A Chance Meeting | Chris Evans

Chapter 60

A/N: I cannot believe that I am at 60 chapters, over 17k if views and over 600 votes!!! 😍😍 Thank you all so much! You have no idea how much this means to me!!
Apologies but this is a looong chapter, way longer than I normally write, but I couldn't really find a good place to split it. Hope you still enjoy it. Cxxx

*****
Chris kept stealing glances at Becks as he drove. She was staring out of the window, still very quiet. What had happened? Everything had seemed to be going fine - one minute they'd been dancing and laughing and having a blast, and the next she'd just... shut herself off. Did I do something wrong? Say something?
He tried to get her talking. 'So did you enjoy Scotty's set?'
'Yeah it was great, Scotty can really sing.' She replied but there was no enthusiasm in her voice.
Then she went back to staring out of the window.
It couldn't have been because Scarlett was there, because she seemed fine with Scarlett once she got used to her. She seemed fine with everyone earlier on, laughing and chatting. But then something changed, she was answering their questions, and smiling in all the right places but the smile didn't reach her eyes. It was as though she was on autopilot.
Was it because I'd asked her to dance to the slow song? That was the moment she'd changed. Did I offend her in some way?
He tried again. 'So you didn't fancy going on anywhere else?'
'No.' She said. 'Not really. I'm sorry I had to drag you away from your friends to drive me home.'
'I didn't mind.' Chris said and smiled at her. She gave a small smile back, but it was a pale and watery imitation of her usual beaming smiles.
'You okay, Becs?' Chris asked.
'Yes, I'm fine. Just tired.' She said.
That's not the truth. I don't know what's wrong, but it's not that.
'You're still okay with stopping off at Joes first though, aren't you?' Chris asked.
She paused. 'I forgot about Joes.' She said
For a minute she said nothing just stared out of the window. 'Would Joe be upset if we didn't go?' she asked.
What?
'I kind of think he would.' Chris said 'He's making tiramisu for you specially.'
'Yeah, you're right.' Becs said.
'You know if you're really feeling that tired, we could maybe see about getting it to takeaway.'
'Won't he mind that?' She asked.
'I could tell him you're not feeling very well.' Said Chris.
She sighed. 'No, I don't like to lie, or be the cause of lying in others. We'll go in there.'
She didn't look very happy about it though.

