Fool Me Once (9 page)

“What?” she almost screamed

“Eva? Listen I am sorry I reacted like this. I just want to thank you for letting me spend the night, and err… well maybe I was out of line for saying some of the stuff I said.” He apologized, and when, still there was no answer coming from the other side of the door, he worried.” Eva, are you all right in there?”

“Whatever, don’t trouble yourself. I don’t care about anything you said or say. I have finally figured out that you never say anything remotely interesting. So please, just do as I asked and go.” She was happy to notice her voice didn’t reflect any of the inner turmoil she was experiencing. She listened carefully for retreating footsteps, and when she didn’t hear anything, she threw her bedroom door open. When she did so, she found herself standing a disturbing few inches from him.

“What are you still doing here? I thought I made it clear I didn’t want you here anymore. I wanted you out of my apartment, out of my life, out, out, out!” She said irritably.

“I thought maybe we could come to a truce.” For the first time since she had met him, Jake sounded unsure of himself.

“A truce?” she struggled to understand his new game. Why was he mentioning a truce when she knew he didn’t want her around any more then she wanted him around? Was he trying to get her guards down just do he could pounce on her more efficiently?

“Yes a truce. I realize it’s been eight years since that night. Maybe I misunderstood you then, maybe I am still doing the same now, or maybe I was right all along. Think is, it’s been such a long time, and I should just let it drop. Maybe you aren’t the only one at fault, I don’t know. What I know is that us fighting like that all the time isn’t very conductive to leading a peaceful life. Maybe we can be friends again, or at least civil with each other. Let’s just forget anything ever happened, start new.”

“I will never be able to forget what happened, it made me who I am today. But I agree, you should stop blaming and insulting me. I can be civil if you are. As for being friends, I don’t think so.” She shook her head as if to emphasize her statement.” I think our history will prevent us from ever being that. Thank you for admitting that maybe you were wrong about me, my word may mean nothing to you, but trust me, you were wrong. It doesn’t matter much anymore, but thank you nonetheless.” Eva extended her hand so they could shake on the truce. Jake grabbed it and slowly shook it, his eyes searching hers. Looking for something, but he wasn’t quite sure what.

Eva stilled herself against the strong feeling of longing that overcame her as their hands touched. Looking everywhere but in his eyes, for fear he could see her struggles, she quickly removed her hand from his and backed away a few steps.

“Well err…you can find the number of a cab company on the fridge, I need to get dressed and get on with my day.”

“Sure, well thanks for lending me your couch for the night.”

“Don’t mention it. Well bye.”

At those words, she went into her room and closed the door silently behind her. Holding her breath, she listened to his retreating steps. Once she was sure he had finally gone, she went to her bed and curled into a ball. He actually had apologized for his behavior, why?

Jake called a cab and went to wait outside. He was still in disbelief at himself for offering apologies. Sure they were kind of required after the way he had treated her, but that was the whole point. To keep her away from him, hurting her enough so she would never want to see him. Because let’s face it, he wasn’t doing so well in that department. No matter what he thought of her, he still felt overpowering lust every time he came near her of even just thought of her. He needed for her to despise and avoid him, so they wouldn’t make a huge mistake, like the one they had almost made the night before. He didn’t think he would be able to pull away a second time. He also knew that despite everything, it would never be just pure raw sex. There was too much between them, she had been right about that. When he was around her, he came to wish that maybe he had been wrong about her, and that what had happened to his father, was not everyone’s lot in life. But he couldn’t give her the chance to prove him right, and couldn’t afford for her to prove him wrong either. There was too much at stake. He closed his eyes; he saw his father’s eyes as plainly as if he was standing right in front of him, saw the pain in them, saw the light gone from them. He remembered the smiling face that had suddenly disappeared to never reappear. He should never have proposed a truce. What a weak idiot he was, a masochist. He knew what would come out of it if he saw her more, if he didn’t force him to hate her, yet he didn’t have the strength to fight it anymore.

“Eva, I love you. I’ve always loved you. I can no longer imagine life without you in it. Will you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

Unable to contain her happiness, she jumped in his arms, and answered with tears in her voice.

“Oh Jake, Yes! Yes!”

He kissed her on the forehead and gently pulled her away from him, just so he could kiss her properly. She could have sworn her heart was going to beat out of her chest she was so happy.

BAM! BAM!

Suddenly she felt Jake shift an arm and BAM! He hit her over the head with a rolling pin that had magically materialized in his hands. She tried to move away, but he held her tight and again hit her BAM!

She was afraid he was going to kill her.

“Jake, stop!” she screamed.

Horrified she looked at him and saw him laugh manically as he raised his hand to inflict one last blow…

Startled, she opened her eyes, her head was pounding and her mouth felt as dry as the desert. She swore at the amount of wine she had consumed the night before. She sighed as she remembered pieces of her dreams; her subconscious was playing tricks on her. BAM! BAM!

For a moment, she thought she was still sleeping and that at any moment she would see Jake with his rolling pin. She rubbed her eyes, then realized with a start someone was at her door.

“Hold on, I’ll be right there.”

In a hurry, she put her robe on, and almost ran to the door. She unlocked the door, and stepped back as her brother walked in.

“Hey sis! What’s up? You haven’t called in a while.”

“Hi Josh.” She answered, half asleep.” What are you doing here? Where are the girls?”

“They are at mom’s. They are baking cookies if I’m not mistaken, with lots and lots of chocolate chips. I thought we could go and grab some breakfast together, you know catch up and stuff.” He constantly raked his fingers through his short hair, a sure sign that he was ill at ease, nervous, or had something important to say.

