I rang the doorbell and leant against the wall trying out a few different poses for when Everlyn would open the door and first see me. I was in the middle of moving my elbow to the wall when she opened the door and we both froze.
"What are you doing?" she asked judgementally.
"Nothing," I replied quickly and pushed past her.
"Weirdo." She closed the door behind me and led me down the hallway.
"Where's brother dearest?" I asked and pinched her bottom.
She laughed and smacked my hand away. "He's working this weekend, he knows you're here though."
I nodded as we entered the living area, Everlyn walked into the kitchen to put the kettle on and I sat at the bench watching her. She was in trackies and an old jumper, she was so pretty even when dressed down and I smiled at her unknowingly. She looked over at me and grinned.
"What?"
I stopped smiling. "Nothing. So you told him I was coming?"
"Yeah." She didn't want to talk about James, I could tell it was making her uncomfortable. "I said that you were coming over quickly to get your sunglasses."
I nodded, she turned away to make our tea and I could feel the energy in the room slowly die. She had to feel it too, and if she could, it would only be so long before she put me out of my misery of sneaking and waiting around for an answer and tell me she couldn't do it, or in some ideal world, agree to run away with me. Selfishly, I wanted to preserve the dead chemistry in the room just to pressure her into giving me an answer, but it wouldn't be fair.
So I got up from my seat and walked around to her, I stood in front of her and kissed her. She smiled when we came out of it for air.
"It's been a long week without this," I tell her.
"I agree."
I started kissing down her neck, grabbing softly at her skin with my lips to hear her gasp. She smelt good, so good that I couldn't get enough of her. I could hear her heart hammering as I made my way further down her neck and onto chest. One hand of Everlyn's was tangled up in my hair and the other was clamped down onto the bench.
"Don't stop," she breathed.
I dropped to my knees and looked up at her as I slowly pulled down her pants. She looked down at me and as I looked up into her eyes, I knew I couldn't keep doing this for long, it would break me.
We ended up on the couch and laid there sleepily for ages. I ran my hand through Everlyn's hair and she nuzzled up into my neck, kissing me softly so that the salt on my skin would linger on her lips. Rain started to lightly hit the windows, it reminded me of when we first had sex.
It was June and freezing, Everlyn and I were 16 and curled up in bed together at 5 on a Sunday afternoon. All day we'd been in bed, tired from some stupid party. I had stared at Everlyn while she talked and laughed, I wanted desperately to kiss her, I had wanted to for a whole month.
"Jane?" she'd asked when I missed something she'd asked me.
And I leant forward and kissed her, and to my surprise, she kissed back. And within seconds, I was on top of her pulling off my shirt and working on her's.
I sighed and looked down at the grown up and confused Everlyn who was resting against my chest.
"I'm breaking up my family," I whispered.
"No, I am." She sat up suddenly and put on her bra before turning back to me. "I've fucked up everything and I can't undo it."
Shit. I really didn't want to have to get so serious so early in our day together. I sat up as well and wrapped a blanket around me.
"It's not that bad, Ev," I comforted.
"It is, it's going to break James' heart."
My own heart started pounding when she said it, I didn't know what she meant by it. Down the hallway the door opened and heavy footsteps plodded in.
"Hello?" James called.
Everlyn and I stared at each other.