Sociopartner

“I’m not a sociopath, dumb-fuck.”

Eva paced up and down the concrete stretch just outside of her apartment, chatting on her phone and repeatedly glancing over at the tan Oldsmobile in the side parking lot, feeling anxious to leave and exhaling a cloud of breath, visible in the freezing winter air.

“Oh fuck if you ain’t,” the girl on the phone replied, her best friend from upstairs, a girl named Destiny. “We all know what’s gonna happen if Johnny don’t pay up, girl. Between you and Nate, one of y’all finna bust a cap in his ass.”

Eva scoffed and rolled her eyes, glancing over at her and Nate’s car again. “Dude—I gotta go. I only stopped by here to get my phone, which is almost dead now, because some jackass I know didn’t put it on the charger like he said he would.”

Destiny smacked her lips and groaned. “Y’all still ain’t got a car charger?”

“No. That was another thing he said he’d do,” Eva grumbled.

“Girl… I’unno why you put up with his ass,” Destiny griped. “I really don’t. For real.”

Eva sighed, curling her free hand into the sleeve of her baggy black hoodie. She glanced at her apartment door, staring into its peeling vanilla paint and feeling a touch of nervousness now, hoping Nate wouldn’t somehow overhear them.

“Well… I mean, I kinda get it,” Eva uttered. “He can’t do all that when he can’t even go out.”

“Ah-huh,” Destiny said sarcastically. “And who made that shit happen? ‘Cause he ain’t got no reason to go around stabbin’ motherfuckers the way he do. That motherfucker didn’t put hands on him or nothing. He didn’t have no damn reason to stab that nigga. He just did it ’cause he wanted to.”

Eva let out another sigh, gnawing her lip and pausing. Nate was a prolific drug dealer, and only a week ago, he’d stabbed a man during one of their meetups, something he said he had to do out of self-defense—but Destiny wasn’t convinced of this story.

“I really can’t see him doing that,” Eva mumbled. “I know he’s off the wall sometimes, but I can’t see him doing it for no reason.”

“Girl—take the damn blinders off yo’ eyes,” Destiny said bluntly. “I told you, and I’ma tell you again; you need to grab yo’ shit, get in the car, and just go the fuck on somewhere. This shit’s gettin’ outta control now, and who do you think it’s gonna fall on? You got the car in your name, and the apartment in your name—what’s he got? Fuckin’ nothing. All this shit—everything he does—it’s all gonna end up fallin’ on you sooner or later.”

Eva stood still in the cold, her hand mindlessly sliding into her hoodie pocket, coiling around the handle of the tiny .25 she always carried, locked and loaded.

“That’s what you do when you love someone,” Eva uttered, feeling certain that Destiny simply didn’t understand. “You take on all the bullshit.”

She heard Destiny release a loud, dramatic moan.

“M’kay. Then lemme axe you something,” Destiny said moments later. “When you go home to your man, whatchu feel?”

Eva blinked, making a face and slinging her combed-over hairs out of her eye. “What…?”

“When you’re about to walk in the front door, and you know you’re about to see him again—whaddo you feel?” Destiny clarified. “Because I’ma tell you something right now, girl—when I came home to Avondre, I didn’t feel the same way I do with my man now. When I come home now, I look forward to seein’ Devon—but when I was with Avondre, I dreaded going home. Just lookin’ at my damn front door made me nervous as hell.”

Eva hesitated again, gazing downward and pondering on their lives two years ago. Eva’s life wasn’t much different back then, but Destiny’s was, because she’d been dating a short-tempered abuser named Avondre at the time.

“This isn’t the same,” she murmured.

“I don’t hear you answerin’ me,” Destiny said sharply. “How you feel when you gotta go home to your man? How do you feel before you walk in that door?”

Eva took in a slow, heavy breath, her eyes of deep blue gradually traveling up from the concrete, landing on the apartment door.

