. Was he falling for her? Even though they were best friends and were supposed to stay like that. Sex wasn’t supposed to change that.

But here he was, sat at the table waiting for Evie to arrive. Jason was dressed in a white button-up shirt and smart blue trousers. His longer hair was pushed back, held with gel and hairspray. His beard was growing a little too. When he saw Evie, Jason sat up straighter and couldn’t stop the smile on his face.

@eviee-james​

Evie was feeling… anxious about seeing Jason again. Wes being back in her life had confused her. He was the only person she had really loved and he was the reason that she had never romantically dated anybody else. What she had with Jason worked, just like what she had with any of the guys she’d had arrangements with in the past worked. Although Jason was the only person who she would have dinner with… before. The others were just a text late at night with a time and a place.

Jason and Evie had been friends for three years now and they were very similar in their ways. They were naturally flirty and they loved to bitch and moan. So whilst he wasn’t her usual type taking their relationship to the next level had made sense. Neither of them wanted anything serious, especially since the first time they slept together had been mere hours after he separated from his wife.

But now Evie was contemplating ending it all for Wes when she didn’t really know what was going on there. They’d made out on her couch the night he came back into her life but he hadn’t let it go and further than that. Stating that he didn’t want to rush things between them.

Evie arrived at the restaurant; her outfit was simple but as stunning as always. A white high neck bodycon with long sleeves that clung to her curves. It had a horizontal slash that showed the curves of her breasts and she paired the outfit with simple white strappy heels and a matching bag.

Once arriving at the restaurant, the maître d′ showed her to the table where Jason was supposed to be waiting. She looked around for him but couldn’t see him.

Guess I’m the first one here.

There was a flash somewhere behind her and she turned toward them to see somebody sheepishly look away. She waited until they dared to glanced back and she smiled politely at them. Once she looked back she noticed somebody looking right at her, a man sitting alone and sitting straight, it then dawned on her that it was Jason. She looked at him with wide eyes and moved forward. He was dressed so smartly and his hair had grown out. “J-Jason…” The maître d′ pulled her seat out for her and she sat down, “You look… amazing.”

J: yeah so much babe

J: I know I missed u

J: can’t wait to see u

E: You did?

J: u ok? U don’t seem excited

J: do u want to get take out instead?

E: No no, sorry. Just had a long day.

E: Le Bernardin sounds amazing.

J: good evening my joie de vivre

J: I have officially been in NY for 2 hrs now

J: Jennifer has booked a reservation at le bernardin & a car will pick u up in an hour

J: c u soon, I missed you 😍❤️❤️❤️😘😘😘

E: You're back?

E: Really?

It had become a different atmosphere in her apartment as they both moved closer to each other. Their conversation had turned into a completely different lane then Wes expected when coming back this evening. He noticed something he hadn’t picked up on since the last time they were together. The way she bit her lip-she wanted to kiss him. He immediately knew when she did it. He wasn’t sure if he could believe any of this was happening, be here he was and he wasn’t sure he wanted to fight it. At least not tonight.  “What’s the whole truth, Evie?” He asked her, his hand coming up to fix her hair in her face.

The tension in the air was palpable. It was clear in how they leaned into each other, how they looked at one another. God she wanted to kiss him. To feel in his lips on hers again. It had been five years since she’d felt that, she should be over it by now but just seeing him again brought all the feelings back and she knew she needed him again. He reached out and brushed a piece of hair from her face, she thought he was going to close the distance and kiss her, but he wanted more than that, he wanted her to tell him exactly how she felt, “Well… I guess, maybe the truth is that… as small of a notion as it is… it reminded me of better times, happier times… times when you were in my life…”

“Yeah, let’s just hope that..”, he agreed with a chuckle, trying not to think about that specific topic for much longer. “Well it would only prove that you are wrong, so.. i’m fine with that!”, he eventually added with a wink. Maybe they weren’t as different as he had thought the first time they had met after all. “Soo.. apart from that… any men or ex boyfriends to scare away that i should know about..? I mean that’s basically the big brother job description isn’t it..?!”, he joked.

Evie shook her head and rolled her eyes, “We’ll see. We’ll see,” But still, she was smirking. The joking and the banter with her brother was nice. “Ermm, no. No Men or ex-boyfriends. None that you need to scare off anyway,” Wes popped into her mind… yeah he definitely didn’t need to be scared off, “However, I did have a crazy fan break into my apartment. What about you, any girlfriends or ex-girlfriend I can take an immediate and pointless disliking to?”

