A Chance Meeting | Chris Evans

Chapter 28

A/N: Sorry that this chapter has taken me so long to put up - I really struggled with it and it took me four attempts until I was happy with it. Anyway, I hope you like it.
C xx

*****
Saturday
10.24am

Chris drummed his fingers nervously on the steering wheel. Just go and see her. Right. It had seemed like a good idea when Rob had said it, but now he was sitting outside the library and his heart was going so fast it was practically buzzing.
Really should have taken a Xanax.
Maybe this isn't a good idea. Just turning up at her work. The longer he sat in the car, the more he was talking himself out of it.
His phone rang.
'Have you done it yet?' Scott asked.
'Not yet.'
'Where are you?'
'In my car, in the library parking lot.'
'And how long have you been there?' Scotty knew him far too well.
'Forty minutes.' Chris admitted.
He could almost hear Scotty's eyes roll.
'Well what are you waiting for? Get in there.'
'I'm not sure it's a good idea.' Chris said.
'Why not?'
Chris paused.
'Chris?' Scott prompted.
'It's just, what if she's not pleased to see me? What if she tells me to get lost?'
'You won't know until you try. And isn't it better to take the risk than always wonder what if?'
'I guess. But what do I say to her?'
'She doesn't know who you are, right?'
'No. I told her, but she didn't believe me.'
'Then I'd start with 'Surprise! I really am Chris Evans.'
'Not helping Scotty.'
'Sorry. What you want to say?'
'I want to say...I want to say sorry for the fake profile photos, for letting her believe that I was someone else, for not telling her the truth right away.'
'Okay.'
'And I want to tell her that everything else was real, all the conversations we had were real.'
'Well, it sounds like you know exactly what you want to say, then.'
'Yeah.'
'Chris?'
'Yeah?'
'Just don't freak out, okay, if she freaks out.'
'You think she's going to freak out?'
'She might. This is going to be a lot for her to get her head around.'
'I know.'
'You're a great guy, you know.' Scott said, suddenly serious. 'And if she's half as wonderful as you said, she'll be able to see that.'
'Thanks, man.'
'Anytime. Now go.'

*****

As he walked into the main entrance, he realised he'd totally forgotten how big this place was. Either that or they'd extended a lot since he was last here.
Shit. There are four floors? How the hell am I going to find her?
Looking at the map didn't help - the adult fiction was spread over two floors and the kids section was on another floor.
He thought about asking at the information desk, but he figured that they weren't going to answer some random stranger's questions about her. So he decided to just wander around a bit first and see if he could spot her.
She wasn't in the kids section, although there was an Iron Man display complete with a life-sized cutout that he took a quick photo of to show Rob. He wondered if Becs had anything to do with it being there - she'd said she was an Iron Man fan.
He searched around the adult section for about ten minutes before he saw her, tucked away in the stacks. One moment he was wandering around and then...
There she is.
Seeing her again hit him like a blow to the chest, and he stopped dead in his tracks, forgetting to breathe. She looked just as beautiful as he remembered - her brown hair was tied up in a loose bun, with charmingly messy strands that had escaped at the sides. He wished he could touch them.
She hadn't seen him yet - she was turned away from him putting books on a shelf, so he had a moment to get himself together.
Right. You can do this.
He took a deep breath and tried to ignore the anxiety that was rising inside.
It'll be okay.
He quickly looked around to make sure that no one was watching, and then took off his baseball cap and sunglasses. He took a few steps forward until he was only a couple of metres away.
'Becs?'
'Yes.'
She turned, a small smile on her face, but as soon as she saw him her smile froze and all the colour drained from her face.

*****

'Becs?'
'Yes.' She had a second to think that the voice sounded kind of familiar before she turned. Her eyes tracked upwards over a muscular chest and wide shoulders and upwards further to a very handsome, very familiar face. Her eyes widened in shock.
Holy, fucking shit! It's Captain America!
She forgot how to breathe.
What's Captain America doing in my library?
'Hi Becs.' He said, softly and smiled.
She stared.
'It's me. It's Chris.' He added, when she didn't reply.
Chris? My Chris? That's not possible.
She opened her mouth, but her brain seemed to have stalled - no words would come out.
His words from their last conversation came back to her - I'm Captain America, or at least I play him. I'm that Chris Evans. But it couldn't be true could it?
No. No. No.
'Becs?'
She knew that she was staring, but she couldn't make herself stop.
'Becs, are you okay?'
'I...um...I don't know...' She finally managed.
'I'm really sorry for just turning up without any warning, this must be a bit of a shock for you.'
A bit of a shock?
'I would've called first, but I...um...I think you blocked me.'
Did I block Chris Evans? She thought, a little hysterically.
'Well, he just made me really mad and...um...' She really didn't know which to say - he or you?
'You know that was me, right?'
'Umm...'
'What, you don't believe me?' He asked incredulously.
'Okay, I'll prove it.' He said, and he got out his phone and held it out. 'The code is 75524. Open it up.'
When she pressed the home button, a selfie came up on the lock screen of Chris, Robert Downey Jnr and Scarlett Johansson grinning at the camera together.
This is surreal. I'm looking at Chris Evans's phone.
'Look in WhatsApp - you can see all our conversations. Look in Messages - the same thing. Look in photos - I saved all the memes and gifs that I've sent you.'
He was right, it was all there.
Holy fuck. He wasn't lying to me. I really was messaging Chris Evans all this time without realising it.
'Believe me now?' He asked as she looked up at him.
She nodded, not quite trusting her voice.
'Good.' He said with a sigh of relief. 'Because I have no idea what my next play was going to be if you didn't.'
'I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry about everything. I should have told you straight away-'
He was interrupted by the voice of a boy shouting 'Mommy, that's Captain America!'
They both looked up and a small boy was pointing excitedly at Chris from across the room. Other people had obviously heard him too and were watching.
'Shit!' Chris said. 'I'm sorry. I'd really hoped to be able to talk to you without anyone recognising me.'
'Don't worry about it.'
The little boy was pulling his mother over towards them.
Chris rubbed the back of his neck, looking torn. 'Maybe I can tell them it's not a good time. I really want to talk to you, to explain.'
'You can't do that to the poor kid - look how excited he is. Captain America is probably his hero.'
'But-'
'Call me later. Anytime after six. We can talk then.'
'You blocked me, remember?'
'I'll unblock you.'
'Promise?'
'Yes.' She said, nodding.

*******