Honestly—she couldn’t say she felt the same hopeful peace that Destiny felt coming home to Devon. In fact, she knew for certain she felt the same anxious disdain that Destiny once felt coming home. Simply looking at the door made her uneasy, wondering what would be waiting for her this time, another angry outburst, another problem with a drug run, another day of diffusing new issues and babysitting Nate’s dangerous standoffs with others, another evening with a wasted Nate berating her, or maybe breaking something in the house again…

Hell, only moments ago, she was happy to have swiped her phone from the coffee table while Nate was in the shower. She felt relief when she stepped back outside, quietly slipping out of their home before her boyfriend even knew she was there.

“Mmm-hm,” Destiny mumbled. “You wouldn’t be so quiet if you actually loved him, girl. Takin’ on the bullshit for somebody you love is one thing—but puttin’ up with endless bullshit from an abuser is a whole other deal.”

“Jesus Christ—I don’t have time for this shit,” Eva snapped impatiently. “I still have to go to the food bank before we head out tonight.”

“Where you goin’ tonight?”

“Me and Nate have to go see Johnny. We just talked about that.”

“Oh yeah. Well… don’t let him pull you into no crazy shit, girl. Don’t be stayin’ out late, neither, because there’s gonna be a big-ass blizzard soon as it gets dark.”

“Mhm. I know. Seeya.”

“Bye.”

Eva hung up, stuffing the phone away and marching off the edge of the apartment’s narrow sidewalk. Just when she approached the Oldsmobile, slipping her keys from her pocket, she slowed to a stop, a realization only just occurring to her.

She stood by the car, sealing her eyes shut and releasing a deep, stressful breath.

The food bank was a usual stop for her every Thursday afternoon, but she planned to fill the gas tank as well, as the needle had been hovering above empty all day long.

But—she’d left her bag inside the apartment, containing all her cash, and she’d have to go back for it now.

Eva turned, glancing across the street at the trailer park and wondering if anyone she knew there might’ve been home.

Destiny had called during her lunch break at work, and most of her acquaintances in the trailer park were just as stressful to deal with as Nate. Walking over to one of the trailers and borrowing gas money from one of those people wasn’t ideal.

No, she wouldn’t be able to borrow money from anyone else around; she’d simply have to go back inside.

Sighing grimly, Eva turned on her heel and strolled back onto the walkway, approaching her apartment and slowly pushing the door open.

The interior was as homely and messy as always; the living room resided to the right, the coffee table slightly crooked and the TV positioned along the wall just beside the door. The coffee table was cluttered with trash, dishes, and an overfilled ash tray, a bong sitting on the floor beside it, no pictures or posters on any of the walls. The window facing the parking lot had no curtains, only crooked blinds on it. It was on the left wall, just above the tiny kitchen table—also covered with trash and random items—and past that was the kitchen, the counters and the sink all buried in dishes and debris as well.

Eva slipped inside, glancing around and seeing no Nate immediately nearby—but, she could no longer hear the shower running down the hall, meaning he was going to walk out of the bathroom soon, if he hadn’t already.

Hoping she could quickly duck in and out again without running into him, she speed-walked behind the couch and entered the back hall. She eyed the bathroom—the door still closed, and the light still on inside it—then she turned, entering the single bedroom of the apartment and squinting at their messy queen-sized bed, which was simply two mattresses stacked on top of one another in the middle of the cluttered floor.

Her little black bag sat on the edge of the bed, and—to her dismay—it was unzipped and laying open, as if someone had gone through it.

“Oh… fuck no,” Eva hissed, storming over to the bag and snatching it up.

She dug around inside it—finding her wallet, and her bottle of hydrocodone—but her roll of cash, tied together with a rubber band, was now gone.

“Fuckin’a!” Eva yelled—slapping the bag down hard and spinning around.

Her predatory stare landed on the bathroom—just when her boyfriend stepped out of it.

Freshly cleaned and dressed in a baggy black t-shirt, Nate stood before her, stocky and almost jovial in facial features, a thin mustache and goatee curled around his mouth and jaw. He had a pair of large brown eyes, his hair dark and buzz-cut, and he narrowed his eyes at her, his expression rather unreadable now.

“What?” he uttered.

“What…?” Eva barked, cocking her head at him and taking a wide step closer. “Whaddo you mean, what? Where’s my fucking money?!”

“I needed it,” Nate replied, his voice low and scratchy.

