Eve POV

I hate parties. 

I never liked parties for multiple reasons. 

One of them being I'm always that one odd person that doesn't speak to anyone. I also feel like I stick out when I really don't. 

I usually to try to act as sociable as I can at parties, especially if it's one like these where I need to be sociable to get money out of investors. 

I'm currently talking to a guy named Carl who is a big investor. A really rich investor that I'm trying to haggle money from, as bad as that sounds. 

"How were the sales this year?" Carl asks me. His dark brown eyes look into mine and a small smirk crawls on his lips. He's in his thirties and I see a wedding ring on his finger. 

"Amazing. We went up forty percent from last year. Well, we can still go up by January, there is still some time left."

"That's impressive." I nod in agreement. 

"If you want to speak more about the numbers our CEO is near the bar I believe." I come up with. I haven't seen Harry all night.

"I will, thank you. Do you know where the slips are to invest?" 

"I believe they're near the stage. I'm really not sure." I am sure, I just don't want to seem like I am.

"Thank you darling." He winks at me then walks away. I let out a deep breath and take a sip out of my water. Well it's sparkling water which tastes like shit, but I'm thirsty and they don't have any soda. 

Harry POV

"Hello." I hear Liam say beside me. He sounds happy like usual. 

"Hi." I glance to him. I let out a deep breath.

"Eve is doing amazing with these investors man. I have to thank her later."

"Where is she? I haven't seen here all night." I say. Liam and I look to the crowd of people. I sip my drink that I've been used to drinking lately. 

"Um," My friend's brown eyes scan the room. "There she is." He points to her. I choke on my drink a little and Liam laughs at me. Eve is talking to an old friend of mine. 

She's wearing a fitted white dress that falls down to her feet. The fabric hugs Eve's sides, which bring out her amazing curves. The dress it a V neck that shows a little cleavage and the straps are a good size. Eve's hair is also down and is fixed well. 

"You good there?" My friend snickers. He asks the bar tender for another beer. I'm also mad that I requested Pepsi and they didn't get any. I know that's what Eve likes to drink when she's out, so that's why I ordered it. But of course they brushed over the soda because it's an adult party. 

"Yep." I can't take my eyes off of Eve. She looks absolutely beautiful. 

"Why don't you go and talk to her? You look kind of like a creep just staring at her from a far." I take my eyes off of Eve and look to Liam. I finish off my whiskey and put it on the bar counter. 

Yesterday was my first official therapy session. I think it went okay. I know I have a way to go though. 

"Yeah, I'll do that." I say. I look to Eve who has a smile plastered on her lips. "What should I say to her?" I ask Liam before I walk away.

"Compliment her. Say hello. Have you never had a conversation before?" I roll my eyes at my friend and he chuckles. He grips my shoulder and smiles at me. "Don't ramble though." I sigh. That is unlikely. 

I walk over to Eve and the more I get closer to her, the more I feel sick. I should feel comfortable talking to her, but I don't. I slowly regret walking over to her to say something. 

Her hazel eyes look to me, but I look to my old friend, Louis. He's staring at Eve's boobs which causes my jaw to tense up. Very classy.

"I just thought I should say hello to the both of you." I find myself saying.

"Very thoughtful." Louis remarks with a smirk. "I didn't know you hired people who are under fifty now." 

"Very funny." I say. "I didn't know you were showing tonight." 

"I thought I should check out how you're doing. We haven't spoken since Daren's wedding years back." 

Daren, Louis, and I were all college friends. I kind of distanced myself from Louis because he always wanted to go to clubs or hook up with girls. 

"Yeah, we need to catch up." I say to Louis with a soft smile. My eyes look to Eve who's looking at me. 

"Sounds lovely. Anyways my date is waiting, but Eve here was just informing me on everything that is still making your business better than mine." I grin at my old friends words. 

"I always told you, you could never be my competition." I bring up making him laugh. He grips my shoulder before walking away to his date. 

Silence falls between Eve and I.

I stand in front of her and feel everything I wanted to say wash away from my mind. 

"How's Doug?" I ask. 

"He's doing good. You should visit him, or you can take him for a few days, whatever works. I know he misses you." Eve rambles briefly. 

