Ex-Daredevil by Zoe Lee
Chapter 25
Eliott
“Okay, time to get ready for part two,” Gavin said, his voice a sexy rasp, scraping over my lit-up nerves and making me shiver. He took me to the IMAX theater, which confused me, but then strolled up to the ticket desk and fist bumped one of the women behind it. “Ella, my favorite movie fiend, it’s great to see you again. You got that package for me?”
“What are you doing?” I hissed, since this frankly sounded like a drug deal.
“Don’t worry, counselor,” he teased, throwing Ella a huge smile as she passed over a plastic-wrapped package about the size of a small deep dish pizza box. “Barnyard likes to rent out a theater here once a year, so Ella and I are old friends from organizing this year’s. We just have to go into the bathroom so we can get this done, and then we’ll head out.”
He led me to men’s restrooms, leaned against the sinks counter, and tore the plastic. He pulled out swathes of fabulously colorful, patterned fabric and I reflexively reached out to stroke them, then caught myself and curled my fingers into a tight fist instead.
“I’ve got choices for you,” Gavin said. “This one’s mine.”
“What?” I asked, feeling a little dazed.
“Part two of this Daring Date requires a costume change,” he explained. “Come on, which one looks good to you?” he asked distractedly as he tugged out a short-sleeved button-down paisley in the color of a male peacock’s feathers, shiny and amazing.
“I—” I stuttered, for once unrelated to the sight of him stripping off his layers.
He looked up once he’d done the last button on the paisley shirt, and I must have had on a contorted expression because he frowned. “You okay? You look like you saw a ghost.”
“I—no, no. You know I just don’t… wear colorful clothes.”
“I don’t get why not,” he laughed. “They’d make your sexy green eyes pop even more.”
I flushed and forced myself to reach out with steady hands to look at each of them. God, why did this have to be happening right now? I had just skirted bad memories from back in college, and now I was here faced with something else I’d put aside back then too.
But my fingers spread and slid through the assortment of shirts, all in colors and patterns that complemented my coloring, something I’d forced myself to stop considering years ago, sticking to black, white and grays. I petted the embroidery on the neckline of one. I closed my eyes and fought to keep my breathing cool, then quickly tugged off my thermal and sweater and put on whatever shirt was under my right hand.
I felt Gavin’s quick fingers smoothing the stretch polyester blend fabric over my shoulders and then untwisting it at my hips. “Look at you,” he said. “Mm.”
My eyes darted up to the mirror and I froze. The shirt was lemongrass and had a deep, stretched-out vee neck, banded around my biceps and bunched a little at my hips.
I didn’t notice my phone buzzing in my pocket until it stopped, then started up immediately again. I had to tear my eyes away from my own reflection, almost in shock at seeing myself in colors again after so long, but fear hit me when I saw who was calling.
“Camdon?” I demanded. “Why are you calling me?”
“Mr. Navarre?” a stranger inquired.
“Yes,” I replied suspiciously. “Why do you have my friend’s phone?”
Gavin gasped and reached out to grab my free arm.
“My name is Anna Ocampo, I’m a nurse at the Evanston Hospital ER,” she explained, her matter-of-factness the only thing keeping me calm. “Mr. Gaines came in with a fractured wrist and he asked me to call you while he’s getting the bone reset, are you able to—”
“I’m on my way right now, will you tell him, please?” I interrupted.
“Of course, Mr. Navarre.”
“Thank you, Ms. Ocampo,” I said gratefully.
Gavin took my phone while he said, all business, “I’m ordering a ride, so let’s move so we don’t miss it. Tell me why Camdon called you instead of his boyfriend on the way.”
It only took a couple minutes to gather up the other clothes, then another few to get to the pick up location for the car, and by then, I had a pounding headache and felt guilty.
“It’s just a broken wrist,” I explained once we were in the car and had given brief greetings to the driver and asked him to turn down the music. “He asked the nurse to call me because the Gainses are a loud bunch and sometimes embarrassing. And Quincy cannot keep any secrets from his wife, or any of his other in-laws, so he’s out of the question too.”
“I broke my right wrist twice, so I know he’ll be fine,” he said in his best teasing, sassy tone even though his hand was smoothing up and down my back. “So I can’t wait to see him—he’s going to be on painkillers and he’s going to spill embarrassing stories about you.”
Groaning, I dug my fingers into my temples.
“But you can tell me some embarrassing stories about him while we’re on the way to the hospital,” he added. “Level the playing field. Or weigh it in your favor, if you dare.”
I leaned into his touch a little and said quietly, “I’m sorry this is ruining your plans.”
His jaw fell open and then he scoffed. “Since we decided that we’re boyfriends, I’ve done a lot of research on relationships. One of the things that advice-givers are unanimous about is that it would make me a complete dickbag if I was actually upset right now.”
That startled a laugh out of me, a release of some of the pressure of worry.
“Part two was just going to an arcade to play some games and some Dance Dance Revolution,” he explained with a careless shrug. “I just thought it would be daring for you to make an ass of yourself by losing horrifically and publically to me. I’ll take a rain check. I didn’t spend five hundred bucks and it’s not our ten-year anniversary. If it was, I’d expect you to call another friend and tell them to take care of Camdon because you had big plans.”
My heart tripped at ten-year anniversary, but I stayed focused. “Very reasonable.”
“See? You’re rubbing off on me already!” he cried.
“You and Camdon are going to love ganging up on me,” I groaned in resignation.