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Eva is going on actual date with Penetrator Chris. She has to keep repeating it to herself because it still doesn’t feel real. Eva is looking at herself in the mirror and pulling at her dress. It looks okay, but she doesn’t like wearing dresses all that much. The doorbell rings and Eva grabs her purse and heads for the front door.
“Hi,” Chris greets her, with what is probably a normal smile for him but still comes across as a self-satisfied smirk. “You look beautiful.”
“Thanks,” Eva replies but she looks down doubtfully at her dress anyway. “Let’s go.”
They start walking in silence after Chris asks Eva which way to go, since he doesn’t actually know where Sana lives. Chris tries to lighten the mood with flirty banter after a while but Eva is not really in the mood for it. It’s not fair to him really, she agreed to actually go out with him. She should give him a fair chance. She tries to engage in the conversation but when he reaches for her hand she pulls it away.
“I’m not holding hands with you, Chris.” He looks a bit defeated. “I’m sorry, but if we’re going to do this it has to be at my pace.”
“Alright. Am I still allowed to sleep over?” He’s trying to sound self-assured but Eva can hear a hint of doubt in his voice and she’s honestly not sure herself.
“We’ll see.”
They actually settle into a pleasant conversation for the rest of the way. Chris and her do get along really well. Eva is not sure there’s anything more there though. But she has to finally try to move on properly and she thinks she owes it to herself to see if this thing with Chris could be a real relationship. He has always treated her with respect. And he won’t change if no one ever gives him a chance to.
Sana greets them at the front door and leads them to her apartment. Eva drops her purse in a small room right next to the entrance where she can already see Vilde’s and Noora’s’. It looks like most people are already here. Sana then leads them to the backyard where everyone is gathered. Chris tenses up a bit next to her. He doesn’t know many people here, and a lot of the people he knows don’t like him. Eva spots Isak and he smiles at her and comes over.
“Hi, Eva.” Isak leans in for a quick hug. “I’m glad you’re here.
“Yeah, it’s great of Sana to have everyone over.”
“Chris. How have you been.” Isak greets Chris politely and shakes his hand.
“I’m good,” Chris replies. “I’m gonna get us some drinks,” he tells Eva.
“Really, Eva? Chris?” Isak asks her when Chris is out of earshot.
“What?” Eva asks indignantly, even though she has doubts herself. “He treats me with respect and he’s hot.”
Isak half smiles and shrugs his shoulders.
“Oh my god! You agree.”
“Not as hot as my boyfriend.” Isak says with a grin.
“Er, maybe.”
Isak is looking at Eva a little wistfully. He seems to be struggling with something. Like he’s not sure if he can say what he wants to say.
“Jonas told me you hooked up.”
“Oh.”
Eva looks away from his face, cause she can feel her cheeks flushing.
“I just… I wish things could work out between you guys. I love you both and you deserve the best.”
“Hmpf,” Eva snorts. “You just don’t want him to be with Emma.”
“That’s not untrue. But I’d root for you two even if he wasn’t seeing her.”
“I don’t think it’s in the cards for us.”
Eva looks at Isak’s face and he’s nodding sadly.
“I still feel guilty,” he admits. “For what I did. And I always thought you guys would get back together at some point. And then I could stop blaming myself.”
“It’s not your fault. And I used to think so too, and maybe Jonas did as well. I just think we both need to give up on that now and move on.”
“As long as you’re both happy. That’s what matters to me.”
Chris comes back holding lemonades for him and Eva, and Isak says goodbye and goes back to Even. Eva can see him kiss Even’s cheek and Even’s grinning at him wholeheartedly. She feels a pang of jealousy, because she wants to be that happy with someone.
There were times when she and Jonas were that happy. But also lots of times they weren’t. She tries to imagine looking at Chris the way Isak looks at Even and she just can’t picture it.
Chris is trying to talk to her but Eva barely pays attention. Her gaze has drifted to Jonas. He’s talking to Emma. She can’t quite believe he’s dating her. And he judged her for being with Chris. Unbelievable.
It looks like Jonas is about to feed her but then pulls back and eats the food himself. Emma’s laughing and it hurts a bit to see Jonas joking around with someone else like that. Chris is still trying to talk to her and Eva feels guilty that she’s paying so little attention to him.
“I want to go catch up with my friends for a bit.”
“It’s okay, Eva,” he replies. “You don’t have to babysit me.”
He looks a bit sad, but Eva leaves him anyway. She walks over to Sana, Vilde and Chris. Chris is already holding a plate of food.
“Is the food good?”
“Mhhmm.” Chris has got a mouthful and seems to be enjoying it immensely.
“You look amazing, by the way,” Eva tells Sana. “Sorry I didn’t say so earlier.”
“Thanks,” Sana says smiling. “I don’t just look fantastic in black, you know.”
