Chapter Two

Everlie

I knew I shouldn't worry. My roommate, Tori was known to be a bit of a wildcat, and frequently didn't make it home until well past midnight. But as her best friend…it was hard not to let my imagination get carried away wondering where she was. It didn't help that I had the late night news on the TV in the background, replaying the worst stories of the evening—which in Vegas, equated to a continual loop of reports of everything from pickpockets, kidnappings, wild parties and bar fights—to on especially bad occasions, the discovery of a ring of human traffickers or drug busts. Tonight had been a relatively calm broadcast, but as I paced around the living room of our shared apartment, I couldn't help but picture Tori's face popping up on the screen with some horrendous headline about a missing girl.

When the stories started to repeat, I sighed and flopped down on the couch, silently cursing my mom for my streak of paranoia—she'd always been a bit of a worry wart—while reaching for the remote control to click off the TV. The screen went blank and my eyes darted back to the clock on the wall. It was almost 2 o'clock in the morning, which was late, even for Tori. I was halfway through typing out a text message to her, when I heard the locks on the front door starting to click open one by one.

Tori and I lived in a relatively safe neighborhood on the outskirts of town, but as two single women in a city known for sin, we aired on the side of being cautious, and had three deadbolts installed on our door, in addition to the regular lock. I heaved off the couch and went to assist Tori, who was fumbling with the last lock. As soon as I opened the door, she burst inside, her bright auburn curls bouncing and a sparkle in her blue eyes, making them even brighter than normal. She was grinning ear to ear, and while I was happy to see her, I couldn't help feeling a little irritated that while I've been home, worried sick, she'd apparently been having the time of her life—without so much as a text to let me know she was still alive and kicking. In the three years we'd lived together, we'd had this conversation more times than I could count. All I asked was that she let me know she was safe so I didn't have to worry. She thought I was paranoid and old fashioned, but each time, she agreed to be more contentious. It usually worked for a few months, before she'd randomly go off the radar again.

"Ev!" She exclaimed, swishing past me to drop her purse off on the couch. "Thank God, you're awake. You're not gonna believe what happened tonight!" She shouted, spinning back to face me. "I met the man of my absolute fucking dreams!"

I shut the front door and bolted it closed again. "Oh, Lord." She shot me a playful scowl, but continued on, unfazed by my lack of enthusiasm. "His name is Bennett Marshon. Basic specs, he's twenty-nine, crazy tall, smells like Heaven, with a wicked grin straight from the devil himself!"

I laughed at her colorful description, unable to stay upset with her. I'd heard the same story about a million times since we moved in together, but her sheer excitement was contagious and even though I'd never understand how she could fall so head over heels in one night, I always appreciated her way with words. Tori lived in a continual cycle of relationships—she was constantly falling in and out of love—sometimes all in the course of twenty-four hours. She was a fickle creature with ever-changing taste, I had a feeling she had no idea of what she was really looking for, and she didn't really care enough to sit down and figure it out. She was quite content living in the whirlwind raging around her.

When last I checked, she didn't even know what gender she wanted.

We'd known each other for over three years, after originally meeting at the dance studio I worked at. Back then, she'd been dating a woman for several months. Once they broke up she switched back over to dating men, but that only lasted for a six-month period, before she switched back again, swearing off men altogether. However, she ricocheted back three months later when she found her new girlfriend was just using her to get an audition at the burlesque club where Tori was a full-time dancer.

It was basically a giant, bi-sexual soap opera.

"—I'm telling you, Everlie, he's the hottest man I've ever seen in my life," Tori chattered away, and I didn't stop her to back up to what she'd been saying.

From what little I'd heard, I gave the relationship three weeks to go belly up.

"Where did you meet him?" I asked, joining Tori in the kitchen where she was pouring a large glass of iced tea from the pitcher I always kept stocked in the fridge.

Tori smiled, knowingly. "At a club."

I groaned. "Always. Tori it's always at a club. Does he even live here? Or he's just here for a few nights with his bros?"

