The Arrangement (17 page)

Eli knew the voice in his heart wasn’t audible. In fact, he felt the still, quiet peace more than he heard it. “
Have faith in me. Seek me.
”

“Okay, God,” he whispered, “give me the strength. I believe you have a plan, and I’ll keep looking for where you want me to go next.”

9

)

aturday morning, Evie pricked a pile of scrambled eggs with her fork. Growing up, her father would make scrambled eggs, pancakes, and bacon every Saturday morning while her mother slept late. Then he woke up Evie and Taylor, and they all ate breakfast together. Saturday morning was probably the only meal they ate together all week.

As a usual routine, her father would drive over to the casinos to gamble away any extra money he made during the week while her mother entertained Evie and Taylor. Her dad would arrive home in time for her mom to go to dinner with “friends” and would make sure they ate supper, had baths, and went to bed on time.

Why do I even have to talk to them about my relationships when they don’t have much of a relationship themselves? What do they really know about marriage other than how to look the other way?
Maybe she could break up with Ben and pretend that’s what happened in the first place.

“
But it wouldn’t be honest.
” The sentence crept into her mind every time she thought she had decided to skip talking to her parents. “
Just tell them,”
the voice continued to whisper in her ear.

“So what are your plans today?” her mother asked as she sipped her coffee from a small white cup. Her father lowered the paper to look at Evie as they both waited for an answer.

“Not much,” Evie said, starting to sweat. “What’s going on here?”

“I planned to go shopping for a new bedroom suite for your brother’s room. I didn’t know if you had plans with Eli or if you might want to come along.”

Evie’s heart lurched, and the hair on her arms stood up at the mention of Eli’s name.
Now or never,
her heart told her. “About Eli, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Both parents looked at her. Her father folded the newspaper and set it on the table.

“Eli and I aren’t really dating.”

“But I thought things were going so well. Why did you break up? You seemed happy at the game several weeks ago, and we thought you had dinner with him last night,” her mother quizzed her.

“We didn’t break up, Mom. We were never together in the first place.” Her parents looked as confused as Evie had felt over the last weeks. “I never really broke up with Ben.”

“Evie, I thought we already had this discussion,” her father interrupted as he peered over his glasses, his frustration clearly mounting.

She held up a hand. “Just listen a minute. I know we already discussed this, and you were right. Ben isn’t the person for me. But when you first told me to break up with him, I loved him and I didn’t want to do it. Ben and I knew we couldn’t afford to put both of us through school on what he makes, much less pay for my car and sorority.” She stopped for a minute. She had to tell the whole story. “So we pretended to break up. And part of the plan was for me to date Eli but to be miserable. And when you saw how miserable Eli made me, you would want me to get back with Ben.”

“So what made you decide this plan wasn’t working?” her mother asked, holding her coffee cup in midair.

“I really like Eli. He’s a nice guy, and he loves politics as much as I do. Most of all he cares about doing what’s best for me. He’s talked a lot about God’s plan for him and for me and maybe even for us. At first I wasn’t sure God even cared, but when I talked to Ben about giving up the hoax, getting married and making it on our own without your money, he wanted nothing to do with it. I realized that if he cared about doing what’s best for me, he wouldn’t want me to be lying to my parents.” Evie shifted her gaze between her parents, trying to gauge their reactions.

“So you did break up with him?” Her father’s gaze didn’t waver.

“Not yet,” she whispered. “But I’m going to, when I get back to school,” she added quickly. Neither of her parents said a word, so she asked the question lingering at the end of her confession. “Why did you want me to break up with him, and why did you want me to date Eli? Was it really about the money, or did you think I would be miserable?”

Her parents exchanged glances. “Evie, he didn’t tell you about the money?” her father asked.

Evie narrowed her eyes. “What money?”

He took off his glasses. “We offered him a settlement if he would leave you alone.”

Panic rose in Evie’s throat. “You did what?” she screamed at them.

“We did it for you, Evie.” Her mother reached a hand toward Evie.

