[Christmas Eve, 1949]
"And there I was, sitting alone on a swing at the playground. I waited and waited in cold for Robert to come but he didn't, so I went home. Then out of the blue, I heard a voice singing happy birthday, and that's when I know he was surprising me with my family." Connie took another swig of her beer. Her white sweater hanging on her shoulder; the diner was warm even in winter. "That sounds so romantic." Milana sipped on her piping hot drink before turning to look at Evelyn. "Evelyn, you're okay? You're so quiet today." Her concern for Evelyn's well-being peaked when the girl only shook her head.
"I just don't want to go home." Evelyn gulped down the remaining hot cocoa in her mug before pushing it away. A lot of things had changed since she went to the big barbecue that Ted held a year ago. "You don't have to. You can stay at my apartment if you'd like." Milana suggested but instantly got rejected by Evelyn. "No, I'd be a burden." She poked the leftover fried egg on her plate with a fork, her mind was somewhere else.
"I don't know what I was thinking— coming back here and having to look him in the eyes tomorrow," Evelyn confessed, she still couldn't believe the things she had done to Bobby on that night. "Ooh, and Ethel's eyes..." Connie's comment was uncalled for, but she was oblivious — she suggestively raised her eyebrows with a reckless smile on her face. "Connie." Milana sternly called her out. "Sorry." The younger girl winced, she kept her eyes on her beer — it could've been the alcohol that turned her that way. "Yes, Ethel's eyes. I have to look into it and wish her a 'merry Christmas' all because my parents care for the Kennedys over me." Evelyn harbored a grudge over her father, Maurice, for coercing her into celebrating Christmas — which they rarely do unless the Kennedys ask them to join their dinner.
"Evelyn, I'm sorry if this sounds insensitive, but why did you do what you did on that night?" Milana inquired of Evelyn. The French girl took no offense to what her friend had asked, she understood it thoroughly since what she did was indeed very odd. "Firstly, I was very drunk." Evelyn straightened her body, leaning slightly forward on the table. "Then in that drunkenness, you kissed Michael in front of everyone—" As Connie was about to finish her sentence, Milana once again used her death stare to warn her not to go too far. "Oops." Connie turned to the window on her side to mind her own business. "You need to hear the full story." Leaning back to the booth seat, Evelyn prepared herself to tell the story from her side.
[November 26, 1948]
"Welcome, Your Honor." Jack shook the hand of a man he had only met twice before. "Well, Jack, you were right— this is nothing like a formal event." The white-haired Mr. Vinson said as he looked around the place — he was the Chief Justice at the time, and Jack had invited him for one reason: to rub shoulders with. "I truly hope you can find relaxation in this small gathering that my brother's hosting." The young congressman gestured for the old man to follow him as he was taking him to Ted.
"Jack's bringing some guy over." Mike quickly threw the cigarette he was smoking, he used both his hands to push his blonde hair back into place. "What are you nervous about? Relax." Ted put away the plate of burger he was eating from. "Ted, this is an..." Jack glanced at the smiling man beside him, "Acquaintance of mine, Chief Justice Fred Vinson." Right after he finished the sentence, Fred Vinson was in stitches; he laughed heartily. "I'm your friend, Jack. Your father's too." The man explained while patting the Congressman in the back. The boys around Ted were in utter shock to hear the Chief Justice himself saying so. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Vinson," Ted casually said before lending a hand. "You too, Ted. What a grand party you're throwing here." The judge shook the lent hand and excused himself to refill his drink.
"You got a lighter?" Jack inquired of Mike — he had caught the man throwing his tobacco stick into the swimming pool. "Yeah, here." Mike took his lighter out and lit Jack's cigar up. "Ted, you need to socialize with people other than your friends." The older man slapped Ted in the back, causing him to choked slightly on the hamburger he was chewing. "Fuck off." The boy muttered while his brother made his way to another prominent guest he'd invited.