"Lighten up, Ev," Tori chided, closing the fridge. She took a long drink of her iced tea before continuing, "I'm not expecting some fairytale ending with a guy I met at a club, so don't worry about me. We're just gonna have some fun. Well, I should say more fun." She waggled her eyebrows at me over the rim of her glass.

"What? Did you get it on in the bathroom?" I was halfway kidding, although with Tori, you never knew.

Tori rolled her eyes. "For fuck's sake Ev, I have a little more class than that!"

I eyed her expectantly.

"He took me back to his hotel, a very nice hotel I might add." She gave me a shit-eating grin and went back to sipping her iced tea as though we were discussing our plans for lunch the next day, rather than her doing it with some guy she just met at a club hours before. Before I could say anything else, she continued, "You didn't even let me tell you the best part!"

I braced myself.

She set aside her iced tea, and her smile grew as she looked at me for a moment. "I'm seeing him again tomorrow, and you're going to meet him too!"

"I am?"

She nodded. "And, his equally hot friend, Ryker."

I arched a brow at her. "Tori," I whined.

Tori grabbed my arm and tugged it playfully. "Come on Ev! It's one night out, it won't kill you."

"It might."

She laughed. "You watch the news too much. It'll be fine. Seriously, Ev, you're gonna thank me. Ryker is tall, dark, handsome and I know he could rock your world!"

I swept away from the kitchen, knowing that if I stayed, I was likely to blow up on her. Tori knew I wasn't looking to date anyone, and that I really wasn't looking to meet some random club guy. If I was going to ever slow down to try and find my Prince Charming, it certainly wasn't going to begin with a manhunt inside a sweaty nightclub.

A blind date, with a friend of the guy Tori was currently playing around with wasn't my idea of a good time.

Not even close.

"Ev! Where are you going? Don't you want me to tell you about him?" Tori asked, chasing after me.

I stopped in the hallway and turned around to face her. "Not really, cause I'm not going! Sorry, Tor, you're just gonna have to make an excuse for me."

Her blue eyes went wide, gawking at me like a blue bird from a Disney movie. "Everlie, please? Bennett and Ryker are good guys! They're Navy SEALs! We're doing a service to our country!"

"That might be the most ridiculous thing you've ever said to me," I replied, not blinking.

Tori rolled her eyes. "All right, fine. I'll call Chelsea or Monique. I'm sure one of them can come."

"Perfect."

I went down the hall to my bedroom, and had nearly gone inside, when Tori added, "Ryker's gonna be pretty disappointed though. I showed him your picture and he really wants to meet you."

"You what?" I whipped back around to face Tori, who was trying—and failing—to hold back a smile.

"Well, Ryker wasn't too thrilled about the whole blind date thing either, I'm telling you Ev, he's perfect for you! Anyway, when I showed him your picture, he changed his mind and agreed to come along."

"Really?"

"Mmhmm." She was still smiling at me, and twirling a tight, red spiral curl around her finger, as she watched my wheels spinning. She'd played her last card, and as much as I hated to admit it…it was working.

"And what would this date consist of? I'm not going clubbing."

"Oh no, no! I insisted on first class all the way! They're taking us to Vivacite, that fancy new French place," Tori purred.

Shit. She knew she had me. I'd been dying to try that restaurant since it opened a few months back. However, I'd heard that an appetizer cost more than I made in a day working as an instructor at a non-profit ballet school for underprivileged children. I loved my job more than anything, but working for a non-profit left little wiggle room in my budget for expensive dinners or other small luxuries.

"So…?" Tori prompted.

I sighed. "All right. I'll go."

"Yay!" She bounced up and down in the hallway, her curls going wild around her gleeful face. "This is gonna be awesome! I've already mentally picked out what you can wear. I'll do your makeup and hair. You won't have to worry about a thing!"

"Goodnight, Tor." I pushed into my room, leaving Tori in the hallway, alone with her plans and schemes.

All I could do was hope I didn't regret caving in.

As I fell asleep, the final thought rolling around in my mind was that the Chocolate Soufflé better be as amazing as the food critic reviews promised…and that I wasn't forced to run screaming for my life before it was prepared.