His eyes traveled her face before meeting his eye. “We can’t act like it didn’t happen.”He said softly. “That doesn’t mean we can’t learn from a mistake-right?” He wasn’t even sure what he was asking her, but the words flowed out of his mouth, Cautiously but Effortlessly. It was a contradiction-he knew. But, that’s was what it was like with Eve.

“You think that’ll change?” He asked her, an eyebrow raised at the question. They had their history-yes. However, Wesley would always know Evie better than himself. She was his first love-his only true love he’s ever experienced with anybody. When they talked about the meaning of her passcode, he felt 100 things at once. After all this time she never changed the code from his birthday-did that mean something? Even if she claims it was because she kept forgetting the new codes. “I still use a lot of…Our dates for things, too.” He confessed. “But not just because I kept forgetting.”

Learn from a mistake. What did he mean by that? For a moment Evie was confused, was he talking about them breaking up as a mistake or was he talking about the night after he got back from his first tour? No that couldn’t be it, that wouldn’t even make sense, they hadn’t mentioned that night.

“No,” Evie answered easily, “I don’t. There is nobody on this planet that can compete with you.” Full stop. End of sentence. She could have continued, could have specified that she meant to compete in terms of knowing her, but that was too specific and the sentence alone was perfectly true. Wes was her first in many ways, but he also grounded her too. The wild party girl with the boyfriend who was a little more careful and cautious, he took care of her in so many ways. Evie shifted in her seat, not quite realising that it brought her forward, closer to him. She licked her lips, “You do?” Now she bit down softly on her lip. She didn’t say anything for a solid minute, not long really but it felt like an eternity, “Maybe I wasn’t telling the whole truth…” she admitted to the fact that her forgetting wasn’t the sole reason for using his birthday. She hadn’t lied. She had been locked out her phone for forgetting, but she could have chosen another date, something more memorable… but using his birthday as a code, it was like a comfort blanket to her, it was something she would never forget and she felt comforted by it.

The most dangerous part of being a new Hotel Manager was probably the fact that Leonard would often forget he was the face of that branch, and for that he was not meant to be talking about alcohol in the middle of his day if he wanted to cover his true nature with a rather responsible persona – but the damage is done then. Leo’s eyes are widely open for a second when he realises that someone understood what he said, although the woman’s reply completely changed his view on that. “People only drink Tequila to forget something or to party – what’s your burden?” He offers her a charming smile, now fully turned to her. Thank God she had no idea he was the manager, for all she knew he could just be a resident, right?

“Oh, nothing worthy of forgetting for me, I just love a drink and a party,” Evie informed the male, although technically, being able to forget about the meeting she had any minute now, would be handy. “But based on your tone you clearly do. So…” she made a point at glancing at the papers he had been staring at, “Err, a work problem?”

They hadn’t been looking at each other for a long time after he asked about Jason. However, at the confession Eve made, his eyes looked up and met hers. He was unsure of what all that meant, was she too scared to fall in love again? Did she ever fall out of love with him? He wasn’t sure. But, his eyes fixated on her when she talked about her mom, trying to figure out what this all meant. “We messed up a bit…” He said, his voice soft.

“I’ve always had you figured out…Just because time’s passed doesn’t mean I can’t do it again.” He said, fairly confidently before taking her phone. At the mention of her passcode, his eyes went up to her face again. “1215? Still?” He asked, surprised by the revelation. His eyes met her briefly before putting the code in and opening her Creat New Contacts

.

Evie’s eyes didn’t leave his when he spoke. She licked her lips and nodded, “A little bit yeah…” But the way she said it, the way she spoke and the way she looked at him, suggested that it was much more than a little bit. More like a lot. But was there anything they could do now?

“Hmm, you have always been the one to know me the best,” she acknowledged.  Evie hadn’t fully realised the meaning of the passcode. Of course, she knew it was his birthday, it was the reason she chose the code back when they first started dating, but when she told people, they didn’t know, they didn’t know it was her ex-boyfriends birthday but obvious Wes would know that. “Still,” she said with a nod, “It’s had a few variations. 1512 for example. I changed it completely after… well after. But I got locked out my phone because I forgot it so I changed it back.”