Evie jerked away from her mother. “He didn’t take it, did he?”

Their silence answered her question. She shot up from her seat and stomped out of the kitchen. She heard their chairs slide across the wood floor and their footsteps echo behind her. In her room she yanked her backpack from the floor and threw it onto the bed, causing the mattress to bounce. She shoved her books inside and zipped the bag just as her parents reached her room.

“What are you doing?” her mother demanded, fear in her eyes.

Evie jerked out of her mother’s reach for the second time in five minutes. “I’m going to talk to Ben.” Her voice was strong, yet controlled, which contrasted to the weak, out-of-control feeling welling inside her with each second that passed. She had to know why he took the money and, more importantly, why he never told her about it. She spun to face her parents. “Not only did he not tell me about it, you didn’t tell me about it. Why?”

Both of her parents opened their mouths to speak but then closed them.

Her father finally found the words a long minute later. “We didn’t want to hurt you. We knew he wasn’t good enough for you. We offered him the money. If he had turned it down, then we’d considered letting the subject drop.” Thomas pushed past Victoria and stood closer to his daughter.

Evie gritted her teeth.

“We told you not to see him anymore because we didn’t want you to be hurt by him,” her father continued. “We knew you would get over being mad at us, which is why we asked Eli to come over. We knew if the two of you met, you would realize how much you had in common with him and how little you have in common with Ben. You said it yourself. Eli loves politics as much as you do. We could have chosen any number of men, but we wanted you to at least have something in common with your husband.”

“Husband?” she muttered. Images of Eli and Ben mixed together until they formed one swirl of emotion. “What are you talking about? Eli and I haven’t even talked about marriage.” What else had her father done behind her back? Did he pay Eli to date her, like he paid Ben to leave her alone?

“But marriage is where most relationships go for people your age.” Her father held his hands up as she backed away from him. “I thought if you dated someone more appropriate, who would be able to honor a proper agreement, that you would be happier or at least more stable.”

Evie stopped her packing frenzy. “What kind of agreement did you make, Dad?” She pronounced each word slowly and clearly as cold fear covered the hot anger racing through her veins.

“I didn’t make an agreement. I made a few suggestions for an agreement, but Eli declined. He said he really likes you, but he doesn’t want a contract marriage, he wants a love marriage.”

For a second she imagined her father dragging her down a church aisle to a dark, shrouded figure at the altar and into a marriage she’d never consented to enter. Relief mixed with her other emotions as she realized Eli had once again saved her from an uncertain future. Then the anger returned, swifter and stronger than before.

“I can’t believe you would do this. We’ve never talked about my getting married or you picking my husband. And I can’t believe you would offer someone money to break up with me.”

I can’t believe he would accept,
she added to herself. Suddenly drained of energy, she finished packing, limped lopsided to her car, and drove away.

Tears finally stung her eyelids when she reached the highway five miles away. Ben let her parents pay him off. How much was she worth? Ten thousand? Twenty? Or was he happy with a couple hundred dollars? No, Ben had big tastes. He knew her parents had real money, and he knew they didn’t like him. Did he bargain and ask for more? Did he ever plan to really break up with her? Was that what he was going to do the day she went to his apartment and they hatched their plan? What had he planned to tell her if she hadn’t come in upset about her parents’ ultimatum?

The tears streaming down her cheeks dried as her anger burned. The hour-long drive from her parents’ house to Ben’s apartment seemed to take twice as long as usual. Her anger subsided into a state of shock as she stopped at the first of many traffic lights leading into town. Before her parents got involved, she and Ben saw each other almost every day. They would meet for lunch, study together after dinner, and watch hours of television, lounging around after a day of school and work. If they missed a day of seeing each other, she had felt at a loss.

No,
she told herself.
That’s why he should never have taken the money. Evie, keep reminding yourself that money was always more important to him. He can’t lead you on and then drop you when a paycheck comes his way.

