midnight rain [f. colapinto]

s i x t y - f i v e

The next morning, Evita was doing some reading to prepare for her classes, which were starting up again after Mexico. With the triple header finishing in the first two weeks back, she wanted to get ready. She had the entire day before she would fly to Mexico on Tuesday.

The brunette was lost in the words when she was interrupted by her phone chiming.

franco 🙄
are you in your room?

evita 😘
yeah
why?

franco 🙄
can you open the door?
or are you ignoring me

evita 😘
i'm not ignoring you
be there in a sec

...

Evita opened the door to find Franco standing in the hallway.

"Could you not hear me knocking?" he asked.

Evita's cheeks warmed. "I was listening to music, sorry."

"No worries. Can I come in?"

Evita looked over her shoulder at her hotel room. Her suitcase was open and there were sheets of paper and books strewn across the desk. "But it's messy."

Franco smiled warmly at her. "Evita, I've been living with you for an entire month. To you, messy means there's a single speck of dirt on the ground. I don't care if you think it's messy."

"Fine." Evita opened the door wider to let Franco into the room.

He looked around and sighed. "Evita, this is not messy. You should see my driver room at the motorhome."

Evita laughed. "Okay, I know you're not here to compare our rooms, so what are you doing?"

"Hold on, before we get into that, were you studying?" asked Franco, holding up a hand so she wouldn't speak. "I thought you were on break."

"Just because I don't have class doesn't mean I don't have to revise," said Evita, crossing her arms protectively over her chest.

Franco laid a hand on her shoulder, his touch gentle. His eyes softened as he looked at her. "You can take a break, Evita."

Evita narrowed her eyes, searching Franco's for any sign of what he was here to talk to her about. "What did you have in mind?"

Franco grinned. "I found an art museum in the city, do you want to come with me?"

That was not what Evita had expected him to say. Not even close. "Why? You don't like art."

"Yeah, but you do. You can teach me about it," said Franco, shrugging his shoulders as if that wasn't one of the sweetest things he'd ever said to her.

"Why are you being so nice?" asked Evita. There was no way he was genuinely interested in going to an art museum just because he knew she liked them.

"You had to give up your apartment for me for a month, this is the least I could do."

Evita looked back and forth between Franco and her pile of revision materials, debating between doing what she should do and taking up Franco's offer. "Fine, I'll go."

"I'm not forcing you, Ev," said Franco. "You don't have to come with me if you don't want to."

Evita shook her head. "No, I want to. It sounds like fun," said Evita firmly.

Franco's face lit up. "Perfect, I'll meet in the lobby in fifteen minutes?"

Evita wanted to change out of her sweatpants and t-shirt before they left, so she agreed. She promised to drive, since she knew Franco hated driving on the road and didn't have a rental. Once Franco was gone and Evita was alone in her room again, she stared sadly at her notes. Hopefully, her extended revision break wouldn't be a total waste of time.