"Sounds good. I miss him." 

This is the opposite of how I wanted to start this conversation. 

"It's weird to know he knows my brother too." Eve brings up.

"He was a popular man at college." 

"I'm scared to ask why." She murmurs making me grin.

"So, did Louis offer you a job?" I change the topic.

"How did you know?" Her head tilts at me and her eyebrows furrow.

"He always offers jobs to my employees. How much is he willing to pay you?" I ask curiously.

"25.50 and hour." I see the grey business card in her left hand.

"Are you thinking about taking it?" I ask curiously. Her hazel eyes look into mine. 

"No, even though the pay is better than what you offer," She admits. "That was a little too blunt, sorry." Eve chuckles. 

"You're fine." I smile gently. "The position you have now at my office, there is a lot of room for you to grow in. Um, now you're kind of at the lowest position but years from now you can possibly be a manager that gets paid 79 dollars an hour. The position I gave Nate was a job where he can't move up in. He can only get a bonus around Christmas." 

I felt like there was something in Nate that we needed at the office. Even though he isn't memorable in a sense, he works quickly and doesn't mess up. I need those type of workers so more books are published and more money is made.

"Interesting." Her eyes meet mine making me become more nervous. My hands begin to sweat a little. "Thanks then."

"No need." I murmur. "You look amazing by the way." I finally compliment. Her eyes look down at what's she's wearing.

"Thank you." Her voice is gentle. "You look great yourself, which I wouldn't doubt considering the amount of suits you own." 

"This is a new suit," I say.

"Why?" Eve snickers. Her eyebrows are knotted at why I decided to get a new suit.

"I didn't like the other ones I had," I say honestly. Her head tilts at me. "I'm weird, I don't know anymore." Eve smiles causing me to smile back. 

"At least they aren't the famous, causal slacks." 

"I can't find them by the way." I mention. She releases a snicker but quickly clears her throat to cover it up. 

"That's really odd." Eve says. I shake my head at her. "I don't think you would wear casual slacks to a Gala though."

"I wouldn't, but for my Friday outfit I was going to." 

"What a shame." Her head shakes. 

"Um, how's the Gala so far? Is everything alright?" I host these yearly and like feedback so I can improve.

"The drink choices bother me. But, besides that everything is quite lovely." I knew she was going to say that.

"I requested having Pepsi at the bars but they forgot about it," I bring up. 

"Did you request Coke or Pepsi?" Her beautiful eyes question me. 

"Pepsi, I know Coke hurts your stomach and makes you burp too much." 

"Well, it's the thought that counts." Eve says with a friendly smile. "Next time I'll bring my own drink. The sparkling water tastes like shit." I laugh at her.

This is the first time I've actually smiled or laughed since we started this break. I guess Eve does bring that out in me.

"Anyways, I'll let you get back to being all boss like now." She says. 

I'm tempted to say that I'm not interested in talking to anyone but her, as cliche and cheesy as that may sound. 

"Yeah. We need all the help we can get by haggling money from people." Her head shakes at me. 

"I'll try my best to help." I bite the insides of my cheeks. I manage to nod and force myself to grin. "You should donate some of the money to charity." 

"I do every year." I say.

"Really?" Her eyebrow raises at me.

"That's how the foster center gets a better budget every year and more stuff." She smiles at me. It's a thankful smile which I like seeing. I know with that smile she's happy.

I have a feeling like after this we won't be talking as much, or even seeing each other that much. Eve won't be giving me my paperwork for the day anymore, so I don't know how else I would see her throughout the week day. Maybe by bumping into each other which we seem to do a lot.

"Eve?" I say before I walk away from her.

"Yeah?" She voice still remains sweet and peppy.

"I think you're the most gorgeous woman here tonight." I say honestly making her eyes soften at me and her cheeks heat. "Thank you for coming tonight." I manage to smile. 

I soon walk away and let out a sigh. 

I miss her a lot.

I hope this break is worth it.

A://N

hello

i went to the gym and came back with over 100 comments on the last chapter

that was honestly surprising so thank you all for commenting / voting if ya did :)

eve's dress is the photo fyi

comment??

vote??

tysm for reading :)

~lauren