Patience

Chapter 19 •Evie's POV•

Chapter 19 •Evie’s POV•

Olivia’s first birthday party went by really well, there were candles, streamers, balloons and lots of cake. Even thought Livy slept through most of the party she was awake to blow out the candles, even though Gabe blew them out for her.

It was the cutest thing ever when her eyes lit up when she saw the candles being lit, she may have only been a baby but it was almost as if she knew exactly what was happening. By the time it was past twelve Katie went upstairs with Livy to put her to sleep.

Katie had become so attached to Olivia; she was a great aunt to her despite her little age. She’d hate me if I ever called her little out loud, but it was true.

Even after the birthday girl was gone the party continued on. Faith and Carter were cuddled up on the couch with Charlie and Amber watching a romantic comedy movie that I had never seen before in my life while Jason and Rebecca bickered back forth on deciding who would make popcorn.

Mr. and Mrs. Walters along with Ms. Quinn went into the basement to catch up on their ‘gossip’ as they called it. Gabe was cleaning up in the kitchen by himself, I was tempted to go in there and help him but I was afraid too.

As much as I hated to admit it, I had a lot on my mind tonight. Most of my thoughts revolved around Gabe and how I had realized that I liked him over the past few weeks. It wasn’t supposed to happen, in fact in the beginning I wanted nothing more than for us to be good friends but my feelings changed.

Watching Gabe these past few months with Olivia had been amazing. His life had changed completely, most people at our age wouldn’t have reacted well with all of the drastic changes but Gabe adapted great.

He was an amazing father to Olivia and he cared for his family and friends a lot. Gabe was an all out nice guy and I just can’t believe I never realized my feelings before. Now I didn’t even know how Gabe would react, I mean he had told me countless times how much he values our friendship and how much he loves being my friend.

The feelings I had were so overwhelming, and I knew I couldn’t keep them from Gabe much longer. If he didn’t feel the same way then I would have to try to stay friends with him and get over my feelings. I didn’t want my feelings to affect our friendship.

Before I even realized what I was doing I was in the kitchen looking directly at Gabe as he washed the dishes clean. As I watched I realized that even when he wasn’t doing something artistic he made everything he did so precise.

I jumped when I realized the pipe had stopped running and that Gabe was staring at me in question. Thinking fast I faked a smile “I was going to help you but it looks like it’s covered.”

“Oh that’s what you’ve been doing for the past five minutes? Because I swear you’ve just been watching me while drooling.”

Self-consciously I raised my hand up to my mouth to wipe what I expected to be drool, only the feel nothing but my lips. I glared at Gabe “I was not drooling!” 

Gabe chuckled “I know Evie, I was just teasing you. Anyways what’s up? You’ve been standing there for a while, something is up.”

Something was up and he needed to know, I couldn’t hide my feelings from him. I can’t act like his friend knowing that I have these feelings; it isn’t fair to me or to him. Most girls would just keep their feelings a secret but that was so high school and I wasn’t in high school anymore, I needed to take control of my life.

Maybe this could turn out to be something great and maybe it won’t but I’d never know unless I take the chance. I wasn’t going to miss out on this chance; I would have before but not now.