Eva’s mouth hung open, spreading her arms and ogling him bizarrely. “Uh, hello?! I needed it more! And it’s mine!”

“Well—I was supposed to have money by now, but Johnny didn’t fucking pay his shit when he was supposed to,” Nate growled. “So I needed money from somewhere else. I ain’t gonna walk around broke. We’ll make more in a few hours, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

“Yeah I do,” Eva griped.

“The fuck do you need money for?” Nate snapped, his temper suddenly seeming to rise. “You’re going to the fucking food bank, you stupid bitch—you don’t need money there.”

“I need fucking gas to fucking get there,” Eva snarled. “You know how far away it is! And you don’t need to be going through my shit and taking my money!”

“You’re fixin’ to piss me off,” Nate rumbled warningly.

Eva scoffed and tossed her hands up. “Oh, well, pardon the fuck outta me—I don’t want my boyfriend stealing from me and screwing me over. Yeah, what a fucking piece of shit I am.”

Nate’s jaw twitched, his teeth grinding as he glared heatedly at her.

“Don’t fucking look at me like that,” Eva exhaled, her anger crawling toward its boiling point now. “Don’t fucking look at me like I’m the bad guy—I’m getting all your food, and running all your errands, and keeping your ass fucking safe in here while you’re on the run. All I need—all I need—is for you not to fuck that up.”

Nate continued to leer hatefully into her, his meaty hands balling into fists by his sides.

Eva felt furious as well, and—sensing that yet another fight was about to arise—she grabbed her bag and quickly thundered past him, marching out to the living room and hoping to leave before the two of them would come to blows.

Sharing another shouting match and taking turns hitting each other again would solve nothing—and, after spending years entertaining that broken routine, she was damn well tired of it by now. It was better to simply leave for the time being, to just try to run her errands and hope that the car would hold out while she did.

Eva shoved the door open—bashing it to the brick wall of the apartment building—and she strode around the corner and stomped across the tiny parking lot, ripping the driver door of the Oldsmobile open and sinking down inside it. Swiping her comb-over aside, she started the car—revved it loudly—and shot out of the parking lot like a bullet, the car jolting roughly over the edge of the curb, the engine roaring as she raced down the street and vanished from the scene.

Beyond the outskirts of the city was where the apartments and the trailer park resided, and in every direction all around them was only vast, wide-open space, all of it white as far as the eye could see, as the area had been undergoing several snowy evenings for the past week and a half. Eva’s poor and crime-filled neighborhood was practically in the middle of nowhere—and the food bank was as well, though it was fifteen miles north of the apartments, a lengthy drive across all this open space, a drive she wasn’t sure she’d even succeed in making, but it didn’t matter.

As long as she could just get the hell away from home for a while—she didn’t care about anything else beyond that.

Eva drove as if the devil were at her car’s rear bumper, the lone Oldsmobile blasting past open fields of endless snow on either side, music blaring from the radio as she did. Moments later, she glanced over at the passenger seat where she’d thrown her little black bag, driving with one hand and reaching into it. She popped the pill bottle open without removing it from the bag, then scooped one of the pills out with her finger, placing it into her mouth and swiftly swallowing it.

She didn’t take painkillers particularly often; it was a habit she’d developed when Nate’s drug game seemed to get a bit more dangerous last year. Every now and then, Nate and Eva would find themselves in sudden standoffs in parking lots, trailer parks, or back alleys somewhere—and, once in a blue moon, it would become violent. During one of those instances, Eva’s hand was slammed into a car door when she was trying to climb back into the car—then, she took some of her boyfriend’s product later that night, mending the pain on her own.

Ever since then, she’d developed a routine of taking a painkiller every time she’d get hurt.

But, it wasn’t actually common for her to get injured during one of the drug deals.

Most of the time, whenever she got hurt—it was happening at home.

Eva drove on, biting her lip and still feeling totally fed up, longing for the moment that the magic feel-good would finally kick in. Aches and pains were always fixed by the magic pill—but, these past few weeks, she had to admit, she’d taken them somewhat liberally a few times, deciding to pop one even when she wasn’t wounded at all. The serene, slow-spreading serenity brought on by a simple opioid was something to be admired, a calm, breezy feel-good that made happiness possible for her in this life devoid of joy.