“Mmm sure I guess, you paying!” She winked at him.” Is something wrong?” She eyed him carefully, her brow rose questioningly.” You never come and willingly invite me for breakfast, in fact, I didn’t think you ever had breakfast.”

“No, no there is nothing wrong, and sure I’ll get the bill.” He sighed dramatically.“ We can just go at the diner at the end of the street, this way we can concentrate on talking and not on cooking.”

“Oh, now I know there is something wrong. You never just want to talk. It’s not something men do. Better get with it then, let’s go.”

“Err… Eva. Maybe you should put some clothes on first.” His tone was serious, but she could tell he was laughing at her. She stuck her tongue out and ran to her bedroom. She quickly put on beige fitted pants and a blue t-shirt. She brushed her teeth, and passed a comb through her wild hair. She was ready in under five minute, and when she went back to the kitchen where her brother was waiting, he had already made himself at home and was drinking coffee, looking out at the water.

“Ok, I’m ready to go.”

They walked to the 50’s style diner. The food there was plenty and oh so greasy, it was heaven for the taste buds, and hell for her thighs. But, it wasn’t as if she ate there everyday, so when she did, she went all the way. She ordered a strawberry milkshake, two whole-wheat toasts, and eggs over easy with runny yolk, bacon, sausage and a side fruit salad to clean the palate. She smiled, this was truly sinful, and she was going to love every bite of it.

“So Josh, how come you came to my house early Saturday morning with a pretext to catch up?” She said, munching on the corner of her strawberry jam toast.” We just talked last week.”

“Can’t I just want to talk?” he asked defensively.

“Sure. I was surprised that’s all. What have you been up to?”

“You know, business as usual, the game I am designing is coming along fine, the graphics turned out better then I expected, my team is awesome.” She thought she saw a flicker of something cross his eyes at the mention of his team, which aroused her curiosity.

“Your team?”

“Yeah, I am working with three other person on that project. Tom, Katy, and Jake.” His tone was hesitant in mentioning that last name.

Jake? No, surely it must be a coincidence, better not say anything. There was more then one Jake in the city.

“Katy huh? That’s a pretty name.” She was trying to change her train of thoughts, plus she saw the way his eyes softened when he mentioned Katy. She was interested in knowing whether she was more then just a coworker to him.

“Yeah, the name really suits her.” He answered and smiled softly as if lost in beautiful thoughts. He jerked back to reality at her chuckles. He glared at her and continued.” She is good at what she does, as I said, I got a good team.”

“That’s good. That’s for the online interactive game, right?”

“Yeah, it’s based in today’s society, with the continents and countries and stuff. It will be pretty cool.” He answered excitedly.

“Sounds nice”

They ate in silence for a couple of minutes, both lost in thoughts.

“Eva?”

“Yeah?”

“I, err… have something rather important to tell you.”

Important? She put her cutlery down and dedicated all her attention on her brother.

“The girls are ok? Are you ok? What’s the matter?” she asked worriedly

“Yeah! For me everything is great, it’s just that…well I have done something that could affect you, although I hope it doesn’t. I should have talked to you about it first, but I didn’t dare, and well now that it’s done, I think I should come clean.”

“Josh, stop turning around the pot and tell me already.” She was suddenly afraid that Jake was not a coincidence after all. She wanted him to tell her, anything but what he said.

“Well, it’s about Jake.”

Damn! Damn; and damn again. She knew it, had known it all along. She had felt it, yet chose to ignore it. Now she was faced with it and had no other choice but to acknowledge it. Or maybe, she didn’t.

“Jake? Jake who?” There she hoped it worked and he really thought she had no idea what he was talking about.

“Eva, I know you better then that, remember you can never win at poker because your face is too expressive?”

She sighed deeply.

“I know Josh, so what do you have to tell me about Jake?”

“I don’t know if you are aware that he is now in town?”

“Yeah, I am aware. I bumped into him a couple of weeks back.”

“Oh…and?” He seemed suspended to her words, as if what she was going to say was a matter of life and death.

“And…well nothing, we talked. Josh, it has been eight years since whatever happened, happened, you know. I am no longer a child. We just ran into each other a couple of times, and well decided to put everything behind us. It really is the past. When you are young, you tend to put things out of proportion, intensify feelings, mistake like for love, or even lust for love.” She hoped she sounded more convincing to her brother, and then she sounded to herself. “It’s no big deal, really.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” He wasn’t entirely convinced by her little speech.

“Yes Josh, we will never be friends like we used to years ago, but we wont kill each other either. I swear.” Well, at least she hoped they weren’t going to.

“That’s funny, he didn’t mention seeing you. Not that we talked of you or anything.”

“Oh, how flattering big brother.” She tried to make light of the situation, reassure both herself and her brother that she was fine. He laughed; apparently she had been successful in convincing him, if only she could convince herself so easily.

“You know what I mean.”

“Of course I know, I was teasing.”

“ I was a little worried you were going to take it worse then that. I don’t know what happened between you two, but I remember how hurt you were. I almost hunted Jake down to beat him into a pulp. I still am slightly uncomfortable with him, but he is one of the best programmers out there, and we needed him. I am sorry, I recommended we hire him without asking you first if you were ok with it.”

“Oh Josh, it wasn’t really his fault. As I said we were young. At eighteen, you get a broken heart everyday.” She didn’t tell him the reason why her heart was broken everyday was that it had stayed broken; it didn’t really matter. The past was the past, and she couldn’t let her brother hold grudges against Jake. Maybe Jake truly had cared for her, and maybe he had truly been really hurt by her innocent deception. His only fault was to have held a grudge for so long. She wouldn’t do the same.