Forget You (29 page)

Either way, I was a step closer to getting
back to America, a step closer to my family, and best of all, a
step closer to Eva in making this decision.

EVA

Work. School. Friends. Those were the things
I buried myself in for the next four weeks. I avoided all of
Sawyer’s family’s phone calls, and deleted all of their messages. I
knew they only wanted one of two things, either to see how I was
holding up, or to invite me to the funeral service.

I didn’t care to discuss either.

Funerals were not something I agreed with. In
my opinion, they were morbid, and I couldn’t understand how people
felt as though attending them gave them any sense of closure. There
was never closure when someone you cared about died. Closure in
that sense was unobtainable. This reason was one of the many for
why I avoided each of Sawyer’s parents’ phone calls over the next
four weeks.

When the calls finally stopped, it was a
bittersweet moment. Now I could go on pretending that I’d never met
Sawyer in peace. February was here now, and I was counting down the
days until warmer weather, and a life without schoolwork.

Things were getting back on track, returning
to the way they had been before Sawyer came and derailed me. There
was one difference than before though. Now I was on an even
straighter track. I wasn’t moping around, wondering why I was still
single at twenty-four when all of my friends were in committed
relationships or getting married.

I didn’t care now. I’d become career
oriented.

Cam had said I was running from my feelings,
and that once I stopped doing so, things would catch up with me in
a big way. While that might have been what happened to him, our
situations were different. I wasn’t allowing what had happened to
me to destroy me. I’d taken the energy of it, and I was using it as
motivation toward something better. I was putting it to good use,
and in the process, I was slowly tucking Sawyer into the depths of
my mind to be forgotten.

“Let’s try something new tonight,” I
insisted. It was Thursday night, which Lauren, Paige, Blaire, and I
had all deemed to be our weekly girls’ night out. We’d headed to
Shooters for drinks, and then were going to see the latest vampire
movie I’d been secretly dying to see for months. “How about we let
the bartender pick something for us?”

“I’m down for that,” Lauren agreed. “Let’s
saunter over there, and flirt with the poor guy until his eyes
nearly pop out of his skull. I’m in the mood to be a heartbreaker
tonight.”

“Is Ian okay with this?” Blaire asked,
arching a brow at her. “Because I don’t think he would be.”

Lauren’s lips pursed together. “No, you’re
right. I think I need to set up a little role-playing with him. He
needs to come in here and act like he’s picking me up or something,
you know?”

Paige rolled her eyes. “Already getting
bored?”

“No way! I love my man,” Lauren shouted. “I’m
just in the mood for things to have a little more spice.” She
winked. “There’s never anything wrong with adding a little more
spice into the mix.”

Laughing, we started toward the bar. Once I’d
readied myself to ask if the bartender could recommend something
for us to try, my cell vibrated in my back pocket. Pulling it out,
I glanced at the screen and recognized Sawyer’s parents’ home
number instantly. I froze. Why would they be calling me now? I’d
been doing so well. I had pushed the majority of everything
involving Sawyer away, but with this one phone call, everything
came rushing back.

“Who is it? Are you okay?” Blaire asked. She
was always so damn perceptive.

“It’s Sawyer’s parents,” I muttered.

Saying his name seemed wrong. I hadn’t
mentioned him by name to anyone in so long, over a month to be
exact. The vibrations stopped as the call went to voicemail. A few
seconds later, it vibrated once in my hand, letting me know they
had left a message.

“What do you think they wanted?” Paige asked.
She handed me a pink drink the bartender must have decided we would
like.

Taking a small sip of the sweetness, I shook
my head. “I honestly don’t know.”

“Did they leave a message?” Lauren
questioned.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Well, listen to it.” Lauren took a swig of
her drink, her brown eyes still trained on me.

As we made our way back toward our table, my
legs wobbled beneath me, and I questioned whether I wanted to know
their reason for calling. Why would they be calling me now, after
so much time had gone by? My phone vibrated across the tabletop,
and all I could do was stare at the screen as their name and number
light it up again. Flashbacks from when Janet had called me back to
back the day I found out Sawyer was gone flickered through my mind.
My lungs constricted.