Perhaps it was a bad thing to do; hell, she came from a family of addicts, a family of neglectful and apathetic souls who she swore she’d never become like.

But, that was a long time ago.

Besides, she wasn’t half as insane or as far-gone as her family had been, and beyond that—it wasn’t as if she gave a damn about arbitrary non-issues like her own health anymore.

I mean, seriously, how much was she expected to put up with? All of this work, all of this berating, all of this misuse, and all of this being used—and she had to endure it all without being allowed to feel even the slightest bit better at times?

No—to hell with that.

Fuck all that.

Eva seethed as the radio blared, her eyes flickering down and only just realizing she was driving nearly eighty miles an hour. So, she let out a deep breath, easing her foot off the gas and trying to force herself calm.

She remembered it all, back in the day—back when she looked around at her family members, seeing how backwards they were, watching them making pill deals in their bedrooms and chiding all the children in the house on a regular basis. She knew there was something wrong with them—she’d known it all her life—and she never used drugs, never drank, never acted the way they did, not even into her teen years.

Meeting Nate gave her a way out of that family, gave her a person to support her and a home to live in, a thing she thought was a ticket to freedom—but, in reality, it was just another cage, and she didn’t see the bars enclosing around her until years after the cage had been shut and locked.

Now—she didn’t feel any freer with Nate than she had with her own family.

No, it seemed that type of freedom was simply for everyone else, and people like Eva were only destined to live the way they always had—in poverty-stricken and crime-infested slums, where no one was cared about, where no one treated each other well, and where people unworthy of care were meant to reside until their dying day.

And if that was the case—if that was her reality—then what the hell did it matter if she started popping a few pills to feel better?

If the world had made one thing clear to her—it was this.

It didn’t matter what happened to her.

Eva huffed out a breath, glimpsing to the side again and reaching over. She popped the glove box open, seeing that her stun-gun was still inside, then slammed it shut again and slid her free hand into her hoodie, keeping a tight grasp of her tiny handgun while she drove.

Something about being surrounded by weapons was a true comfort to her—and now, she was deeply considering going out to meet Johnny on her own. She didn’t have the gasoline to double back for Nate after visiting the food bank, anyway—and besides, she wanted to be away from him for as long as possible.

But, she knew it was a bad idea for a girl to go out on a deal all alone, especially when meeting with the more unhinged types like Johnny. The weapons made her feel far more secure in these endeavors, and even though she’d only had to pull them on a buyer a couple of times in the past, she knew for certain she felt no hesitation to do so whenever her life was in danger.

Then—another thought crossed her mind, something far deeper, darker, and more somber than any of the thoughts prior.

Maybe she could simply keep on driving.

Perhaps she could just leave, never go back to Nate, travel however far she could on this nearly-empty tank. Maybe she could meet with Johnny, get a bit of money, and just wander for a while, taking in some sights, popping her pills, and enjoying life until the pill bottle was empty. Then, she’d find a nice, beautiful spot, somewhere with a wonderful view, and she’d turn the gun on herself… she’d make it all finally just stop…

It wasn’t as if she could start a life on her own. Even if she had everything she needed to do so, Nate and his friends would hunt her down, and she knew that without a doubt. Besides, she couldn’t do anything without him. She had no income without him, and he wouldn’t let her get a regular job…

No, there was only one escape from the cage…

Only one way out…

“Fuckin’a,” Eva hissed, shaking her head once and forcing the grave thoughts away, summoning her anger back instead. “Fuck all that…”

The car slowly began to gain speed again, her fingers tapping irritably along the steering wheel.

Thoughts and feelings waged war inside her as she sped toward the lone brick building in the distance, the sun just beginning to set on the horizon, and the past-paced song on the radio seemed to only fuel her internal fires, making her feel as if she could drive at this speed all the way back home, plowing the car directly through the apartment’s wall and crushing Nate inside his nasty fucking living room nest…

The lone brick building sat by itself along the left side of the road, and she slowed the car to a stop, cruising into the parking lot and parking in the corner. Then, she powered off the engine, grabbed the wheel, sat still, and took a deep, thoughtful breath, closing her eyes and remaining there for a while.