"Mama, we're leaving for Ted's barbecue. So, no dinner for us tonight." Evelyn took a glimpse at her watch, the needle was pointing at seven o'clock. "Have fun, girls. Evie, don't forget to mingle with people. Who knows— they might just be a Hollywood director." Julia added with a sense of teasing in her words. Wendy giggled with her hand covering her mouth. "Ha, ha." Evelyn walked up to her mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek before exiting the house at a quick pace.
Once Evelyn saw the variety of cars being parked across the road, she knew she was in the compound of the Kennedys home. All of a sudden, her nerves started to work up—she was drenched in cold sweats by the time they were in the backyard.
"Lyn..." A close, gentle sounding voice called out to her. "Jack, hi." The girl shyly fidgeted with the handbag she was holding. Wendy was starstruck by the man in their presence. "Wow, you look... gorgeous." Jack had to resist the temptation to caress Evelyn's soft skin — her revealing silky dress was attracting more attention than she thought she'd ever get in a lifetime; both men and women at the party had their eyes on her as if they'd been hypnotized. "And who is this?" Jack shifted his sight to the slender woman next to Evelyn. "Oh, this is Wendy Lester. We're roommates at Harvard." She once again had to introduce her friend.
With a pair of admiring eyes, Wendy reluctantly lent her hand to shake Jack's. "Enchanté. By the look on your face, I assume you know who I am?" The man showed off his sparkly teeth with a wide grin on his face. They shook hands and Evelyn noticed the way Wendy rubbed her thumb on top of Jack's hand. "Yes, of course! You're a great congressman, Mr. Kennedy." There was no effort from Wendy in hiding her excitement—she was a fan, for sure. "Oh, please. I'd like you to just call me Jack. None of that formal stuff here." Jack didn't mind the grip on his hand, he seemed to be rather excited that Evelyn had brought her equally gorgeous friend to the party.
"Gosh, I feel awkward standing here." Evelyn joked, she repositioned the thin strap of her bright dress that was laying on her shoulder. "Come on, I'll introduce you to some of my Hollywood friends." Jack nodded to Wendy before squeezing between them. He laid his warm, robust hand on Evelyn's back — the calloused surface of his palm met with the most tender and unwrinkled skin. The man could feel the sweat streaming down his neck when Evelyn promptly wrapped her hand on his waist. As they arrived at Jack's inner circle, he introduced the two girls—one in very high regard.
"Fellas, may I introduce you to my friends? This is Wendy Lester." The way Jack placed Wendy's name before Evelyn had made her uncomfortable. Wendy timidly waved at the men who were clearly judging her. "And the future Hollywood bombshell— Evelyn Bellamy." Jack stroked Evelyn's back a couple of times before letting go. The girl flushed in embarrassment — her cheeks roseate when the men in front of her nodded their head and smiling with admiration in their eyes. "Jack's overestimating me, but... fingers crossed." Evelyn reluctantly winked at the youngest looking man in the group. "Well, aren't you something?" He responded with a dark smirk upon his boyish face. "Something? Jack just said I'm Hollywood's future bombshell." Then in a blink of an eye, Evelyn had completely turned into someone different — she was charming the concupiscent group with her body movements and sultry voice. Jack and Wendy stood in silence — or shock.
"Jack, you didn't tell us she'd be prettier than Hayworth." An older man spoke up, the cigar in his mouth muffled his voice slightly. "Well... I think they look quite similar, don't they?" Jack stepped closer to Evelyn, he smiled as he pretended to scan the girl from her heels to her head. Wendy, who was standing on the very far right spot of the circle, felt excluded in the conversation. "Only with a pair of green eyes." The third man from the group added his remark. "I'm not going to lie, her shoulders alone can put her in a movie with Cary Grant." A man said and the rest hummed in agreement, nodding their messy heads while gawking closely at Evelyn. "Now, where exactly did a pretty doll like you come from?" A slim man with a slick hairstyle muttered to Evelyn with a debonair flair to himself. Jack could see how Evelyn could handle it on her own, so he turned to Wendy and gestured for her to follow him somewhere else.
