It's You (3 page)

When they got to her house, Evan walked her to the door and gave her a tender kiss on the forehead before heading off into the night, alone.

More than anything she hoped Evan would demand to come inside and stay the night with her. But she knew better than that, she knew the score. He didn’t do serious and he probably already regretted what they did in his car.

Early the next morning, she awoke to her phone buzzing. She scrambled to find it, wondering who in the heck would be calling her so early. It was Kara.

“Hello?” Zoey said
groggily.

“How are you
feeling?”

“Ugh. Why are you calling me so early, Kara? Is this to punish me for drinking too much last night at your dinner party?”

Kara laughed. “No, not for that.”

Zoey wondered what she meant by that. Did she
possibly know about what happened between her and her brother?
Oh God, please say she didn’t know yet.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, Zoey. I’m just teasing you silly. I only called to let you know that my brother and Trevor are on their way over to drop your car off. Evan was over early this morning for breakfast and afterwards I sent him and Trevor to deliver your car.”

“Thanks Kara. I appreciate that.”

“Better get dressed, they should be there any minute.”

When Zoey hung up the phone, she ran into the bathroom to fix her hair and clean up her face. She had taken a shower the night before and now her hair
was a frizzy mess. There was nothing she could do with it now but throw it in a ponytail.

Zoey
was in such a hurry to fix her hair and makeup, she completely forgot to look at what she was wearing and when the doorbell rang, she ran to answer it without giving a second thought to the fact that she was standing there in only a t-shirt and panties.

Evan leaned on the door frame, letting his eyes rake over her half-dressed body.

“Where is Trevor?” Zoey asked while trying to see over his shoulder.

“He’s downstairs waiting for me. I
just came to drop these off.”

Evan handed Zoey the keys.

“Thanks.”

Zoey started to shut the door but Evan put his hand up to stop her.
Looking down at her attire he asked, “I thought you had something to do early this morning?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, remembering her lie from last night. “It
was just a conference call. I finished up a few minutes ago.”

“Want to go get
some lunch? I can swing by and pick you up on my way home in about half an hour.”

Zoey
knew he was just being nice. He couldn’t possibly be hungry because Kara said they just had breakfast.

“Thanks Evan, but I’ve got
some stuff around the house I really need to get done. Maybe some other time.”

With that they said their goodbyes and Evan
was on his way back down to a waiting Trevor.

“What’s that
look for?” Trevor asked as Evan got into the car. “Everything okay?”

“Fuck, I don’t
know.”

“Did you give Zoey her keys?”

“Yeah she has her keys.” But what he wanted to do was take her in his arms and give her a kiss.
Why did she have to answer the door looking so cute in her little t-shirt and panties?
Evan couldn’t help but wonder if she wore stuff like that on purpose, just to drive him crazy.

“Did something happen between you two last night?” Trevor asked.

Evan didn’t want to admit the truth because Trevor was married to his sister, and that was the last person in the world he wanted to know what was going on. But he was frustrated and confused and he didn’t know what to do. Maybe Trevor could help.

“Yeah, something did happen. But
just to be clear, she came on to me.”

“Okay, so you two
finally slept together,” Trevor said casually, as if he had known it was going to happen all along.

“What do you mean ‘
finally’?”

“Oh please, Evan, anyone who has ever spent more than two seconds in a room with you two
knew you were going to eventually hook up.”

Evan groaned.

“Well, we didn’t exactly have sex, but close.” He sighed. “What the fuck do I do now?”

“
I guess the real question is Evan, what do you want to do?”

“
I know my sister is going to be pissed but I’m in love with her, man. I think I’ve been in love with her for a long time.”

“If that’s true,
then your sister isn’t going to be half as upset as you seem to think.”

“What do you mean? Of course she is. The one thing she told me to never do is hook up with her best friend.”

“Your sister didn’t want you to hook up with Zoey because she knew you had a tendency to sleep around. She just didn’t want you to hurt Zoey.“

“Guess it doesn’t matter anyway, Zoey
clearly isn’t interested in me.”

Trevor didn’t
know what to tell his friend so he just took him back to his wife, knowing that if anyone could help Evan it would be Kara.

When he and Trevor got back to his sister’s, Evan confessed his feelings for Zoey and asked Kara for her help. He expected her to be angry, or at the very least give him a speech about keeping promises, but she didn’t. Instead, she gave him a knowing smile and a big hug.

“I knew this was coming for a while now.”

