The Hookup Pact

33| Atlas

Evelyn had been frowning at the toast for the last five minutes and it was starting to scare me.

Looking back, her mood had been a little off ever since I found her slumped on the porch steps of the hockey house. I'd chalked it up to an onset of hangover and hadn't pestered her about it. After we came home last night, we went to bed straight away. However, it was odd that Evelyn didn't kiss my cheek like she usually did or say goodnight before going to bed. But I didn't think much about it then.

Now though? Everything seemed like a sign. A sign of distress that I'd missed.

"Rosy?" I called, gently placing my hand on hers on top of the kitchen counter. "Is everything okay?"

She looked up at me and forced a smile, abruptly pulling her hand away. "I'm fine. Just tired."

Lie.

By now I could tell when Evelyn was lying. I had seen her tired and this wasn't it. Her eyes were unfocused and she was jumpy. She also refused to face me, keeping her head down at all times. Something she often did when something was bothering her and she wanted to hide it from me.

Even though I wanted to call out her lie and question her more, I knew it wouldn't work on Evelyn. If anything, she would shut me out completely and try to flee at the first signs of interrogation. So, I smiled and nodded, deciding to give her space.

We ate breakfast—more like brunch since it was close to midday—in silence and then Evelyn announced she was heading home. Despite my every instinct telling me to stop her, I didn't. She would come around eventually and all I could do for the time being was to wait, hoping she would trust me enough to open up.

I decided to leave at the same time as she did. Not that I was eager to go back to the hockey house and get caught up in the chaos of Kris ripping the guys a new one. I just didn't want to stay indoors and let my brain run in circles about Evelyn.

As we left the penthouse and rode the elevator down to the parking lot, I tried to start a conversation but was met with only hums and one-word replies. It made me wish I could read her mind and figure out what that pretty little head of hers was cooking.

Evelyn made a beeline to her car the moment the elevator doors opened and I followed behind. She opened the driver's side door and got inside, pulling on her seatbelt. "Atlas..." she turned to me and I offered her a smile. She gulped and turned away, avoiding eye contact again. "I'll... I'll see you later."

"Yeah. See you later," I said even though all I wanted to do was pull her out of the car, kiss her senseless, make her look me in the eyes, and beg her to tell me what was bothering her.

Because this... The way she was shutting me out was making my heart sink and a bad feeling spread in my chest. I had the same feeling when we fought last time. At least then I knew why there was a rift between but right now I had no idea what had gone wrong or how to fix it.

Evelyn turned her key and the car made a sputtering noise. "That does not sound good," I remarked, which Evelyn fully ignored. She tried again and then again. On the fourth try the car made one last miserable sound before it shut down completely.

"Fuck!" Evelyn cursed, banging her head on the steering wheel.

"Hold on, let me check under the hood," I said and walked to the front of the car. "How often does this happen?"

Evelyn jumped out of the car, quickly joining me. "Not a lot. Last time Tyler did some tinkering and it started immediately."

Nodding, I unlatched the hood and lifted it. As soon as I did so, a cloud of smoke puffed right in our faces. I coughed and waved the smoke away as I tried to take a look at the insides of her car. "This does not look good," I said once I had assessed the situation.