Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“Ahhhh, yes! Here they are!” Evilla claps her hands together. I see our server bringing two huge platters of crab legs over. I remember how Evilla reacted the first time she got crab legs, and I wonder how much of that was genuine.
It’s awesome that she doesn’t care how excited she gets for something so simple or who might be watching her. She lights up for those crab legs, and even though the place is well-lit, colorful, and full of people who are wearing tons of different, vibrant clothing, she seems to shine the brightest and be the most colorful. My attention is completely drawn to her. Her smile only gets wider as the crab legs are placed in front of us. She puts her face practically in them and inhales the garlic buttery goodness.
“Shoot. I forgot your drink. Oh my gosh!” Our poor server looks harried as she apologizes.
“That’s okay. Take your time. I can just drink garlic butter until then.” She makes the young woman laugh effortlessly. As soon as she leaves, Evilla grabs a crab leg and says, “I was only half kidding. I’m so thirsty that I could drink an entire pitcher.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I practically finished my drink, but I could have flagged someone down for her or gone to the front to ask.
“It’s not a big deal. I’m not dying here or anything. It’s busy, and they’re probably short-staffed. But these look divine.” She’s not complaining. She’s looking for the brighter, finer points.
And the finer points come in huge crab leg form. She breaks one open with her bare hands and, like the first night, takes a huge bite of the meat. Her eyes get heavy as she chews, and she has that look of pure bliss that can only be derived from mouthwateringly epic goodness.
I crack a crab leg open myself, dip it in the butter, and yes. Yes, she’s absolutely right. Wow. This gets five stars. It gets all the stars.
“I’m not sure about the crab banana split thing, but we could have bonded over crab legs. When they’re this good, people might believe it.”
“It’s probably best to keep things as true as possible,” she says in agreement.
“That’s what people say about the best lies. They have the most truth in them.”
Lying. That’s what this really is. It’s not a charade, and it’s not a game. I’m lying to my parents. I’m faking all this. I set the crab leg that I’m holding back onto the plate. My stomach is suddenly not very hungry at all, and Evilla notices.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, looking concerned.
“I should just tell them. Everything,” I say.
She gives me a hard look. “I think you should, but at the same time, you also have to weigh how much harm that would do. What is worse now that you’ve already ventured down this path?”
“I should tell them. There’s more harm in lying. There always is. My mom might be mad at me, mad and hurt, and it will make me feel terrible, but who knows what she might do or feel when I say we’ve broken up? It will be me destroying all the hope I allowed to grow for two months. I should never have started this. Yeah, that’s what I want to do. I release you from having to be my fake girlfriend. And everything else stays the same with the company.”
She’s stunned, but unlike me, she’s good at recovering. She doesn’t say anything about how irrational I’ve been or how impulsive I am. She also doesn’t mention the company I bought because, for the first time in my life, I made an emotional decision.
“Okay. Uh, do you want help with that?”
“No. No, definitely not. I’ll be fine,” I mutter with a wave of my hand.
“I can come with you for emotional support if you want,” she offers.
“I’m a grown man. I can handle it,” I assure her.
Evilla is a good person. If that was in doubt after our first date, it’s not anymore. Everything she’s done since then has proven that she’s selfless, graceful, smart, and kind. She doesn’t even give me a weird look or mention anything about me not having previously been able to handle it, hence why we’re even here. She doesn’t wish me luck, and she doesn’t look at me like she doesn’t believe I can do it.
Instead, she grabs a crab leg and raises it in the air. “I give this place two great big crab legs up. And when I described my family, I wasn’t completely honest. I mean, I was, and that’s the problem. We’re so bland, so unremarkable. It would be nice to just be a little bit different. Maybe that’s why my mom gave us such wild names. She was trying to insert the smallest amount of excitement into our lives. I wished for so long that I could be amazing or have something super cool happen to me. Gen’s parents became rich pretty much overnight. We stayed best friends even after she moved across the city and started going to a different school. They were still cool, and my life still overlapped with hers. They didn’t forget me, which was so kind of them. They made it possible for Gen to stay Gen and for us to stay best friends. When I was little, I used to think something was just around the corner for my family, too. Then, when I got older, I hoped it would be coming for me. Not getting rich or anything. Just getting…something.” She huffs. “Well, something happened, alright. Something super shitty that I never saw coming.”