“Yeah,
apparently everyone but me did,” Evan huffed out while glaring at Trevor.

Ignoring
her brother’s comments, Kara continued on. “The problem is, Zoey is probably sitting there right now thinking she is just another notch on your bedpost.”

“But we didn’t
actually have sex, not really.”

“Evan, I love you with all of my heart, but let’s face it, you’re a man whore. You’ve been with so many girls over the years and you’ve never been serious about a single one of them, so Zoey
probably assumes you would feel the same about her if the two of you were intimate.”

Evan opened his mouth to protest but
then quickly shut it, realizing his sister was right. He hadn’t ever been serious about another girl before now but that was only because none of them had ever been Zoey.

“How do you
know that’s what Zoey is thinking?” Trevor interjected.

Kara smirked at him. “Because I’ve known Zoey almost my entire life and I
know how her mind works.” She turned back to her brother. “Let me guess, immediately after you two were intimate, she did her best to get away from you?”

Evan sighed. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“And did you ask her to stay the night with you or go on another date and she refused, saying she had other plans?”

“Both. Last night she said she
couldn’t stay the night with me because she had something to do early this morning, and then when we dropped her keys off I asked to take her to lunch and she said she couldn’t because she had some stuff to do around the house.”

“
Exactly,” Kara said with a smug smirk on her face. “She probably doesn’t want you to think she is one of those girls that are all clingy, the ones you are always complaining about.”

Evan hated to admit it but he
knew his sister was right. Zoey probably was trying to avoid him because she felt like a trashy one night stand, and that was his own fault for letting things get as far as they did in the car.

“So how do I fix this?”

Kara seemed to think about it for a moment, then a huge smile came across her face. “You are going to have to make one of those grand gestures that you always see in romantic comedies. Are you up for it?”

Evan hesitated before answering, not because he
wasn’t up for doing whatever it took to win Zoey but because he knew how devious his sister’s mind could be sometimes and he partly feared what idea she had come up with.

“Yeah. Tell me what I need to do.”

Kara picked up her phone and called Zoey. “Are you free for dinner tonight?”

Zoey sighed. “No, Kara.
I’m still feeling a little icky from last night. I really shouldn’t have drank so much. I think I should just stay home tonight and take it easy.”

“If you meet me for dinner, I’ll tell you my Ami with
an I gossip. It’s good.”

Zoey choked back a laugh. “How about lunch tomorrow instead?”

“Deal.”

Kara hung up the phone and turned to her brother.

“There. Now you know for sure she’ll be home tonight.”

“Wait. First tell me your Ami gossip.”

“Oh it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it Evan.”

“
Obviously it’s something or you wouldn’t have had that big grin on your face when you said that to Zoey.”

Kara sighed. She
really didn’t want to tell her brother the story, but now that it was out there, what choice did she have?

“About fifteen minutes after you all left there
was a knock on my door. It was Ami and she had tears streaming down her face. She said she was sorry to bother us but she had gone downstairs to see if your car was still here and she found you and Zoey together.”

Evan grimaced at the
thought of his sister knowing he had been intimate with Zoey in his car.

“I tried to apologize for your behavior but she set the record straight. She
wasn’t the least bit upset about you and Zoey. She was just some girl that worked in your office building that you hired to go on this date with you because you were in love with Zoey and you found the best way to stay away from her was to always make sure she hated you.”

Evan looked down, ashamed at what he had done. Still, he had hired the girls to be his dates with the best of intentions.

“That’s why you always brought around brainless bimbos, to piss Zoey off?” Trevor interrupted. “Bloody brilliant.”

“Yes, well,” Kara continued. “She
finally explained what had her upset and that was Stefano. As soon as they got back to his place they had sex and right after, he asked her to leave. Apparently he was a real dick about it.”

“
I’m sorry, Kara. I didn’t mean to make Ami your problem. I probably should have insisted she let me take her home but she seemed so into that other guy and I had Zoey on the brain. I just wasn’t thinking straight.”

“
I must say, brother, knowing what I do now, it all makes so much more sense. I just never understood what you saw in all those stupid girls you brought around. I mean, Ami didn’t even remember your name. How dumb do you have to be to forget your date’s name?”

Trevor chuckled. “That’s nothing. My favorite
was the girl he brought to Thanksgiving two years ago, Brenda something-or-other whose life ambition was to meet Hugh Hefner. She was a classic.”