“Need to calm down,” Eva murmured under her breath, hanging her head and resting her forehead to the steering wheel.

She stayed hunched over the wheel for several minutes, no sound stirring, the music gone, the heat no longer filling the car, and the chill of winter was slowly creeping back up on her.

She couldn’t erase any of it from her mind—most notably, and most disturbingly, the way Nate was now. Back in the day, when they first got together, he never would’ve spoken so terribly to her, never would’ve put his hands on her—but somewhere along the way, she became just another person he could use however he liked, and he didn’t care to hold his tongue, didn’t care about not hurting her, didn’t care about her at all anymore.

Still, some stupid, desperate part of her simply clung to the idea that he did still care—that he, deep down, still loved her, in his own backwards and dysfunctional way. She knew he must have felt attached to her—or at the very least, felt possessive of her—but she was downright miserable, and she genuinely wanted to die more than she wanted to go back home.

What the hell was there to do?

“I could kill him,” Eva mumbled thoughtlessly, gently thumping her head to the wheel. “I could seriously just fucking kill him…”

She fell silent again, inhaling deeply and remaining silent for a while, the cold creeping into her car even more.

And, as she sat still, trying to force away every terrible thought and reality of her life—the slow, smooth ease began to reach her, the simple, soothing serenity of a strong controlled narcotic. The gentle ease spread comfortably throughout her like a cold, subtle fire, making her feel a bit more at peace.

Now calmer, Eva slowly raised her head, huffing out a breath and glancing out the windows.

The parking lot of the food bank was mostly empty—as everyone else had likely already come and gone, hurrying to get to their homes before the big winter storm hit—and one vehicle was parked facing the corner of the building, a large, new, and shiny blue SUV, which she recognized. The vehicle belonged to one of the volunteers who worked here, a guy called William, someone she honestly looked forward to seeing whenever she’d visit here once a week. The guy was nice to everyone, and it was a breath of fresh air compared to what she was used to.

Eva stared at the blue truck, then opened the driver door, stepping out and zipping up her hoodie before swinging the car door shut. She marched across the parking lot just as a gentle snowfall began, strolling past the blue truck and stepping onto the sidewalk that ran alongside the front of the building, the glass double-doors closed rather than propped open like they usually were during the summer.

Eva pushed the doors open with a faint ching-a-ling, slipping inside and feeling relieved to be out of the freezing winter air. In fact, she felt relieved for many reasons; she always enjoyed how far this food bank was from everything else in her normal life, and she especially liked it when it was fairly empty, much like it was now. It was almost like a mini-vacation, a temporary little escape from the insanity of what she called normal.

The front counter, where visitors were meant to sign in, was immediately to her right, and past it was a single aisle containing kitchenware, shoes, and other random free items, the corner across from it complete with a huge shelf of various different books. On the other side of the store-like food bank were three rows of clothes, many of them jackets now, and all visitors were allowed to take three appliances, one pair of shoes, and one jacket each, as the usual rules dictated.

Eva’s eyes wandered to the back door, which was standing open now, a door leading into the back of the building where the storage area was—and where all the food items were kept. Usually, after a visitor signed in, one of the volunteers would emerge with a massive paper bag of foods for them a short while after.

Seeing no one around, Eva stepped over to the counter and signed herself in, the very last signature on a page covered with at least thirty others.

Name – Eva

No. of people in household – 1

After placing the pen down on the clipboard, she glimpsed around again, still seeing no one nearby, though she heard movement in the back somewhere, and she assumed William must’ve been busy. Then, she turned and wandered over to the middle aisle of clothes, scanning over all the jackets and only just remembering that Nate still needed one.

Eva slowed to a stop, surveying the largest of the men’s jackets up and down and wondering which one Nate would like the most. She pulled out the sleeve on an old Army jacket, examining it closely and thinking it was likely too small for him.