"You're rather late." Ted chased after Bobby when he saw the man walked into the backyard with his eyes fixated on Evelyn and her new friends. "I didn't know all these people were gonna be here." Bobby's serious face gave a scare to people who incidentally looked him in the eyes. "It's Jack. He's stealing the show with his new friend, Wendy." Ted pointed to the Congressman who was having a quiet conversation with several men in suits. "No, it's her." Bobby kept his sight on his mesmerizing ex-lover. Ted shifted his eyes to Evelyn before sighing loudly, "Will you stop obsessing over her?" Bobby finally looked away from the girl and to his younger brother. "Let her be. We should enjoy ourselves tonight." Ted wrapped his arm around Bobby's neck, leading him to his corner.
"Even though I didn't have much of these yet before, my French charm definitely made them fall like dominoes." Evelyn's effortless joke had men circling her laughed in tears — they were insincere, of course, but as long as she could keep their attention on her and not their significant others — she could do a good enough job to be indelible inside their minds. "Oh Evelyn, why did it take me this long to know you?" A heavy-built man said — Evelyn noticed the British accent that he had, at that moment she instantly recognized who he was in the dimmed space. The man reached into his suit and retrieved a pocketbook. "Will you give me your phone number? I shall call you when I get back to California." He gazed at her with a persuasive smile. "Of course, Mr. Hitchcock." Evelyn stepped closer to the man, she whispered her numbers quietly to his ear.
"Look at that... Evelyn's really talking to Alfred Hitchcock like old friends." Mike had a proud smile on his face as if he was her father. "Shameful," Bobby uttered before placing a cigarette between his lips. Burning red flame reflecting on his cold eyes of blue as he observed Evelyn and her lips as they move to pronounce words. "How is it shameful? She's gonna be richer than us soon— well, than me, at least." Mike furrowed his brows at Bobby, he was not one to judge a striving woman. "The real Evelyn would never do that." Bobby pointed his cigarette at the girl as she laid a hand on a man's shoulder while they shared a laugh.
"Hey, back off, man. She's just your friend now." The younger man tapped Bobby on the shoulder as a warning gesture. Mike instantly rose on his feet when Bobby did first. "You're not her man anymore." They made sharp eye contact when Bobby immediately turned to stare him in his eyes. "And who are you?" The question Bobby asked made Ted swallowed his saliva — what Mike meant to Evelyn had been a secret between the three of them only. "You really wanna know?" The blonde man took a step forward — it was a small step but a giant leap to their argument; it intensified the atmosphere. "Hey, calm down— come on now." Ted chimed in, he squeezed between the two men. Bobby rolled up his sleeves with eyes burning like the noon sky. "Back off, Ted." Not a single muscle moved when he commanded his brother, except his lips.
"Will you two stop already?" Out of the blue, a woman approached them with two empty bottles in her hands. "Eve, what's going on?" Bobby held onto her forearm as she tried to get to the cooler behind Ted. Evelyn immediately yanked her arm away. "You know, Bobby... I can see how you glare at me when I'm just trying to do my job." She uttered and resumed her pacing, willfully causing pain in Bobby's heart. The man clenched his jaw tightly before chasing after the girl and pulling her aside. "Fuck, Bobby! Will you just stop?!" Evelyn dropped the two bottles on top of the ground, they instantly shattered into smithereens upon impact — drawing everyone's attention to them both.
"Eve, talk to me. I'm struggling here." The man almost begged the girl, his remorseful manner was complemented with his sweaty, scrunched up face. Evelyn suppressed the tears that were building up in her eyes before she could nod her head. "Evelyn, is everything okay?" Mike took a hold of Evelyn; wrapping his strong arm around her delicate shoulders. "It's fine, we're fine." Evelyn patted his hand that was on her right shoulder. "Are you sure?" Mike intensely established eye contact with Bobby, neither of them broke them until Evelyn began walking off.