“Obviously.”
Eva smiles at Vilde and she’s smiling back, and it might have made Eva’s heart flutter recently but it doesn’t anymore. It’s unfortunate that to get over Vilde, she had to to get under Jonas. Faen. That’s not what she meant. There hasn’t been a day since they hooked up that she hasn’t thought about him.
And now, it feels unfair to Chris too. It’s ridiculous. It’s not like Eva was thinking about Jonas while she was hooking up with Chris. Besides, it’s mostly unfair to herself. Eva was supposed to be over Jonas. And she’s just tormenting herself by thinking about what they had and what they could have.
Sana introduces them to some guy and tells them he’s the one who bought the toilet paper. Then Linn and Eskild arrive and come over to them. It’s a bit hard for Eva to keep a straight face when she sees what they’re wearing.
Eskild starts rambling on and Eva can’t keep the smile off her face. He’s so nervous and it’s kind of sweet how hard he tried. When he pulls out a christmas card it’s hard not to frown though. He compliments their outfits and drags Linn away to go talk to Noora.
Eva excuses herself and looks around for Chris. She spots him talking to Mikael and he smiles at her when he catches her gaze. He is really good looking, and Eva is really attracted to him. And they do get along. That should be enough to give it a real shot. He’s walking over to her and he can’t stop smiling.
“Wanna get some food?” he asks. “I tried some of it, it’s really good.”
“Sure.”
They walk over to a table filled with food and grab a plate to fill. It all looks great and it smells fantastic. Eva takes some meatballs and some other things. There’s no more places to sit so they eat their food standing up. The meatballs are very good, Eva is really enjoying them.
Chris starts talking about the food and then he’s teasing her because she doesn’t like tomatoes and Eva is actually having a good time with him. She offers him one of the meatballs and he likes it so much he goes to get some for himself.
Eva’s eyes follow Chris and she sees Emma walk up to get food too. Chris looks like he’s been hit over the head with a hammer when his eyes land on her. It looks like he starts flirting with her and Eva squints her eyes suspiciously.
Eva is not hurt really but she is a bit offended. He was trying so hard to get serious with her this week. Eva can feel someone walking up to her and she can tell it’s Jonas before she even turns her head. Eva tries to share an amused look with him but he just looks confused.
“What’s even happening right now?” Eva asks with a laugh.
Jonas is shaking his head and smiling too. They ’re both looking over at Emma and Chris, who are now clearly flirting.
“I think we just got ditched,” Jonas says.
Eva laughs because Jonas doesn’t look hurt, just a bit baffled and she doesn’t even care that she meant so little to Chris. Just standing there next to Jonas, sharing a laugh, has set a storm of butterflies loose in Eva’s stomach, and it’s unlike anything she has ever felt with Chris.
Their eyes find each other and Eva is smiling stupidly at him. Jonas is looking back at her and pointing at her face.
“You have a little,” he hesitates. “You have something there.” He’s indicating a spot on his own face.
“Here?” Eva asks as she wipes the corner of her mouth.
“No, the other cheek.”
“Where? Here?”
He’s looking at Eva with such a fond expression on his face it’s making her heart beat faster. Eva can’t help but smile at him.
“Take it off.”
Jonas’ hand moves to Eva’s face and his thumb moves over her cheek really gently. Eva is blinking up at him like a deer caught in headlights. His hand let's go off her face but they can’t stop staring at each other. There’s something hanging in the air between them. His eyes are glued to Eva’s face and he licks his lips and then they’re both leaning in and…
“Eva, do you wanna hold the speech for Sana?”
Fy faen, Vilde.
“No,” Eva says a little shortly. She is a bit annoyed. “No way. Not in front of this many people. Just thinking of it makes me feel a bit sick.”
“Please,” Vilde pleads. “We can’t find anyone to do it.”
“I can do it,” Jonas interjects before I can reply.
“Really?” Vilde sounds surprised. “Super!”
Vilde drags Jonas away with her to give him the papers with the speech on it and Eva is left standing by herself. Great. Fucking great. Now she gets to freak out about what almost just happened during the entire speech.
Eva can see Jonas reading over the speech once quickly. She lets out a deep breath. This moment is for Sana and she deserves it. Eva puts a smile on her face and walks up to Chris and the other girls as Jonas gets on a chair to give the speech.
Eva joins in when vilde starts chanting ‘speech!’ and clap her hands. Jonas looks completely cool when he explains Noora actually wrote it. He never lets his nerves get to him. Eva kind of envies that about him.
Eva switches between looking lovingly at Jonas during the speech and glancing at Sana who looks so happy. She need to tell Sana she appreciates her more often. Jonas is doing a really good job. Noora let Eva read the speech earlier so she’s paying more attention to Jonas than to the actual words.
