18+ | Eva French relocates from sunny Florida to the gritty streets of Detroit, seeking a fresh start. But her new beginning takes a dark turn when she experiences a traumatic assault on her very first night in the city. Haunted by the incident, Eva...
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Eva French
"Lonely..." he repeated, slowly stroking his bottom lip with his finger as he stared intently at the floor beneath him, as if he were saying the word out loud for the first time in his life and was questioning the meaning. His gaze shifted from the worn-out hardwood to me, sending a nervous shiver down my spine.
"I don't need anyone," he finally said. A myriad of emotions reflected off his eyes despite his simple declaration, and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment at his answer.
"No one?" I repeated, asking him in the gentlest tone I possibly could. I trod carefully, sensing the precarious nature of our exchange. It felt as if he might retreat into his hardened shell at any point and want to exit the conversation.
"No one," he declared.
"What if someone ever needed you?" I probed, my voice carrying a tender curiosity.
His eyes averted back to the floor below his feet and he began to contemplatively trace his bottom lips again, as if his fingers were coaxing his mouth not to say anything stupid or rash.
I wouldn't tell him how awkward it had been to ask Jay for his address. Jay hadn't wanted to give it to me at first. I asked him after work and he hesitated, looking uncomfortable.
"Why?" Jay asked. It was a rare moment when his kind eyes had turned serious.
It was hard to lie to Jay and I was horrible at it, so I kept quiet instead.
"Eva," he said quietly, stepping in front of me, his voice gentle. "Vince is my best friend. I know him well."
I shifted uncomfortably, feeling Jay's eyes probing for the truth. His concern was evident.
"You don't know him like I do," Jay continued, choosing his words carefully. "Vince is a great guy deep down, but there are sides of him that can be challenging. I just don't want you to get hurt."
He eventually scribbled Vince's address onto a piece of paper, passing it to me with a sense of resignation. I couldn't articulate to Jay why I felt the need to visit him because the reason wasn't entirely clear to me. It had been a few days since our last encounter, and a sudden surge of courage propelled me to seek him out.
A part of me harbored a compelling desire to make him understand how I felt about him and address the questions I never had the courage to answer. I wanted him to understand me.
But yet, now that I was here sitting on his couch in his living room, my nerve had dissipated. Thoughts raced through my mind as I tried to connect the dots of my feelings, enough to articulate the emotions that had remained unspoken for so long.
Guilt and shame gripped me, knowing I had intruded rudely on his night. Witnessing his embarrassment only intensified my discomfort; I couldn't bear the thought of being the cause of it. Amid the tension, an impulse welled up within me—an instinct to provide him comfort and reassurance.
