Not Without You [Chris Evans]

9

Chris' POV

I heard the sound of breaking glass coming from my bedroom not long after I got back to my condo for the day. Sadie was in the kitchen, but it sounded like she was on the phone with the boys so she probably hadn't heard it. I walked back there to see Megan kneeling on the hardwood floor between the bed and the dresser, picking up shards of broken glass from what I was sure was one of my least used cologne bottles. She'd already grabbed the garbage can from the bathroom and was gingerly dropping pieces in it.

"You okay?" I asked, coming in the room. "What happened?"

She'd frozen at the sound of my voice and glanced over her shoulder back at me. "Yeah. I'm real sorry, Chris. I don't know how I managed it but I broke one of your cologne bottles. I must have hit it off the dresser when I walked by with Sadie's dry cleaning." I noticed that she'd laid the dry cleaning on the bed while she cleaned up the mess.

"It's not a big deal, Megan – really." I went to grab a roll of paper towels to soak up the puddle. I was thankful I didn't have carpet in my bedroom because then I'd never get the smell out.

"You're sure?" she asked, taking them from me and looking fearfully up at me with those big green eyes. "I can replace it."

I shook my head, wondering why she was so scared. "Don't worry about it. I think it was one of the many that Gucci gave me after doing that commercial, and I like Guilty better than whatever this is - was." I think I wore it once and Lizzie made fun of it or something, so I didn't wear it again after that.

She tore off a long strip of towels and sopped up the fluid. "Do you think I can open the window? I don't want to give Sadie a headache - this is really strong."

She wasn't kidding. My eyes were starting to water from the smell. "I'll do it," I volunteered, knowing she wouldn't be able to figure it out on her own. "There's a trick to that window. No wonder I didn't like this one – it's even starting to give me a headache."

I moved past her to open the window, not missing how she shrank back from me as I walked past her even though I wasn't even that close to her. I was furious at whoever had given her a reason to be afraid of men and I hated that she saw me as a threat.

"Did you cut yourself?" I asked, seeing smears of red on the paper towels as she put them in the garbage can and tore off another strip to wipe the floor again.

"Umm, maybe? I'll look in a minute. Can you turn on the light so I can see if I missed any glass? I'll sweep in a bit to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'd hate for you or Sadie to cut your foot because I missed a piece."

She didn't flinch as I walked past this time, only tensed as I approached her. I hit the switch and went to go find the first aid kit I knew I had in the bathroom. I set it out on the counter just as she came in. I watched as she washed her hands, red seeping from the side of one of her fingers. Her hand trembled slightly when I reached for it, but I still noticed it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," I said, holding out my hand to her and allowing her the chance to make the choice. "Let me see it, Megan."

"You just moved faster than I anticipated," she said, avoiding my eyes and slowly giving me her tiny hand.

"It's not bad – just a little slice," I said after I inspected it, turning her hand this way and that.

"Do you have peroxide and a band-aid?" she asked quietly. "It's not bad enough to need stitches."

*           *

As I settled in for the night I couldn't get the look in Megan's eyes out of my head. I mostly closed the window in my bedroom, leaving it open just a crack - the smell was still pretty strong. It had dissipated a lot, but it was still there.