“Is it them again?” Blaire asked. Her blue
eyes had gone wide with concern.

I nodded, but didn’t speak. Reaching out, I
grabbed my phone, and held the top button until it turned off. I
was going to have fun tonight. I was entitled to it, and Sawyer’s
parents weren’t going to ruin it for me with their random,
incessant calling.

Tipping my pink drink back, I chugged and
attempted to push the questions swirling through my mind from my
head. A song came on Lauren claimed to love, and she looped her arm
through mine. I allowed her to drag me to the makeshift dance
floor, where I proceeded to dance away my worries.

* * * *

Friday morning I woke bright and early, just
like I always did when I drank. For some, alcohol made them sleep
like babies, but for me, it kept me tossing and turning until I
finally gave up on sleep altogether and got up. This was one of the
reasons why I rarely got smashed.

Shuffling down the hallway toward my living
room, I switched on a few lights and turned on my TV. Pilates was
the best way to wake up. It stretched and pulled your muscles until
they were fully awake and blissfully warmed. I’d also found that
increasing my routine from three times a week to six, as well as
increasing the time from thirty minutes to forty-five, did a lot in
the stress department for me.

After I’d finished my morning workout, I
headed to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. Thinking of coffee made
me think of Sawyer, which made me think of the phone calls I’d
gotten last night. My heart picked up its pace, and before long was
pulsating in my throat. The desire to find my phone and play any
messages surged through me. I darted back to my bedroom, and
snatched my phone off my dresser. Holding the top button, I waited
for the thing to boot up.

My heart skipped a few beats as I notice the
red number glaring at me on my screen—seven missed calls. What the
hell could have possessed them to call me seven times in one night?
My thumb tapped on the green square with a white phone. Apparently,
they’d left a message after each call. My index finger hovered over
the play symbol on the first message. I hesitated in pushing it,
not knowing if I wanted to start my day with something from them.
Were they just coming out of the fog from losing Sawyer, and wanted
to reach out again to see how I was holding up? If that was the
case, then there really was no reason for me to play the messages.
In fact, maybe I should get my number switched so I could avoid
this happening again altogether. Biting my bottom lip, curiosity
got the best of me, and I tapped the little triangle.

“New message from…” the automated voice
started.

A knock at my front door startled me, and I
crossed the living room to answer it. Gripping the knob, I swung my
front door open as the voicemail began to play in my ear—it was
Sawyer.

“Eva, I…” His voice on the recording filled
my ears. My heart seemed to constrict and sputter inside my chest,
starting and stopping simultaneously.

“Hi,” the person standing at my front door
said.

I blinked, thinking I was seeing things. When
the image in front of me didn’t change, I dropped my phone, and
brought my hands to my mouth.

Sawyer was standing in front of me.

SAWYER

Eva’s eyes were wide, their color magnified
by the tears pooling in them. My eyes skimmed over her, soaking in
every inch of her. The saved images I’d stowed away in my mind of
her didn’t compare to the real thing. She was gorgeous. Her hair
was pulled up into a messy bun, and she was dressed in black yoga
pants and a simple mint green tank top. Bending down to retrieve
her cell, I put my ear to it. It was one of the messages I’d left
from my parents’ house last night playing. Clicking her phone off,
I laughed.

“Sorry about that. I just got in last night.
I wanted to come over to see you, but my mom wasn’t going to let me
out of her sight,” I said. Eva didn’t speak. Her hands remained
clamped over her lips, and her eyes stayed wide and surprised as
she continued to stare at me. She didn’t even seem to be breathing.
“I wanted you to swing by to see me. That’s why I was calling
you.”

“Sawyer?” she asked. Her voice was barely
above a whisper as it slipped through her fingers. She dropped her
hands to her sides, and glanced around frantically. “Is this really
happening, or have I finally snapped and gone completely
insane?”

