Safety Net • CTH

Chapter 7 • Monster Among Men

- Eva's POV -

Margaret had finally texted me the details of where dinner was going to be and what to wear.

Somehow, I couldn't really grasp the concept of business casual. There was business, and there was casual. I could either go all out and wear a suit, or I could wear jeans. I mean, I live in the fashion capital of the U.S., I don't really do casual unless I'm staying home, but I got this.

I went downstairs to find Ashton and tell him when they needed to be ready by then went back upstairs to start getting ready.

I finally decided on a black blouse, black pencil skirt, black knee high boots, and my tan trench coat. you can never go wrong with all black. I put a little makeup on and headed downstairs to wait for the boys to finish getting ready.

I sat down on a big couch and scrolled through my phone. I heard someone coming down the stairs and quickly got up.

"Looks like you're ready to go?", Calum says looking me up and down.

"Oh, um, yeah I ordered the uber black, it should be here in about 15 minutes." I say.

"Well, you look great hun." he says smirking.

"Oh, uh, thank you Calum."I stutter.

"Just Cal is fine.", he says with a smirk, teasing our earlier conversation.

I let out a small giggle. Ashton finally came down.

"Wow Eva, you look awesome!", he says with a big smile.

"Wow guys, all these compliments, I'm feeling like I dressed up too much, but thanks Ash", I laugh.

"Nah, it's your first night in LA, you can go all out if you want to!", he exclaims.

"Well, our uber should be here any minute. We should go outside and wait", I suggest.

When the uber finally came, we piled in and awaited the 30 minute drive to the restaurant.

The ride mostly consisted of small talk and the boys wanting to learn more about me. I was honestly kind of taken back at the fact that they wanted to actually know where I was from and how I got to where I am.

When we finally got to the restaurant, most of the group was waiting outside. Calum held out his hand to help me out of the car. I tried really hard not to blush, but failed, and took his hand nonetheless.

"Glad you made it on time guys." Margaret says to the boys. "Thank you", she turns and whispers to me.

"No problem." I reply with a smile.

"We're just waiting on Luke, I think.", I hear the boys' manager say.

"He's probably taking his sweet time with his hair.", Ashton laughs.

Everyone let out a chuckle.

Luke then shows up a few minutes later and we all walked into the restaurant. They had a table already set up with everyone's names set at their specific chair. I went and sat next to Margaret when Calum came and sat down next to me.

- Calum's POV -

"Dude, switch with me." I say to Michael.

"What are you talking about?", he questions.

"Our chairs, switch with me so I can sit next to her." I whisper.

"Ohhh you want to sit next to Eva?", he says with a laugh, a little too loud for my liking.

"Shhhh. Just switch, cmon." I say, lightly punching him on his arm.

"Fine. You owe me.", he smirks.

I quickly switched the place cards before anyone could notice and sat down.