While she looked over the jackets—William marched out from the back, skidding to a stop at the end of the aisle and only just spotting her down the way. William was a tall sort, taller than most, with a navy blue sweater and a pair of dark, shiny eyes. He had a kind and expressive sort of visage with just a bit of stubble along his jaw, his hairs a dark black and often slicked backwards, much like they were today—and his eyes narrowed at her, waving a finger at her and seeming to have just remembered something. Then, he turned on his heel and walked straight into the back again, disappearing before she could’ve realized he was there.

Her fingers still feeling somewhat numb, Eva rolled her hands into her sleeves and rubbed them together, trying to warm her hands up a bit before pulling another jacket from the rack.

She then plucked a thick red jacket off of its hanger, studied it up and down, and nodded to herself, thinking this huge crimson hoodie would be plenty big enough for Nate to wear.

“Hey,” William said, reappearing from the end of the aisle and approaching her, now with a thick blue hoodie draped over his arm.

Eva turned and met his eyes, giving him a smile and wave. “Hey.”

“So… when we first got here this morning, back when it wasn’t just me here… I found this when we were going through everything,” William explained, his voice a smooth and comforting one, which she’d always secretly admired. “And, I thought it was about your size, so I held onto it. You think you’d wear this?”

He flipped out the hoodie and held it up in full view. The hoodie was just as thick as the red one she held, but it was half the size and a very different color, and the inner part of it appeared to have fluffy white material inside, which was fully visible in the hood.

“Oh… dude,” Eva smirked, reaching over and stroking along the soft, thick material inside the hood. “That’s awesome. This one’ll actually keep you warm.”

“Imagine that,” William chuckled. “Yeah, I thought the same thing… and it’s gonna be really cold for a while after today, so I thought you might need it.”

Eva nodded, glimpsing between the red hoodie and the blue one, feeling conflicted.

“Yeah… I appreciate it, I just…” she muttered, sighing and holding up the red hoodie. “My boyfriend still needs one…”

“M’kay. Well. Take both,” William replied simply, handing the blue one off to her.

Eva blinked, staring at him for a second. “You sure…?”

“Yeah. If you need two, you need two,” William shrugged, spinning around and trekking back down the aisle. “I’ll have your food out in a sec, okay?”

“Okay… thank you,” Eva called after him.

William flashed a smile and made a two-fingered salute before vanishing around the corner.

Eva sighed deeply, staring after him and wearing a peculiar little half-smile, feeling warmed and content, a strange sort of sensation she wasn’t at all accustomed to. She always liked her little interactions with him, just nice conversations and basic decency, never with any arguments or violence involved.

“Fuckin’a,” she sighed, draping both of the hoodies over one arm. “I’d rather just live here. Man, that’s sad…”

She wandered out of the aisle and across the clearing, approaching the aisle of appliances and absentmindedly surveying all the pots, pans, and utensils adjacent to the rack of shoes. As she did, her mind began to wander, thinking herself rather unlucky—namely because every nice and decent guy she’d ever met always had a wedding ring on their finger.

In fact, she’d been visiting this food bank for almost three years, and she remembered spotting the wedding ring on William’s hand the first day she saw him.

She’d be lying if she ever told anyone that she didn’t have a little crush on him—but, of course, she never acted on it, and there were a long list of reasons for that. Besides, it wasn’t as if the two even knew each other well. They’d only ever shared small talk and a few laughs. Aside from that, they knew nothing about each other.

And—she was tied down to Nate.

Everything in the world always seemed to boil back down to that point alone.

“Eva?” William called out from somewhere else.

“Yeah?” Eva stepped out of the corner aisle, spotting him in the clearing with an overstuffed brown bag in his arm. “Oh—that was fast.”

She walked toward him, and he carefully handed the enormous bag off to her.

“You got it?” William asked.

“Yup,” Eva nodded, wrapping both arms around the bag.

Then—her eyes landed on his hand, seeing no wedding ring on his left ring finger.

Eva blinked once and quickly tore her eyes from his hand, feeling briefly befuddled. She remembered dwelling on it for a while the day she met him—she couldn’t have gotten it wrong, could she? Was he not married at all?

“What’s a’matter?” William asked, spotting her change of expression.