He felt stiff as Evie told him the truth, but he didn’t judge her for it. It hurt to hear-but he understood. “I guess I get it.” He nodded, taking in the information. “I’m surprised, but I don’t think any less of you or about you, Eve. Yeah, it’s awkward-but I needed to know before…anything else.” He replied, unsure of what else to say. Did he really mess with her that bad she couldn’t even open up to another relationship? When she asked about Avery he nodded. “She always asked how I could let someone like you go-Never had an answer for her..” He nodded, taking a long sip of his glass.

“I’m sure that’s not true,” He said, watching her take a drink of her own glass. At the open invite, he nodded. “I’ll have to take you up on that. Here-” He pulled his phone out and unlocked it, handing it to her with full trust. “Go ahead and put your number in that’s easiest to contact you” He joked.

Anything else? What did he mean by that? She turned back to look at him. Did she dare voice her question? “I haven’t… I haven’t actually dated anybody since you,” she admitted. She didn’t say it to make him feel bad, it’s just how it was and she needed him to know that… that… well that she wasn’t over him and that maybe she never would be. “My mum had the same question and I never had a good enough answer for her either.” Evie put her drink down on the coffee table, there was an answer and there was a reason for their break up, it was just a crap one. One they could have worked through. If they had tried a little harder.

“Think you have me figured out so easily?” She asked, her eyebrow cocked up in question. She took his phone and went immediately to contacts to create a contact. While she did that she handed over her phone to him, “The passcode is 1215,” she said, not caring if he knew what it was, but also not realise the huge meaning behind her passcode. She’d had the same one since she was 14. She typed in both her personal phone and her work phone number, then typed Eve into the name section along with the princess emoji and the emoji with all the hearts around it.

His own eyebrows furrowed at her words. “So, nothing’s going on?” He asked, at the mention of an alleged affair and questioning of her integrity, Wes immediately shook his head.”No, Eve, I’m just curious-I hold no judgment in anything. I’m not saying you even had an affair with him-I know you better than that. I do know that he’s separated, though. You think Avery will ever leave me alone about what’s going on in the tabloids even if I didn’t hear and see things myself? I can’t be mad at you for moving on-You know me better than that- I just wanted to know.”

“Sure you didn’t,” He joked, taking another drink, not realizing how off-guard she’d catch him with two simple words. My man. It confused him, but he didn’t hate it. In fact, he could get used to it. “I think I’ll have to come over here more often, then.” 

Evie looked like she was going to say something and then didn’t, how was she supposed to tell her Ex about the guy she was currently sleeping with. “Wes…” she groaned, avoiding his gaze, “Eurgh, this is so awkward… We’re not… together and nothing happened until after he was separated, okay?” The mention of Avery made her laugh, despite the awkwardness of the situation, “She keeps you up to date on my life does she?”

“You’ll never know my true intent,” she joked back. She picked up her drink, it had been left untouched since she poured it and in one sitting she drank almost half the glass, suddenly very thirsty, “Well, you’re more than welcome to come over. You know the code, just text me before you come so I know… I guess we should probably swap numbers again?”

He didn’t know what to say to her after that. Me too. Wesley felt relieved at the words, but scared. They couldn’t just pick up where they left off, and it wasn’t fair to either of them to just have another slip like the last time. Maybe if they give it more time, maybe if they were both single. Wasn’t Evie seeing someone right now? He didn’t know. It was only hours of them being together again-could he just spring back to her this easily? “I-uh-I heard from someone you were seeing that designer?” Damn it. He couldn’t even stop himself from spitting that out. Why right now? Really, Wesley?

“Damn shame…” He mumbled as she laughed. Her watched her facial features carefully before nodding at her suggestion. “I could go for a burger- yeah.” He nodded before letting out another small laugh. “Netflix and Chill? Damn, Eve. At least you’re buying me dinner first.” He teased her, grabbing his glass and taking a careful drink.

Evie blinked when he said she was dating somebody, her brow furrowed and she pulled back slightly, “What?” she asked, the surprise evident on her face, “No. I’m not dating anybody,” but her relationship with Jason was… something, but they weren’t dating. “You can’t believe everything you read about me, Wes. They’ve been saying that Jason and I have been having an affair for three years. Even while he was married, do you think I would do that?” She hoped that he hasn’t fully realised all of that information, because if he honestly thought she would do that, then maybe he didn’t know her that well.

She rolled her eyes but smirked, “I didn’t mean it like that,” although he hadn’t been miles off. She wasn’t mad to think they had been flirting, right? “I’m good like that anyway, make sure my man’s stomach is full and a drink in his hand whenever he wants it.”