Evelyn and Bobby found themselves standing on cold sands, with waves of water splashing against their feet. "What's so important that you have to me freeze out here?" Evelyn gripped firmly onto her own body, she observed Bobby as he made his way closer to her. "Why are you pushing me away?" He seemed more stressed than Evelyn was — even though he was not the one being left alone after a breakup. "You foolish man, I'm keeping distance between us. Are you that blind?" Evelyn insisted on being cold, she was indeed trying to create a barrier between them so no feeling could seep through. "There's a better way than this." Bobby refused to agree. "No, there isn't." So was Evelyn.
"Don't you understand? What we feel for each other is too strong to be taken lightly." With her arms crossed on her chest, Evelyn lowered her head as a way to stop herself from going too far. "You don't know what you're doing to me, Eve." Bobby reached out for Evelyn, he laid a warm hand on her cold shoulder. "Don't touch me. You'll regret it." The girl's eyes were practically glued onto the sand until Bobby tuck his fingers underneath her chin and lifting her face to look at him. At that very moment, the wind was put on pause — so was the ocean waves, making their surrounding quiet and their heavy breathing amplified. Rashly, and without much thinking, Bobby pressed his gentle lips against Evelyn's, his eyes shut tightly as he pulled her body closer to him. The girl gave in easily as if she had waited or anticipated for it — she got especially weaker when Bobby had tightened his handgrips on her back.
But after the wind had started blowing again, and the sea overpowering their breathing, Evelyn called a halt to the kiss. She wrapped her hands around Bobby's neck, embracing his warm body. "You always build me up just to break me down again," Evelyn spoke quietly into the man's ear while he was engulfed in guilt. "It's impossible to live a life without you, Eve." Bobby laid his chin on Evelyn, he felt comfort in that moment of discomfort, ironically enough. "It's hard, but not impossible, Robert," Evelyn responded with a muffled voice. She released the hug and wiped the tears away from her face.
"I'm sorry, but this won't change anything. I'm determined to make it easy on both of us." Evelyn's sternness shocked Bobby. Her face shifted in a millisecond, her eyes became sharper and dry, and her voice, monotonous. "Fine. I'll play pretend like I'm not in love. But please, don't throw everything we had." Bobby tried negotiating with Evelyn as if he was in a court, and the prosecution seemed to be agreeing with him. "I'll keep in contact with you, alright? At least until you're married." Evelyn wanted to shake on it, but that seemed rather insensitive. "Thank you." Bobby faintly smiled, he could finally breathe the fresh salty air around them.
"Where were you?" Mike quickly grabbed Evelyn by the arm and bringing her somewhere. "Well, I had to talk with Bobby. Where are we going?" Evelyn asked as she picked up her pace to match with Mike's. "Did you know Ted can sing really good?" The man had a wide grin on his face. He led her to a spot farther than the pool. There stood about a dozen of people circling a bonfire. "I have but one heart, this heart I bring you..." Ted sang his heart out with his eyes closed to reach the note correctly, everyone slow clapped to the rhythm of the song. "He's good, right?" Mike whispered to his girlfriend with his eyes locked on Ted. Evelyn only stared blankly at the singing boy, she began clapping along.
"You are the one dream I pray comes true." Ted's harmonizing with the melody in his head was surprisingly calming, the fire crackling was the perfect white noise. As soon as Ted opened his eyes, he realized Evelyn might be able to replace him and make the party slightly more fun. "Evelyn! You good with Italian?" He shouted to switch with Evelyn, and the girl didn't hesitate — she opened her mouth and started taking over the song. "Dicimo o mari, facimu l'amore..." And all heads started turning to one another; women were in amazement for her fluency in the foreign language, while men listened to her seductive voice and wondered if that was how she sounds in bed. Mike was in awe, his lips parted when he heard the voice coming out of Evelyn's mouth. He couldn't believe a Goddess like her would pick a silly person like him to be her king.
