Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 103428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
I couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Good. You’re not my type either.”
She batted her eyelashes. “Not into hot girls who are batshit crazy?”
I grinned. “Definitely not.”
“Perfect. Then let’s go.” She flashed a gloating smile and walked toward the door. I stepped aside for her to exit first, but she stopped in front of me. “If you want to go to Wendy’s, I’ll treat.”
“Keep walking, wiseass.”
• • •
“So what brought you to New York after you finished school down south?” I asked after the waiter brought our drinks.
Evie shrugged. “My ex-fiancé—well, sort of. Christian and I met when we were both students at Emory. I applied for my doctoral internship year in New York because he was planning on moving back to work for his family’s company, which has its corporate offices in Midtown. My sister also lives up here, so it worked out well at the time.”
“Is she still here?”
Evie nodded. “She and her husband are up in Morningside Heights. But we actually lived in New York for a few years when we were kids. My mom moved us around a lot. I lived in eleven different states before I was thirteen.”
“Wow. Did she move for work or something?”
She shook her head. “No, usually we moved when my mom left my dad, which happened every few months.”
My brows pulled together. “They didn’t get along?”
“Oh, sorry. I assumed you knew since Kitty and my grandmother were so close. Kitty was the one who finally got my mom to leave my dad for good. Almost thirty years ago, my mother stayed at Kitty’s women’s shelter for the first time. My father was abusive. My grandmother didn’t know what was going on back then. Mom kept it from everyone until Kitty encouraged her to speak to family. After she did, my grandmother came down to the shelter to get my mom, and she and Kitty hit it off. They became friends, and a year or two later, the house next door to Kitty went on the market. My grandmother had been looking for a one-story house, so she bought it. The two of them were inseparable after that.”
Shit. Evie’s mom was someone from the DV shelter my grandmother had run for most of her life? “I knew your grandmother was Kitty’s neighbor and close friend, but she never mentioned anything about your mom being…”
Evie smiled sadly. “Abused. It’s okay to say it. That’s one of the things Kitty taught me when I lived next door to her during school. It’s not something I’m ashamed of. Kitty made me realize that the more people talk about domestic violence openly, the less victims will feel like it’s something they need to hide. Anyway, there was a period of about nine months, when I was ten, where we lived with my grandmother. She had been trying to get my mom to leave my dad for years, but it was Kitty who got through to her before we finally left for good. That summer was one of the best years I had growing up, so when I got accepted into a few PhD programs, I decided to go to Emory so I could stay with my grandmother. In my third year, she was diagnosed with an aggressive metastatic cancer and passed away only a few months later. Your grandmother and I were always friendly, but we became close after that.”
I nodded. “She’s talked about you a lot over the years. Though of course, she calls you Everly, so I didn’t put two and two together when I was interviewing Evie.”
She sipped her wine with a grin. “Maybe you would have been a little nicer during my interview if you’d known.”
“Or maybe if we hadn’t met when you were sniffing your armpit in the men’s room…” I fought past a smile.
“I never did get a chance to explain that. I had dropped a cherry on my shirt and stained it, then got stuck on a hot subway for two hours and had to rush to buy a new blouse. While I was getting changed, I realized I should freshen up a bit, but all I had was a wet wipe. When you barged in, I was trying to see if the lemon smell had transferred onto my skin.”
“Number one, you didn’t lock the door. And number two, you were in the men’s fitting room.”
She waved her hand at me. “Technicalities, technicalities. You still used me to amuse yourself. Letting me sit there and squirm, wondering whether you recognized me or not.”
“It wasn’t one of my finer moments. I guess we’d both had a bad day. In my defense, I’d gone to a board meeting the night before and went another round trying to talk them out of forcing my hand to fill this position, only to have them inform me we’d been served with another lawsuit just that morning. Any shot I had of swaying things my way obviously went out the window.”