CHAPTER THREE (B)
1325 Words
The rain continued its gentle rhythm against Evelyn’s bedroom window.
Neither of them spoke for several seconds.
It wasn’t an awkward silence.
It was the comfortable kind—the sort that only happened when two people weren’t trying too hard to impress each other anymore.
Daniel cleared his throat softly.
“So…”
“So?”
“I’ve been wondering something.”
She smiled into the darkness.
“Should I be worried?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t sound convincing.”
He laughed, the sound low and warm through the speaker.
“When you first saw me outside the print shop…”
“Mhm?”
“…were you actually pretending not to notice me?”
Evelyn groaned dramatically.
“We’re back to this again?”
“You never answered properly.”
“I did.”
“You said ‘maybe.’”
She buried her face in her pillow, laughing.
“You really don’t know how to let things go.”
“I just want the truth.”
“The truth?”
“Yes.”
She sighed.
“…Fine.”
“I saw you before you saw me.”
“I knew it.”
“I panicked.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
She paused.
“Actually…”
“I do know.”
Daniel remained quiet.
“I remembered you.”
His breathing slowed on the other end of the line.
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“I thought about you after that day.”
The confession escaped before she could stop it.
Her eyes widened.
Why had she admitted that?
She waited for him to laugh.
He didn’t.
Instead, his voice softened.
“I thought about you too.”
A strange warmth spread through her chest.
Neither of them spoke.
Neither of them needed to.
Outside, the rain continued falling.
Inside, something invisible settled gently between them.
Something neither was ready to name.
⸻
“So,” Daniel said eventually.
“Tell me about yourself.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
She laughed.
“Everything?”
“I’m serious.”
“No one’s ever asked me that before.”
“Then I’m asking now.”
She shifted onto her back, staring at the faint glow of the streetlamp outside her window.
“What do you usually tell people?”
“My name.”
“I already know that.”
“My course.”
“I know that too.”
He chuckled.
“I don’t want the introduction version.”
“The introduction version?”
“The version everyone gets.”
“I want…”
He searched for the words.
“…the version only your friends know.”
She fell quiet.
It was such an unusual request.
People usually asked where she was from.
What she studied.
Whether she had siblings.
No one had ever asked who she was beneath the facts.
“I overthink.”
She blurted it out before she could reconsider.
Daniel smiled to himself.
“I noticed.”
“You did?”
“You think before every answer.”
She laughed.
“I suppose I do.”
“What else?”
“I’m terrible at pretending I’m okay.”
“You hide it well.”
“I try.”
“But not from me.”
His words lingered.
Not from me.
She wasn’t sure why they affected her so deeply.
Perhaps because she wanted them to be true.
⸻
“What about you?” she asked.
“My turn?”
“Definitely.”
Daniel exhaled.
“I like routines.”
“You?”
“I know.”
“I didn’t expect that.”
“Everyone assumes I wake up spontaneous and adventurous.”
“And don’t you?”
“I wake up at six every morning.”
She laughed.
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
“Every day?”
“Even weekends.”
“That’s slightly concerning.”
“It keeps me organised.”
“No.”
“It keeps you old.”
He burst into laughter.
“I’m twenty-one, Evelyn.”
“You sound forty.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
She smiled.
“You really wake up at six?”
“Every morning.”
“Why?”
“My dad always said that if you won the morning, you’d probably win the day.”
There was affection in his voice when he spoke about his father.
She noticed it immediately.
“You admire him.”
“I do.”
“He worked hard.”
“He still does.”
“What about your mum?”
Daniel’s smile softened.
“She’s the kindest person I know.”
He hesitated.
“You’d like her.”
The sentence caught her off guard.
She wasn’t sure he’d realised what he’d just implied.
Neither was he.
He quickly laughed it away.
“I mean…”
“…if you ever met.”
“I know what you meant.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologise.”
She smiled to herself.
“I think I’d like her too.”
⸻
Time slipped away unnoticed.
They talked about childhood memories.
Favourite books.
Music.
The strange people they’d encountered during their first weeks at university.
Daniel confessed he’d once accidentally attended the wrong lecture for nearly an hour before realising none of the students were from his department.
Evelyn laughed so hard tears formed in her eyes.
“You stayed?”
“I thought maybe the lecturer was just… very advanced.”
“You are impossible.”
“So I’ve been told.”
For the first time in months, laughing felt effortless.
Not forced.
Not polite.
Real.
⸻
At half past one in the morning, Charlotte stirred in the bed across the room.
“You are aware,” she mumbled sleepily, “that normal people sleep?”
Evelyn covered the receiver.
“Sorry.”
Charlotte opened one eye.
“The mystery man?”
Heat rushed into Evelyn’s cheeks.
“There is no mystery man.”
Charlotte smiled knowingly before pulling the duvet over her head.
“Mhm.”
Daniel’s voice returned.
“What was that?”
“My flatmate.”
“What did she say?”
“Nothing.”
“Evelyn…”
“She thinks I’m talking to a mystery man.”
“And are you?”
She smiled.
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.”
⸻
By the time they finally ended the call, the clock read 2:43 a.m.
“I should let you sleep,” Daniel said reluctantly.
“You probably should.”
“I’ve got an early seminar.”
“And I have an eight o’clock lecture.”
“Then why are we still talking?”
She smiled.
“I was wondering the same thing.”
He hesitated.
“I’m glad you answered tonight.”
“I’m glad you called.”
A quiet pause.
“Goodnight, Evelyn.”
“Goodnight, Daniel.”
Neither of them hung up.
She listened to the faint sound of his breathing.
He listened to hers.
Finally, Daniel laughed softly.
“You hang up.”
“No, you.”
“I called.”
“So?”
“You answer.”
“So?”
He smiled.
“We’re really doing this?”
“Apparently.”
“Fine.”
“I’ll count to three.”
“Okay.”
“One…”
She smiled.
“Two…”
Neither moved.
“Three.”
The line went silent.
Evelyn stared at the dark screen for several moments before placing her phone on the pillow beside her.
She hadn’t realised it yet.
But that conversation would become the first of hundreds.
Long after the details faded from memory, she would remember how it felt to fall asleep knowing someone was genuinely excited to hear her voice.
And somewhere across town, Daniel drifted to sleep with the same quiet smile, unaware that he’d begun falling for the girl he’d first noticed beneath the university gate.
- Writer