“Ahm… nothing,” Eva mumbled, shaking her head again and feeling foolish for even entertaining such thoughts. “Nothing, I just…”

Her gaze wandered off to the side, gazing into the spacious back room, where a gigantic stack of cardboard boxes sat in the middle of the clearing, a metal cooler along the back wall and countless shelves of random items perfectly across from the boxes, a single folding table next to the boxes where many articles of clothing, utensils, and prepackaged food items were scattered.

Eva squinted at the scene in the back for a second, then turned and met his eyes again. “Are you organizing everything by yourself?”

William’s brows raised, and he glimpsed to the back for a second. “Well… yeah. Everyone else wanted to beat the storm home, but I’m not worried about it. My truck can handle the snow.”

Eva hesitated, glancing over at the glass double-doors and feeing the same dreadful anxiety she always felt just before returning home. Honestly, she didn’t plan to make a move on William now—not even if he was miraculously single all the sudden—but she’d much rather spend time with him than run back to Nate. A simple evening of chatting and levity with a normal and decent human being was precisely what she felt she needed now.

But—no, she couldn’t do that.

She still had to get back in time to take Nate to the meetup with Johnny, and she knew there’d be serious hell to pay if they didn’t keep that meeting. Besides, Nate didn’t have anything in the house to eat, so she had to get the food home…

Eva sighed with disdain. It always seemed to go this way; every time she wanted to do something, all of her obligations to Nate would snatch every opportunity away from her. She was simply not allowed to do what she wanted, even simply chatting with a friendly face for a little while in order to feel better.

“Okay—y’know what,” Eva said, snapping out of her thoughts and quickly taking charge of them. “I can help you out for a little while.”

William blinked once, glancing at the back again. “Ahm… you sure?”

“Yeah,” Eva affirmed. “I still have to get home soon—but I can stay here for a little bit.”

William nodded mildly, scratching his cheek and looking hesitant. “Well, I appreciate it, it just… well, there’s some… heavy-lifting…”

“I can do that,” Eva laughed, placing the hoodies and the giant brown bag on the edge of the front counter. “Trust me—I don’t even wanna go home right now. Helping you out would help me, too.”

“Oh. Well—alrighty then,” William smirked, clasping his hands and nodding to the back. “I’ll tell you what—I’ll do the heavy-lifting and you can do some organizing.”

“That works too,” Eva agreed, following him into the chilly back room.

The two emerged in a clearing that was much colder than the rest of the food bank—as this was the area where the trucks would pull in and unload all the donated goods. Even though the metal garage door at the end was currently closed, it still felt considerably colder in here than everywhere else.

William marched over to one of the cardboard boxes on the floor, one that was open, and he hunched down and lifted a gigantic slab of frozen ribs from inside, carrying it over to the elongated freezer and placing it inside.

Eva watched him for a second, then stared down at all the items on the foldout table. Clothes, utensils, and packaged food items seemed to be separated into three different sections on the table. So, she scooted the nearest box closer and began organizing the items, placing oatmeal, t-shirts, and silverware in their respective piles before ripping another box open.

This continued for a few minutes—and Eva worked rather quickly, separating items with little thought and emptying another box in no time.

William was marching back and forth between the boxes and the freezer, locating all the frozen food items and storing them away. Just after he put a few boxes of frozen burgers into the cooler, he paused and glimpsed over at her.

“Wow. You do good work,” he remarked.

Eva paused and turned to him, smirking and holding up a spatula. “I mean… it’s pretty easy.”

William let out a laugh. “Yeah… but you’re going at light-speed. You should actually volunteer here. It’d probably be a big help.”

Eva laughed and nodded, then returned to her task, neatly stacking several boxes of instant mac ’n cheese together before moving on to the next box. She stopped for a second, thinking to check her phone for the time, but when she pulled it out of her pocket, she found that her phone was dead. Feeling yet another peculiar touch of relief, she stuffed it away and resumed working.

William carried a frozen roast to the cooler and placed it inside, then spared her another glance, this time a more thoughtful one.

“So… just… out of curiosity,” he said, waving a finger at her as he wandered back toward the boxes. “Why don’t you wanna go home?”