“Okay you two,” Evan said as he put up his hands in defeat. “You’ve had your fun. Now are you going to help me win Zoey or not?”

Kara laughed. “I really am happy that you two are finally going to be together. Just promise you won’t hurt her, Evan. That’s all I ask.”

“I love her, Kara, I
really do. I think I’ve been in love with her for a long time now, longer than I care to even admit.”

Zoey had spent most of her day lost in thought about the previous night until finally she couldn’t stand it anymore and went to take a relaxing bath, deciding to try out the new bath oils she had gotten last week.

After, she put on a
t-shirt when the doorbell rang. She couldn’t imagine who it might be, she wasn’t expecting anyone. Pulling her hair out of the towel, she ran to the door to find it was the source of her anguish, Evan, standing at her door looking sexier than ever in his black, pinstriped Armani suit.

“What are you doing here, Evan? I
thought I told you I couldn’t go out with you today, I have some stuff that I needed to get done around the house.”

“I want you to come with me.”

When Evan spoke, his voice was low and commanding and it took every bit of strength Zoey had to resist him.

“I can’t. As you can see by my wet hair I
just got out of the shower. I’m not dressed, I don’t have any makeup on.”

“You
look absolutely perfect the way you are.”

Zoey
couldn’t help but smile when he said that. It was sweet and seemed so genuine.

“If you want me to go somewhere with you, then you’ll have to wait for me to do my hair and makeup and put some decent clothes on.
”

“Deal,” Evan said, as he walked over to her couch and took a seat, pulling out his cell phone. “I’ll sit here and catch up on my email while you get ready.”

“Are you at least going to tell me where we are going?”

He didn’t respond, so Zoey sighed and went to her bedroom to get ready. Unsure of what he had planned, she put on a bright yellow sundress and
some matching heels.

“Okay, I’m ready,” she said as she twirled around in front of Evan, showing off her dress.

“Yeah, you are going to have to go put something else on or we aren’t going to make it out of here.”

Closing
the distance between them, Zoey looked up at Evan and spoke to him in her most seductive voice. “Maybe that was the idea.”

“Christ Zoey, you are killing me.”

She grabbed Evan by the hand and led him out the front door and to his car.

As they
were on their way, Zoey tried again to find out where it was they were going. “Why won’t you just tell me what you have planned? You know how much I hate surprises.”

“There is something I need to show you. We are almost there, I promise.”

“Please,” Zoey pleaded.

“
Telling you won’t be the same as showing you.”

Zoey pouted but still, she
kind of liked the excitement and intrigue of it all, even if she wouldn’t admit it to him.

Soon they reached their destination.

“What are we doing here?” Zoey didn’t understand why Evan was so dressed up if he was just going to take her to his house. There had to be something else to this.

“You
know that I never take girls to my house, it’s my sanctuary.”

“Yes, I
know Evan. We all know you’re a man whore who doesn’t like to bring his hook ups to his man cave,” Zoey said teasingly.

“It’s not like that, Zoey. My house has always been about peace and tranquility, my place to escape from all the pressures of the real world, and I have
just never found a girl I cared enough about to share that with, until now.”

Evan took Zoey by the hand and brought her
inside. When they walked in his front door, she was surprised to find the entire living room was covered in beautiful bouquets of flowers. In the center of the living room was an intimate table for two.

“I took the liberty of preparing us dinner, in hopes that you would agree to come out with me tonight.”

Evan led Zoey by the hand over to the table in the middle of the room. She sat down and tried to take it all in.

“I don’t understand Evan, what is all of this
about?”

“Zoey, it’s you. It’s always been you.
I’ve been in love with you for years and I can’t pretend anymore. I don’t care about those other girls. I never did. It was always you that I wanted and they were just a distraction that never seemed to work because they only made me want you even more. They only made me realize just how perfect you really are and how they will never be you.”

Evan grabbed Zoey by the hand and pulled her into his arms.

“I know you think that I’ve been with this endless stream of women because I’m a man whore but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I was only with those girls to try to get you off of my mind. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t find the right girl because I always compared them to you, and none of them could ever hold a candle to your beauty and wit and charm.”

“Oh Evan, I can’t
believe all of this. I don’t even know what to say. Just to say ‘I love you too’ doesn’t seem enough. I’ve said it so many times in my mind …”

Cutting
her off, Evan devoured her lips with a long, passionate kiss that made her entire body tingle.

“Zoey Parker, I love you, and now that I have you, I’m never going to let you go.”