All in all Evelyn only got a few more hours of sleep and woke tangled up in Riley’s soft sheets face practically buried in the pillow. With a small groan she rolled out of bed Riley’s scent from the sheets lingered on her skin. She knew she needed a shower if she was going to be able to think clearly at all. She left Riley’s room after making the bed and took a moment to look around the house and found out she was alone. It felt a little weird to be alone in a strange house. She didn’t even want to explore the upper story of the house feeling like that would be too much like snooping. She just grabbed some clothing she left in the guest bedroom and headed for the bathroom that was next door to Riley’s bedroom. It took her a few minutes to find the towels and in looking she learned that the bathroom definitely belonged to a guy, she just hoped that Riley wouldn’t mind if she used some of his shampoo, she still hadn’t brought in her large suitcase from the car that held the bigger toiletry bottles.
As she lathered up in the warm water she realized how defeating the purpose of washing off Riley’s sent was when she was just going to be using the same soap and shampoo he used. Between the steam and scent Evelyn closed and let her mind slip away at first there was nothing just the feeling of the water caressing her skin and rising little goose bumps here and there. Her mind started to wonder though, as minds tend to do, and she got a flash of Riley taking a shower, shampoo in his dark brown almost black hair, water dripping of his nicely tan skin in rivets. Her minds eye wondered further down, past the soft muscles of his stomach, her eyes snapped open a full blush on her cheeks. Evelyn physically shook her head sending water droplets flying and finished her shower quickly. She scolded herself for such thoughts and chalked it up general hormones, chalked it up to a lack of satisfaction.
Evelyn dressed quickly in jeans and a t-shirt, wet hair just twisted up into a bun. The house was still hers only, but there was a bit of evidence in the fridge that at one point Riley had came and went. There was a sub sandwich with a post-it note stuck to it. Evelyn read it out of curiosity.
Came home for a bit, you were in the shower. Brought you lunch (its turkey, everyone loves turkey right?) because I figured you could use something to eat, don’t worry though I’ll be home in time to cook an actual dinner. Hopefully that doesn’t sound too bad, oh and I figured we could watch a movie or something, just a nice evening in, that is unless you have other plans.
Evelyn smiled at how sweet Riley was and nodded to the “everyone loves turkey” comment. She was hungry and grabbed a soda and the sandwich at ate it quickly at the kitchen table. She knew she had to check in with Winter once she was done, she had a lot to get off her chest and she knew her friend would find amusement at least in the story. Quickly she cleaned up after herself and ran to grab her cell phone hoping that Winter would answer.
“Hello?”
“You will never believe the type of day I’ve had.” Evelyn sighed into the phone while stretching out on the couch.
“That bad huh? Well you will be happy to know that your apartment is still standing, though what do you want me to do with the flowers, they already are starting to wilt.”
“Just toss them, sorry I should have done that myself before I left. Yeah that bad would be an understatement, apparently the invitation to come down here wasn’t to catch up with my Mother and to visit with the new family oh no it was to babysit.”
“What?”
“Yeah Riley woke me this morning so I could catch Mom sneaking out, packed for a weeklong honeymoon leaving me and Riley here together to get to know each other.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah seriously she’s on a weeklong honeymoon and I’m here with my new stepbrother trying to figure things out.”
“A stepbrother who woke you this morning?”
“If he hadn’t she would’ve just left without saying anything.”
“How early are we talking about?”
“I don’t know it was like seven or eight.” Evelyn’s brow furrowed.
“I’m so angry with you right now!” Winter yelled loud enough to cause Evelyn to move the phone away from her ear.
“What the hell?”
“You lied to me, you never stopped and got a room last night, you drove all the way. God do you know how reckless that was, if anything had happen to you I’d have no clue where you were.” Winter was working up a tantrum and Evelyn started to feel bad. She realized how stupid she was in more than just lying about but also in not being very good at the whole lying thing. She felt bad that in trying to spare Winter the worry she seemed to have made it worse but she also knew that if she let Winter rant and get it over with everything would be patched up.
“Honestly I am sorry, I really just didn’t want you to worry about me that’s why I told you I’d get a room, I know it was wrong of me to say so since I had no intention of stopping but I am sorry to piss you off.”
“Really I shouldn’t be surprised, you are so damn stubborn that I should’ve known you weren’t going to stop and get some rest before getting there. At least you are safe and didn’t fall asleep at the wheel and crash, killing yourself or someone else.”
“Again I am sorry.”
“It’s okay, so it’s now just you and Riley? How’s that going?”
“It’s strange to say the least. I mean the kids sweet enough and he’s taking this whole being thrown together thing pretty well but there has been some odd moments. I don’t know I have this feeling that he just might not know how to act around women, as cute as he is, I get this inexperienced vibe and that transitions into not knowing how to really act around me. He’s been a little flirty, nothing inappropriate and really I think he only does it because he is nervous around me.”
“Better then the both of you being at each other’s throats but what makes you think he is inexperienced around women?”
“Well I was trying to do the whole cool older sister thing to relieve some of the tension of our parents taking off and told him that if he wanted to have his girlfriend stay over that would be fine with me and I’d make myself scarce. He told me that he had no girlfriend and winked. Plus he offered me his bed this morning so I could get some sleep and made the comment that I was the first girl he’s had in it. I don’t know, its harmless and I know he’s probably just saying stuff to get a reaction, I mean you know how it was like at that age.”
“The fact that you are probably treating him like a kid isn’t making it any better.”
“What?”
“Well it’s just going to bruise his ego and he’s just going to keep trying to do things and say things to prove to you that he is a man and not a child. It’s pretty much human nature, unless you start treating him like an equal he’s probably going to keep flirting and keep up with sexual innuendos. He most definitely doesn’t mean anything by it but he probably feels it’s the only way that you are going to see him as an adult and not as a boy.”
“Like that’s not childish?”
“Honestly what man have you ever met that wasn’t childish they stop emotionally maturing at like 13.” Evelyn couldn’t help but laugh.
“I don’t even know how to start to treat him like he’s an adult.”
“Just forget about him being 19 and treat him like he is your peer, trust me it will make the whole week go by smoother. You are staying the whole week aren’t you?”
“Yeah I don’t really see any reason to head back home since all I would do is sit in the apartment and probably watch movies at least if I do that here I don’t feel as much like a looser.”
“Well on the bright side at least you found out that your new family isn’t a bunch of ax murderers.”
“At this point at least that would be mildly entertaining.” Evelyn sighed deeply into the phone
“Just remember, treat Riley like an equal and things will go fine. Give me a call whenever you feel like you need to talk or just to check in okay?”
“I’ll keep that in mind, try not to blow up my apartment though while I’m away.”
“Cannot make any promises.” Evelyn laughed knowing full well that her apartment was in safe hands, they said their goodbyes leaving Evelyn to try to find something else to fell her time until Riley showed up. It made her realize that at the very least his company was better than no company at all.