***

'It's all dark.' She said as Chris pulled up and parked near the cafe. 'It looks closed.'
'Don't worry, Joe'll still be there.' Chris said, getting out of the car.
'No look, see?' Becs said, pointing to the CLOSED sign on the front door and the blinds that were drawn over the windows.
'It's not closed for us.' Chris said and knocked.
After a minute, Joe came and unlocked the door and stepped out, smiling.
'Rebecca, so wonderful to see you again.' He said and kissed her warmly on both cheeks.
Steady on Joe, that's further than I've gone yet.
She gave him a small smile. 'Hello again Joe.'
If Joe noticed the thinness of her smile, he didn't show it. He took her hand. 'I have made you the best tiramisu you will ever taste. From my wife's grandmother's recipe.'
'Thank you Joe, that's very kind of you.' She said.
'Come in, come in.' Joe said and they followed him into the cafe.
That's when Chris noticed the lighting - all the lights were off and each table was lit by a single candle. He'd been in here out of hours before and the lights had always been blazing.
What's Joe up to?
'Bit dark in here Joe - you had a power-cut?' He asked, only half joking.
Joe chuckled. 'No, I just thought it gave the place a certain...ambiance.' He said, and gave Chris a quick wink.
Oh no. Don't try and match-make, please Joe. Not tonight.
Chris looked quickly over to Becs, but luckily she was still looking around so she hadn't seen the wink.
'Sit anywhere.' Joe added, sweeping his hand to gesture at the empty cafe. 'I will bring you tiramisu and coffee.'
'Umm...I don't think I can handle proper coffee this late at night Joe, do you have decaf?'
Joe gave her a bit of a stern look. 'I will get you decaffeinated. But it will taste like swill.' And with that he went out back.
Chris laughed. 'Wow, he must really like you - the only time I ever asked for decaf, he nearly ran me out of the place.'
'Why?'
'He's half Italian and he's married to an Italian, coffee is like a religion for them.'
'I haven't dared to ask for it since.' He added grinning at her.
'So where do you want to sit?' Becs asked.
'You choose.'
She walked over to a table and sat down.
'Kind of strange in here in the dark with the candles.' He said, trying to get the conversation started again.
'I guess.'
'I could ask him to blow the candles out and put the lights back on, if you'd prefer?'
'No, I like candles.'
'You do?'
'Yeah. They're mesmerising.' She said, staring at the one in front of her.
Great. Now she's not even looking at me.
'They are - a lot of people use them as a focus for meditation, you know, staring into the flame.' He said.
'Mmmm.' She made a vague noise.
What the hell was that? Is she agreeing with me? Or isn't she even listening?
'Your coffees and tiramisu.' Joe said, laying them down on the table.
'Thank you.' Becs said, but made no move to touch it.
'Try it.' Joe urged.
Chris watched as she took a small bit off the corner and put it in her mouth.
'That is very good tiramisu.' She said. 'Thank you for making it for me.' She smiled at him, but it seemed forced.
I wish she'd stop being so formal, it's freaking me out.
He waited until Joe had walked away again.
'What's wrong Becs?' He asked softly.
'Nothing, I'm just-'
'And don't say that you're just tired, because I know that's not the truth.'
'I...'
'Was it me? Did I do something to upset you?'
'No, of course not.'
'Then what? Did someone else-'
'No one did anything.' She interrupted. 'It was...it was the song.'
'What?' He asked, looking confused.
'The song that Scotty's band played at the end, the slow one. It just...brought back memories.'
'Not good ones?'
'No.'
Oh.
'Can you tell me about it?' He asked.
She shook her head. 'I don't like to-'
'Please?' He interrupted
She looked at him for long seconds and then sighed.
'Do you remember asking me if I'd ever been in love?'
He nodded. 'Yes - you said it hadn't ended well. Did the song remind you of that ex?'
'Kind of the ex, and kind of how I felt afterwards.'
There's gotta be more to it than that.
He waited to see if she would say any more.
For about a minute Becs didn't say anything, she just stared at the candle flame, lost in her thoughts.
'He's called Justin.' She said quietly. 'And he's the reason that I don't believe in all that stuff about soulmates and finding 'the one'. Because he should have been mine.'
Shit.
'You loved him.' He stated, feeling like he'd been punched in the gut.
'Completely and catastrophically. Like he was the air that I breathed.'
I'm not sure I want to hear this.
'So what went wrong?' He couldn't stop himself from asking.
She gave a small bitter laugh. 'It turned out that he didn't love me back, at least not in the same way. I totally lost myself in loving him and he didn't love me back.' Her voice cracked a little.
'That sucks, I'm sorry.' Chris said.
'Yeah.' She said and sighed.
'He sounds like an asshole.' Chris said. 'How could anyone not love you?'
Becs snorted bitterly. 'It would be so much easier if he was an asshole, then I could just hate him. But he's not - he's one of the sweetest and kindest guys I know. He's so thoughtful and clever and funny.'
Fuck! Is she still into him? Sounds like it.
'You kind of remind me of him, personality-wise, I mean.'
I don't want to remind you of your fucking ex!
'How long were you together?'
'About nine months. To be honest, I guessed after a couple of months that he didn't feel the same about me as I did about him, but I kept kidding myself that eventually he would.'
'But he didn't?'
'No. He didn't.'
'Still sounds like an asshole to me.' Chris said.
'By the end, I realised that as much as he cared for me, he wasn't in love with me, and he probably never would be.'
'He ended it?'
'No, I did actually....eventually. I still stayed a lot longer than I should have.'
'Sounds rough.'
She nodded sadly. 'I had a quote on my phone for a while which said: 'The hardest thing I have ever done is walk away still madly in love with you.'
'But it wasn't true.' She said with a sad laugh. 'Breaking up with him was easy compared to trying to get over him.'
'Getting over him, moving on...was just...' She tailed off.
'Hard?' He asked.
'Impossibly hard.'
'I've known him all my life, ever since we were little kids.' She said slowly. 'Our parents are best friends and they do everything together. He's my best friend's twin brother. Every memory I have of birthday parties or Christmas or summer BBQs, he's there. And while he was just my friend, that was fine. But then we broke up, and he was still there, but I was still madly in love with him and trying and failing to get over him.'
'Why not just avoid the parties and things for a while? Or better yet, ask your family not to invite him?'
She sighed. 'It wasn't that simple.'
'Why not?'
She stared at the candle flame for so long that he began to doubt she would answer. When she did, her voice sounded rough as though she was trying not to cry.
'Because I couldn't keep away from him.' She said, and her eyes started to fill with tears.
Shit. Please don't cry.
'I knew that the only way to get over him was to stay away as much as possible. I knew that. But I didn't do it. I couldn't.'
'I would encourage my family to invite his family over so that I could see him. I would encourage my friends to arrange things. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I used to constantly stalk him online as well.'
'But surely if your friends and family knew how you felt...'
'They didn't. Everyone thought that I was getting over him. I pretended that I was. People used to comment about how well I was doing and how great it was that we could stay friends. Meanwhile I was crying myself to sleep every night.'
'They even used to arrange dates for me, and I'd go on them. But every guy that I looked at wasn't good enough because they weren't him. I'd sneak my phone to the bathroom during the dates so that I could look at Justin online, and then I'd come back and carry on with the date as if everything was normal.'
His chest hurt as a single tear rolled down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away.
'How long did it take to move on?' He asked.
Please say you have moved on.
'It went on for about three months - me pretending to be fine, to be over him. And then that song came out, the one that Scotty played tonight. And it was as though someone had read my mind - all my fears that I'd never get over him, that I'd never be able to move on, that I'd never be able to love anyone else.'
'I don't really know the song.' Chris admitted.
'It's called 'What if I never get over you' by Lady Antebellum. I'll play it for you.'
'Not if it upsets you.'
'Just listen to the lyrics.' She said, pressed play and the music flooded out.
As the song started another tear started to roll down her face.
'Becs.' He said helplessly. 'You don't have to-'
'Ssh.' She interrupted. 'Just listen.'
He didn't know what to do to make her feel better, so he just reached across the table and linked his fingers with hers, gave her hand a gentle squeeze and then listened.