"She's singing now?" Ted turned to his right when Bobby muttered those words. "Yeah. I had no idea she could sing that well," The boy responded with his focus on Evelyn. "I've always known it," Bobby's eyes twinkled when he saw Evelyn smiling amidst her singing. "Because the sea whispers and caresses us," Evelyn knew the next line would be the last, so she gestured for Ted to rejoin. "So does the breeze till the time we die..." They finished the song in unison. It all ended well for Evelyn; there were applauses from strangers, whistling from men, and a beer being handed to her.
It was well until Mike's hand that was wrapped around Evelyn's waist pulled her into him. She almost pushed him away but when a kiss was landed on her mouth, she went completely speechless. "Shit," Ted whispered underneath his breath as everyone watched the couple making out in front of them. "Woo, go Mike!" Wendy was silent for the most part, but seeing her two friends doing something so bold entertained her. "What the fuck?" Bobby could feel himself losing the balance on his feet, he felt like fainting when Evelyn didn't seem to resist. Instead, she placed her arms around Mike's neck just as she did to Bobby on the beach. "God damn, Lyn!" Jack cheered, he was impressed by their bravery to do such a shameless act in front of people they barely knew. "Eve..." Bobby quietly and desperately whispered. He stepped forward — for a second, everyone thought he was intervening, but he ended up walking past the couple and into the house.
Milana shook her head, "Tch, tch, tch." Evelyn felt a heaviness in her heart when she realized that must have been the reason Bobby didn't send her any letters. "And when I couldn't find him anywhere in the house or his room, I knew he'd be on the roof." She fidgeted with the empty mug in her hands. "But I thought I had done enough damage, so why bother?" Evelyn uttered quickly before raising her hand at the waitress. "And you didn't see him at all before returning to college?" Connie asked. "I return to college the day after. And I didn't come back, until now." Evelyn had stayed in college for an entire year; making Boston her home, Mike; her new boyfriend, and Wendy; her only friend. "Your father must stop getting too involves with the Kennedys," Milana added her remark, and Evelyn somewhat agreed.
"I'm going to head home." The French girl puts on her grey cardigan as she walked out of the booth. "See ya, Evelyn." Her friends waved her goodbye. She made her way to her snow-covered car and entered it. "What am I gonna do?" Evelyn bumped her forehead against the steering wheel. She couldn't comprehend her overthinking mind; it kept asking if Bobby would forgive her for being so spiteful by kissing another man in front of not only him, but everyone else. "How do I even... say sorry?" She muttered to herself while starting the car engine. The radio turned itself on; it was playing a Christmas song that's too jolly for her mood, she shut it off as quickly as she can.
"Great, she's here." Evelyn rolled her eyes in annoyance when Ethel's car could be seen in front of the Kennedys' house. The building was lit up with Christmas lights; it shone brightly even on the asphalt Evelyn was traveling on. The girl parked her car next to her father's and quickly made her way into the home; she planned to lock herself in her room until Christmas ends. But the plan was interrupted when her parents called her to the living room, saying there was something important they must tell her.
"So, what's going on?" Evelyn unwrapped the scarf she was wearing. Julia excitedly nudged Maurice on his arm. "Well, Evie, your mom thinks we should join the Kennedys on their ski trip to Mont Tremblant." Once the man finished with his sentences, Evelyn felt shivers running down her spines; she fell silent. "Will you be okay with that?" Julia raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't matter what I think." Evelyn glared at Maurice, "Does it, Papa?" She tilted her head slightly in a questioning manner. "Evie, we just thought it'd be great to get some family time together. And you can reconcile with Bobby before his wedding!" Maurice added his remark and the girl did not appreciate it, she quickly shut him down to remind him that Julia had no knowledge whatsoever regarding her relationship. "Papa, enough! I'll go— whatever." Evelyn left the room as fast she could, the memories began to bring her down to her knees again — she didn't want to cry, but how could she keep on ignoring it if everyone around her continuously reminded her of it?
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P.S: hey! So, I've skipped an entire year of this story to make some progress in it—I hope it's not too confusing. What pretty much happened is that; after Evelyn had done some weird stuff at the bbq party, she went back to college and stayed until the next year's Christmas came. ICYMI: my updating schedule is shifting into one chapter per week!