𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲𝐧 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 is far from perfect. Before starting her senior year of college, she's already guaranteed her position as the black sheep of her once prestigious family. To make matters worse, she took up bedding the rival family's eldest...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
𝑰𝒏𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒅𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 for Evelyn. Now numbed by a deep sleep and disoriented, she tested her capabilities for another breath. She drew one in until she felt her lungs inflate to capacity but still only received a quarter of the air she needed to breathe. In its place, there were charming smells blending on a soft surface that tickled her nose; traces of the cloying fragrance of hair products and a soapy hint of pine mingling with the sweetness of a cologne. The latter pleased her senses and struck so familiar in the sleepy dredges of her mind that she turned her face fully against the surface to take in more of it.
Michael.
Prepared to shove him away, Evelyn curled her fists into the surface and pushed herself to sit up. When there was no struggle, she forced her eyes open to stare dazedly in front of her, then she began to drift slowly toward awareness. Michael wasn't underneath her or even beside her. She'd only had her face against his pillow. Her body slumped in relief.
As she let out a sigh and took in the new environment, memories gathered together bit by bit along with her consciousness. Their date had finished with a lengthy yet fun drive in the rain back to the city where they'd stopped for dinner and a shake along the way. Before they'd made it to Hayvenhurst, she had fallen asleep. The last memory she had was waking slightly to the feel of his arms, one braced around her back and shoulders and the other at the backs of her knees as he carried her up a spiral of stairs, his eyes twinkling and his shoulders shaking with laughter after he'd clumsily knocked her feet against the banister.
She smiled. As though she needed any indication that what she'd experienced wasn't a dream, a warm sensation floated in her chest once her gaze happened to fall across the room. At a small, cherry wood desk, Michael was slumped over a pile of notebooks and cassettes, looking hopelessly entranced by something. What exactly, Evelyn didn't know, but by the Panasonic headphones that covered his ears and the dreamy, far-away look that she recognized from earlier in the day, she guessed it was something involving music.
A faint melody interrupted the room's silence in the form of Michael's hum and confirmed her suspicion. Then his brows furrowed and he bobbed his head, repeating the quadruplet of notes again, testing them. Evelyn did her best not to draw his attention as she cuddled up against his pillow and watched him, completely bewitched by just observing. She almost couldn't be bothered to breathe for fear it'd interrupt. The moment felt numinous, watching him give birth to another creation that was sure to be as beloved as his others.
When his humming suddenly stopped, she froze, waiting for him to be sucked back into the trance of his work. Instead he turned his head to one side to tap the pause button on the cassette player and contemplate the others, then that was when she was caught. His eyes met hers with a streak of surprise flashing in them, causing him to lose his focus in the quiet, sheepish laughter of realization.