She has kind of got a knot in her stomach watching him up there with everyone hanging onto his every word. Jonas is keeping his eyes locked on the paper mostly. Eva is holding onto Chris. The speech is so nice and warm it is giving Eva fuzzy feelings and she just wants to show everyone how much she cares about them.
“...fortunately, love does too.” Jonas finishes and he looks up from the page and right at Eva. He’s smiling slightly and Eva can feel her heart skip a beat.
There’s a bit of chaos after the speech in which they all tell Sana how much they love her and then Noora starts telling the rest of them how much she loves them. It’s the first moment all evening she hasn’t been glued to William. Eva hugs her fiercely. And then she hugs Sana. And Vilde. And Chris.
People are still congratulating Jonas on doing a good job with the speech when Eva glances over at him. Like he can feel her gaze he looks up and stares at her. He gestures his head to a corner of the garden and starts walking over there. Eva follows him. When she reaches him he slowly lifts his hand to cradle her face again.
“I’ve missed you,” he says.
Eva doesn’t reply, she just moves in and he immediately copies the movement. Their lips meet and Eva wraps her arms around his neck to pull him closer. It’s blissful. They’re moving perfectly in sync and Eva’s blood is racing through her veins. It just feels right. Being with Jonas always feels right. They’re kissing and Jonas sighs into her mouth. Eva is smiling and letting their lips meet again and again.
She has no idea how much time has passed when they pull apart. The party seems to be dying down. Chris is heading out the door with Emma and he glances over at Eva and nods. And she just smiles back at him. She wants him to be happy. Eva is glad there won’t be hard feelings between them.
Eva catches Isak looking at them and he’s absolutely beaming. He’s beckoning Jonas over and Jonas smiles apologetically at her before he walks away. Eva walks over to Vilde, Magnus and Chris. Vilde and Magnus were just saying goodbye and Eva is left with Chris.
“So,” Chris says. “Jonas again, huh?”
“Jonas again,” Eva confirms. She knows they have to talk about their relationship before they can actually get back together, but she has a good feeling about it.
“I’m happy for you. I always thought you were good together. And you deserve someone amazing who makes you happy.”
“Honestly, Chris. What has gotten into you this week?”
Eva laughs and Chris joins in.
“No, idea. I just think people need to hear nice things about themselves more.”
“That’s true,” Eva says and she think for a moment. “You’re a much better friend than you give yourself credit for. I’m so happy to have you in my life. And you deserve the best too.”
“Ugh,” Chris says and she looks a bit tearful. “Everyone is trying to make me cry today.”
Their emotional moment is interrupted when Jonas comes back.
“Can I walk you home?” Jonas asks.
“Sure,” Eva says. “Goodnight Chris.”
Chris smiles at them and walks away. Jonas and Eva walk over to Sana to thank her and say goodbye. They pick up Eva’s purse and walk out. It’s a beautiful evening but still a bit more chilly than Eva anticipated.
They’re walking along in silence and just casually catching up on their lives. Jonas tells her about his family and she tells him about her mom and then they talk about their friends and it’s so nice and simple. Jonas catches her shiver a bit and he offers her his jacket.
“Really?” Eva asks. “We’re going to be this cheesy and cliché now?”
Jonas laughs. “Yes.”
Jonas helps Eva into his jacket and then they start walking again. Jonas reaches for her hand and Eva doesn’t pull away from him. Instead, she lets him intertwine their fingers and they walk along in silence enjoying the quiet night. The pressure of Jonas’ hand is a silent comfort and it’s much too soon that they reach Eva’s house. Jonas walks her to the door and he let’s go off Eva’s hand. She misses it immediately.
Eva looks for her keys in her purse and takes them out. She hesitates for a second.
“I’m not going to invite you in.”
“Yeah,” Jonas replies. “You probably shouldn’t.”
“We need to talk about this. Properly. And I think we need to take a moment to think about it first. Alone.”
“That’s smart,” he agrees. “How long a moment?”
Jonas is staring at her longingly and Eva wants to drag him inside and kiss him and touch him until she forgets why she thought that was a bad idea in the first place. But she doesn’t. They have to talk this through. And they can’t do it right now.
“Tomorrow,” Eva says. “Come over in the afternoon.”
“Okay,” he says.
Jonas looks a little lost like he knows he should be leaving now, but he doesn’t really want to. Eva gives in. She moves in and presses her lips to his. The kiss is short and chaste but it still makes Eva’s lips tingle and her heart speed up.
“Just in case tomorrow goes badly.”
Jonas is grinning at her fondly. Eva can’t help but smile back and they stare at each other wordlessly for a while. She takes of his jacket and hands it back to him.
“See you tomorrow, Eva.”
He’s turning around and starts walking away.
“See you,” Eva calls after him. She smiles to herself, because she thinks her days without Jonas have finally come to an end.