the next day, eva sits in the lobby of the practice facility waiting for joel. she scrolls aimlessly through her socials, bored of doing that for the past hour. she scrolls through her email, messaging her agent about her current plans location-wise. eva plans on staying in philly for a few more weeks, since she's never been here longer than a few days. her agent was worried about her getting modelo jobs, but eva told her that new york was only a one hour flight away by jet, and she could be back in the same day if she wanted.
after what felt like years, the door to the sixers practice gym opens and several voices fill the quiet of the lobby. she looks up from her phone and turns around to see joel, ben, and matisse walking towards her, followed by their other teammates. eva stands up and turns around to meet them with smiles. "hey," she says.
"hey, eva," matisse says with a smile. ben just up-nods at her without saying much. she bites the inside of her lip and turns to her cousin.
"you ready?" eva asks joel. they have plans to go get lunch, and then do whatever else they wanted to do tonight and every other day before she officially leaves the state of pennsylvania.
joel nods and slides his hand in his pocket to retrieve his phone. his face falls into a frown when he doesn't feel it. "hold on, i think i left my phone in my locker," and he's off before she can say anything.
"well, i'm about to dip. see ya, ben. bye, eva," matisse daps up his fellow teammate and gives eva a wave and a smile before hurrying out of the practice facility, leaving ben and eva alone.
the tension she felt yesterday fills up the entire room. there's a static connection, and she feels like if she touches anything, she'll be burned. eva forces herself to look at him, not wanted to appear awkward and rude for ignoring him, and immediately regrets it. he's already looking at her, his soft brown eyes drinking in her appearance in a way that makes her uneasy. his gaze is so intense it makes her feel off kilter and like she can't breathe. "what?" she asks at last, her voice sounding harsher than usual.
ben lets out a chuckle and relaxes his shoulders. "nothing. you just look familiar, that's all," he says coolly. eva rolls her eyes and that makes him smile. "i'm serious. i spent all night wondering where i've seen you, and then i found it." all night, she thinks. he was on her mind too, in more ways than one.
"yeah? and where was i?" she asks, a playful edge to her tone. ben licks his lips and looks her up and down. her leather jeans suddenly feel see through under his gaze, and she sees something a little too familiar pass through his eyes.
ben opens his mouth to flirt back, but is cut short when eva visibly straightens. joel comes up behind them, phone in hand, and eva clears her throat to signal to ben that this wasn't the time or place. "ready?" joel asks, clueless. eva simply nods and joel daps ben up. "see you tomorrow, man."
"yup, see you, bro. bye, eva," ben says, and then she hears it; the accent tobias mentioned. it's barely there, but when he said her name she heard it loud and clear. she tries to ignore cartwheels that were happening in her stomach.
"bye," she squeaks out, wrapping an arm around her torso. ben gives her a small smile and takes off before them. eva momentarily forgets where she's at, bens sweet face clouding her mind. something about him was charming, and eva couldn't tell if it was his voice, that smile, or his eyes. maybe it was a combination of all three.
evas so lost in her thoughts that she doesn't even notice joel walking ahead of her. "yo, let's go!" he shouts, grabbing her attention back. realizing that she was still standing in the same spot, eva jogs as fast as her leather pants will let her go, to joel. he sucks his teeth and shakes his head at her. "come on, bro."