My lips quirked into a sad smile, and I
reached out to touch her. I brushed my thumbs against the wrinkles
of confusion puckering the area between her brows. I hated seeing
her this way, this perplexed and distraught.

“It’s happening. I’m here,” I said, bringing
my hands to rest against her cheeks.

Eva’s hands moved to overlap mine, and she
closed her turquoise eyes—the ones I’d dreamed about a thousand
times while I was away. Licking her bottom lip, she smiled.

“I wished for this the second I found out.”
she muttered.

“Me too,” I said.

She dropped her hands to her sides as a
single tear slipped down her cheek. Opening her eyes, her brows
pulled together. “And then I wished I could forget you when my
first wish wasn’t granted like I wanted it to be.”

The raw honesty of her voice, of her words,
burned through me to my soul. Stepping farther into her apartment,
I closed the door behind me, and pulled her into my arms. Her
signature coconut scent filled my nostrils, and I smiled as I
buried my face deeper into her hair.

“I’m so sorry I wished that, Sawyer. It just
hurt so badly knowing you were gone,” she whispered.

Eva’s body trembled in my arms as she began
to cry. I could understand why she’d wished she could forget me,
how in her mind it was probably easier to forget someone than to
remember them. Remembering someone you loved and lost only brought
pain. I understood that better than anyone.

“It’s okay,” I insisted, squeezing her
tighter in my arms. “I’m here now.”

“And that’s all that matters.” She pulled
away enough to press her lips to mine.

I’d waited for this moment, the moment I’d
dreamt of the entire plane ride home.

Eva’s soft lips brushed against mine in a
hesitant way at first, almost as though she were making sure I was
in fact real. Intertwining my fingers within her hair, I crushed my
lips to hers in a fevered way—a way that left no doubt I was
standing in front of her, alive and well.

Her hands came up, and tugged my jacket off
my shoulders. It fell to the floor behind me with a swooshing
noise. After drawing my hands down the sides of her slender neck, I
let them rest on her shoulders for a moment. My thumbs hooked
through the straps of her tank top, and I pulled one to the side.
Dipping my head down, I trailed featherlight kisses across her
supple skin until I reached the swell of her breast.

A soft moan fluttered from between her lips
and directly into my left ear, causing shivers to slip down my
spine. I let out a silent prayer to God, thanking him for letting
me still keep some of my hearing in that ear, because I’d just
enjoyed the hell out of that moan. My tongue darted out, and licked
along the exposed skin of her breast while I skimmed my fingertips
down her bare arms until they met her hips.

Eva tugged at the edge of her tank top, and
pulled it up over her head. I skimmed my fingertips across every
inch of her top half within my vision. The moment my index finger
passed through her cleavage, I thought she might lose it. I’d never
witnessed something sexier; it was the last straw for me.

The look that flittered across her face at
the motion ripped the remaining willpower I’d managed to hold on to
in to tiny, unrecognizable shreds. Gripping the under part of her
ass, I lifted her off the ground, and pressed her to me. Eva
wrapped her legs around my waist, and giggled as she kissed along
my throat. My mind shuffled through where I should place her so we
could continue with this moment. The floor seemed too hard, even
though it was the closest thing I could lie her down on. I
continued through the living room. My eyes flicked to the couch for
a split-second, but then I decided I didn’t want to do it there
either. I wanted both of us to be comfortable while I worshiped
every dip and curve of her beautiful body.

The bed.

That was the only place I wanted to be with
Eva—tangled deeply in the sheets, and pressed against her, going at
it all night. A smile curved the corners of my mouth as I felt her
tongue dart past her succulent lips, and across my jawline. In that
moment, I was glad my mother had made me shave when I’d woken up
this morning, because there was no way Eva would have been able to
do that if I hadn’t.

The second Eva’s bed came into view, I picked
up speed, and launched her onto it. She bounced up, and her
laughter filled the room. It was infectious, leaving me with no
choice except to join in. After shucking off my shoes, I crawled
across her bed until I had her thighs spread wide with me pressed
against her center. I hovered above her.