Not Without You [Chris Evans]

6

Chris' POV

"What is she, Katie's age?" Sebastian asked Sadie after openly studying Megan.

"Jeff's. Why?"

"Just wondering," he said, glancing over at me.

I shook my head at him, knowing what he was getting at. If she was the same age as Sadie's baby brother, that meant she was at least 12 years younger than me, which was too big of an age gap for me to consider even if Sadie hadn't made it clear her PA was off limits.

I took a drink of my beer and tried to ignore the light vanilla and cinnamon smell coming from the woman next to me but failed completely as her proximity aroused me yet again. How the woman managed to smell so damn delicious was beyond me.

I'd really put my foot in my mouth this time. I got the impression that Megan didn't really care much for my mermaid comparison when she'd let her hair fall forward deliberately, hiding her beautifully expressive face from me.

My thoughts wandered and I thought about Sadie and Sebastian's relationship. It had been obvious to me that Sebastian had been head over heels for Sadie since they day he'd met her, and I didn't think that would ever change. Circumstances had forced him to learn how to be her friend first, but they were on their way to being more than that now. If I were completely honest, I wanted that for myself – someone that looked at me like Sadie looked at Sebastian - like he was the only man in the world.

I laughed as Sebastian told a funny story; he was in a much better mood now that Sadie was finally letting him take her out when she was in town - we both knew it was a big step for her to take. It had only been a couple months since Justin had passed away and she was still grieving. She wasn't really comfortable with going out with Sebastian alone yet, partly because of how much attention they got from the paparazzi and partly because of how intense he could be around her.

I'd actually been glad when Sadie said she wanted my opinion on her last applicant; I hadn't been looking forward to eating alone tonight. She'd already eliminated the others and was pretty sure this girl was the one she wanted, so I agreed, curious to meet her.

I joined into the conversation, listening to Sadie's answers and getting to know more about Megan until the food arrived. We quickly divvied it up, Sebastian and I each putting away an impressive amount of pizza. We were both in peak condition, requiring a large amount of calories to maintain muscle mass; the physical demand of our jobs really gave us an appetite. Beer and pizza weren't exactly on our diets right now, but a cheat day every now and again was good.

"Where are you putting all that, Mr Evans?" Megan teased, finally speaking to me as I polished off my last slice. She'd pushed her hair back again when the pizza came but hadn't directly addressed me until now.

I gave her a grin. "Call me Chris. Mr Evans is my dad."

"All right - Chris," she said, and I liked the way she said my name.

"Well, it's not Leonardo's pizza, but it's still pretty good. Sorry about earlier – I didn't mean to insult you or anything by calling you Ariel."

"Apology accepted. You kind of caught me by surprise there."

"I could see that. So you really didn't know who I was when you ran into me yesterday?"

"Nope," she said, taking a bite to give her time to think. "I saw Before We Go not very long ago, but I didn't put two and two together right away. I just watched Captain America for the first time yesterday and The Avengers today. You look like a completely different guy with the beard, by the way. Not sure how that's possible, but it's true."