What if I'm tryin', but then I close my eyes
And then I'm right back, lost in that last goodbye?
And what if time doesn't do what it's supposed to do?
What if I never get over you?

Maybe months go by, maybe years from now
And I meet someone and it's workin' out
Every now and then, he can see right through
'Cause when I look at him
Yeah, all I see is you

What if I'm tryin', but then I close my eyes
And then I'm right back, lost in that last goodbye?
And what if time doesn't do what it's supposed to do?
What if I never get over you?
Ooh yeah
What if I never get over?
What if I never get closure?
What if I never get back all the wasted words I told ya?
What if it never gets better?
What if this lasts forever and ever and ever?

What if I gave you everything I got?
What if your love was my one and only shot?
What if I end up with nothing to compare it to
What if I never get over? Oh, if I never get over
What if I never get over you?

'It was not long before Christmas and that song seemed to be everywhere I went.' She said.
He gave her hand another squeeze.
'That must have been rough.'
She gave a sad smile. 'It was like God, or the universe or whatever you believe, was trying to send me a message. That nothing was going to change if I didn't make a change. That I would be stuck feeling like that forever. So I took a long hard look at my life and I knew that what I was doing wasn't healthy and wasn't good for my mental health.'
'I knew that the only way I stood any chance of getting over him was to cut him totally out of my life. So I accepted the job at Boston Library and I told my friends and family the truth about how I felt. I deleted all my social media accounts so that I wouldn't see his pictures and asked people to please not even mention him to me, and I just left.'
'That must have been hard.'
'The hardest conversation was the one with him. I had to explain why I was cutting him out of my life, so I told him the truth about how I felt. He was really upset that I was so sad, but he agreed to not try and contact me.'
'And that was ten months ago.' She finished.
'But it worked, right? You managed to move on?'
Please say you did.
She hesitated.
Oh my God, you haven't.
'I honestly don't know. I haven't seen his face or heard his voice in ten months. I don't cry all the time over him anymore and it's been months since I looked him up on the internet. But I won't really know for certain until I see him again. It's easier to think you're over someone when they're not there, don't you think?'
No. God would not be this cruel to me, to make me meet someone, only for her to be in love with someone else.
She pulled her hand from his and wiped her face.
'Chances are I'll find out soon enough.' She said.
'Why?'
'Because he's Viv's twin brother, and they're really close. If she stays here, sooner or later he will come over and I'll end up seeing him. Or he'll phone and I'll end up speaking to him. At least then I'll know.'
He felt a little buzz of panic at the thought of that.
'Anyway, now you know my story.' She said. 'I'm going to go and wash my face.' She added, getting up.