Eva continued separating things, staring fixedly downward, her smile fading.

Many things ran through her mind; she almost wanted to unload without a second of hesitation, to rant and rave about every last thing Nate had put her through, and to top it all off, she was trapped in his life, unable to escape in any way whatsoever.

Then—another thought occurred to her, making her own problems shatter away at once.

William’s ring-less hand flashed through her mind, and then she paused, hovering over the table and wearing an inquisitive expression now.

After a second of thought, Eva turned, meeting his eyes and giving him an investigative stare.

“Kind of a long story, to be honest,” she said. “But… why don’t you wanna go home?”

William fell still and expressionless, then gave her a confused once-over.

“You’re staying here when a violent winter storm’s about to hit… and you’re the only one here,” Eva observed, gently tilting her head at him. “Are you trying to stay busy just to keep your mind off something? Because… no lie… that’s definitely exactly what I’m doing.”

William breathed out a faint little laugh, then glanced down, scratching along his jaw and remaining silent for a moment before responding.

“Yeah… I’ve been doing that for a while, to be honest,” he said softly, stroking along his ring finger and sighing. “Mine’s a long story, too.”

Eva nodded, and the two fell silent for a moment.

“Hah… my bad,” she broke the silence. “I didn’t mean to get super real with you outta nowhere. Sorry. I do that…”

“Heh… no worries at all,” William replied with a smile. “Working is a good coping mechanism, but I can’t stay at my real job around the clock, so… now I live here part-time.”

“What’s your regular job?”

“I’m an EMT.”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah. I’ve got a lot of stories from that insane line of work…”

Eva nodded, listening as he began to tell her a story about his ambulance arriving on the scene of a failed assault attempt, wherein the perpetrator had tried to ambush another man with a hatchet, only to get his weapon stuck in a wooden fence in the middle of his second swing. She laughed at this, and as she did—as the two of them talked—she felt more and more assured of her preconceptions about him.

This guy was awesome, nice, decent, and funny in a way nobody else in her life was—and she knew for certain that he was many miles out of her league. He was much too good for someone as mean and as low-down as her.

But even still—even as she silently came to understand this fact and she listened to his stories—she felt warmed by him, truly and honestly at peace as the two of them talked, and it lifted her mood amazingly as nightfall steadily drew nearer outside.

After a while of talking and working, Eva glanced out to the front of the building, eyeing the glass double-doors and seeing that everything outside was going dark.

“Hey… what time is it?” she asked. “My phone’s dead…”

William stopped by the freezer and checked his own phone. “About seven.”

“Damn… I gotta go,” Eva sighed.

“Well… thanks for all the help,” William said, leaning on the freezer and revealing a contented smile. “And for the company. That was a nice little surprise for today.”

Eva flashed a smile as well, a strangely more genuine one than she usually ever wore. “No problem. I’ll try to break away and help here more often.”

“I’d appreciate that,” William said softly.

They were both quiet for a second.

“Well…” William added, releasing a breath and glancing over at the last few boxes that needed unpacked. “Be careful going home, all right? Storm’s gonna hit before long.”

“I know,” Eva said, waving him off and marching toward the exit. “Seeya.”

“Seeya.”

She walked out of the back, briefly savoring the warmth of the front of the building as she scooped her hoodies and her big bag off the front counter. Then, she nudged the doors open with her foot and stepped outside, shivering instantly as she trekked across the open parking lot, an flurry of snowfall all around her vision now.

After placing the bag of food and the red hoodie in the back, she hurriedly slid into her new navy blue hoodie, zipping it up overtop of her thinner black one. Then, she ducked into the car and slammed the driver door shut, silently praying she’d have enough gas to get where she needed to.

She turned the keys, started the car, and waited for the heat to kick in, music playing from the radio as she momentarily sat in silence, staring out into the snowy night as the snowflakes whizzed past her headlights’ twin beams.

Her mini-vacation was over, and now, it was time to make that long, difficult journey back into her usual reality again.

Eva sighed grimly, gripped the steering wheel, and cocked her head at the windshield.

“Fuckin’a,” she breathed, shifting gears. “Here goes something…”