Only a few other cars passed her on the road into town. She lifted up a tense but thankful prayer for one less stress. In her anger, she had not thought much about exactly what she was going to say when she saw Ben. She wasn’t sure she would be able to do anything besides spit on him.

“
But that’s not my way, either,
”
a voice inside her spoke. She tried to shake off the feeling. After two weeks of studying God’s Word, she knew he cared about her everyday actions. But she didn’t want to think about doing the right thing at this moment. She wanted to light into the man who pretended to love her, who broke her heart and left her for a stack of cash.

“So what do I do, Lord? Turn the other cheek?” She spoke loudly and rashly.

“
You got it.
” His answer filled her heart.

“But I want to hurt him like he hurt me.” Her argument sounded weak. She knew she had not heard any audible voice of God, but his words from the Bible echoed in her soul. She wanted to stir up her anger again. She wanted to throw all the stuff he’d ever given her onto his lawn and then call the campus police to give him a ticket for littering. She didn’t want to be a fool. She didn’t want people to talk about how Ben pulled one over on her.

“
Don’t think about them. Think about me.
”

Her emotions continued to battle the echoes of God’s Word until she pulled into the driveway of Ben’s apartment. Her knees wobbled as she stepped from her car into the cool fall air. Uncertain of what she would say or do, she rang the bell.

“What are you doing here?” asked Ben’s disheveled roommate who answered the door.

“I’m here to see Ben,” she announced as she pushed past him and stomped into the living room, careful not to step on his bare toes. She stopped at the doorway. Ben jumped up from the couch where a woman with long dark hair attempted to straighten the wrinkles out of her sundress. Both wore a horrible shade of coral lipstick.

“Evie, what are you doing here?” Ben’s eyes narrowed. He moved toward her to grab her elbow.

Evie jumped from his reach and shoved a pillow from a nearby chair into his chest. “Who is she?” she demanded as she lifted her chin in the direction of the sundress-girl on the couch.

“Does it matter? We broke up,
remember?”

“No, Ben, we didn’t break up. I told my parents all about our little plan this morning. And do you know what they told me?”

“You did what?” he hissed.

“They told me about the money.” She answered her own question, ignoring the alarm in Ben’s voice and raising her voice to make sure everyone in the apartment heard what she said.

“Evie, don’t you know they just said that to convince you to really break up with me? Do you really think I’d take money in exchange for leaving you?” His eyes softened, and he tried again to reach out to her.

“I didn’t tell you why they said they gave you the money,” she answered. His roommates were behind her, listening to their now public break-up. On the couch the unnamed girl shifted. Evie scanned the large bachelor pad. “You didn’t even have the good sense to spend their money on your education, did you?”

Ben stared at her, refusing to break eye-contact.

“You just paid for a bigger, nicer apartment. And then you bought that brand-new truck. You threw it away, like you threw me away. Well, you know what, Ben? We
are
over.”

His roommates moved quickly out of her way as she turned on her heel and walked back through the door, not bothering to close it behind her. She laughed sarcastically as she walked past his new truck to her car and drove away. She never considered looking back. She had done what she needed to do and had no regrets. But the thoughts of how she had trusted Ben haunted her.

Without thinking, she drove to the campus library. What would she say to Brooke? Would she know just by looking that Evie needed a friend?
Lord, I need to talk to her. Please let her be here.
Evie breathed the prayer as she opened the heavy glass door. She heard the whirr of the copy machine and the clicking of typing as she approached the reference desk.

“Is Brooke working today?” she whispered.

“I think she’s in the magazines,” a woman with mousy brown hair and large glasses directed her.

“Thanks,” she tossed over her shoulder. As she walked down the first aisle she caught sight of a slender, dark-haired woman straightening the boxes of old publications. “Brooke?” Evie’s voice faltered.

“Evie, what’s going on?” she asked before straightening one more box and turning to give Evie her full attention.

“I wasn’t sure where else to go. I was hoping you would be here.”

“I’m guessing that means you thought about our talk.”