Something New (A Chris Evans Story)

Chapter Four

"Ummm.... Well... I don't know about that...." I trailed off uneasily while my fingernails suddenly became ten times more interesting.

"Oh." he said abruptly, his gorgeous smile sliding off his face.

He started doing that neck-rub thing again which never fails to get me hot and bothered. Except for at that very awkward and very, very uncomfortable moment.

He continued, "Do you think... uhhh.... Could I ask why?" while staring at his feet. Served my purpose well because I don't think I could look in his general direction, let alone try to look into his perfect eyes on his perfect fucking face.

I started to ramble, after taking a deep breath to clear my thoughts which totally did not work at all. "Well, you see, I start my residency in a couple of days, and I need to focus on doing well if I plan on getting a fellowship later. And Ananth is starting school again, and he hasn't been away from home ever before. Plus, Boston.... It's a new city, you know? I need to get settled and get a hold of myself before thrusting-"

I stopped my sentence abruptly and blink rapidly, my face heating up really fast. Holy fuck, Naina, what the hell was that word choice?!?!

Even though I usually have trouble reading his feelings, his blue eyes widened comically, so much so that he looked like one of those Looney Toons cartoons that I used to be obsessed with as a child.

"I mean, before getting into the dating scene again-" I said, with a very large emphasis on "getting."

He started to say, "- no, not to worry, I understand-"

And then, my unspoken prayers to every deity in my mother's temple were answered, as my apsara, my angel, appeared in the form of Shanna Evans, and I was so happy that I almost bowed down to do namaste, and prostrate myself at her heavenly feet.

She sighed, threw her hands up in the air, and marched towards us. "Naina, Chris, there you are! God, Naina, why the fuck do you disappear at every party we go to? You need to break out of that bad habit." She then proceeded to basically drag me away from Chris, who was standing there awkwardly. I felt so bad as I looked over my shoulder to see his face, but now I was just able to see the brown fence that enclosed the Evans backyard.

I tugged my arm out of hers, and turned to grab a water bottle out of the cooler. I needed to keep a cool head after what had just occurred; thank God I didn't see him standing anywhere close to me.

I'm pretty sure I could never ever face him or even see him, either on or off-screen, after the debacle that had just occurred. In fact, I was so embarrassed that I'll probably never be able to even utter his name again, either aloud or even in my head. Wait, that last bit sounds incredibly difficult- don't completely hold me to that promise.

"Shanna, what happened? I'm super, super tired, and all I want to go is just collapse onto a bed and die-"

Suddenly, a female voice spoke from behind me."Well, Naina, before you do that, come over and say hi!"

I turned to see Shanna's older sister Carly, whom I had met multiple times when I had come back with Shanna during breaks. "Oh my goodness, how've you been, Carly? I heard from Shanna that you've gotten married and all that jazz-"

Interrupting me, she said, "Yeah, wait, I think last time I had met you, I wasn't engaged yet. I also have 3 children, all of whom are inside right now. The older two boys, God only knows what they're doing-"

Suddenly, Lisa came up to the both of us, and smiled, saying, "Carly! You met Naina again? Good, you guys can catch up. Anyways, she'll be in Boston for quite some time now, right?" She then looked at me to affirm this information, almost as if she hoped that I would stay close by. Makes sense, I mused, I was always pretty close to Shanna and her family generally. And I had been quite close in proximity a couple minutes ago to-