Not Without You [Chris Evans]

14

Chris' POV

"What's wrong?" Sadie asked as she came up next to me, indicating the shot glasses the bartender was just taking away now. I watched as Megan went back to the safety of the other girls, handing over the drinks.

"Nothing that a few more drinks won't fix," I said, taking a long swig of my beer to wash the taste of disappointment out of my mouth. "Need a drink, doll?"

"No, but it looks like you do. Talk to me, Chris - this isn't like you."

"Sadie, I love you, but you are the last person I want to talk to about this." Somehow I just knew that talking about her assistant to her would be a bad idea no matter how I phrased it.

"So it's a woman," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Scarlett or Megan?"

I was taking a drink and almost choked on my beer. I should know by now how direct Sadie was - she didn't beat around the bush. "What?"

"Which one is it? I know you heard me. I saw how you were dancing with Scarlett earlier and I know she's had enough to want to wind you up even if she has no intention of following through." We both looked over to see her dancing with Jeremey and I knew the direction things were headed there. It wasn't exactly a secret that he liked her and I hoped things worked out better for him than it had me.

"I miss her," I said, looking back at Sadie and knowing she understood better than anyone else how I felt about Scarlett. "I miss what we had together."

"I know you do, babe," she said, setting her hand on my arm and squeezing. "I know it hurts when things don't work out, really I do." She gave me an enigmatic smile. "I also know you're interested in Megan."

I just looked away from Sadie, unwilling to dig myself into a hole. "You were very clear that she's off limits, Sadie. Besides, she's already with someone."

I heard her sigh and looked back at her, seeing understanding in her golden brown eyes. "I know what I said and maybe I was out of line. You're both adults, Chris." I snorted, knowing that wasn't always her opinion of me. "I'm not going to tell you what you can and can't do – I'm not your mom, I'm just your friend."

"Best friend," I said as I pulled her into a tight hug. "Go have fun, doll. Don't you worry about me."

"Can't help it. It's in my contract – I'm allowed to worry about you."

"You worry too much," I said as I pulled her back out to the dance floor. "I found something of yours," I said as I handed her over to an amused Sebastian. "Try and keep her occupied for a while."

*            *              *

Megan's POV

As I stood at the bar waiting for my drink, I looked back to watch Sadie and her friends on the dance floor just having a blast. Anthony had insisted on apologizing at least twenty more times until he was convinced I didn't really hate him. Now that I'd had time to cool down, some of his more inventive nicknames were kind of funny. I'd never been called cinna-mini before, that's for sure.

I'd been pulled into dancing with almost everyone at least once, except Chris. I'd successfully managed to avoid him for now. I hadn't missed the way he'd held onto Scarlett when I'd been dancing with Tom Holland. Tom was the only one in the group that was close to me in age and size. We really hit it off, talking like old friends who hadn't seen each other in a long time.

Paul, Jeremy, and Anthony liked to dirty dance, which was kind of fun but not how I normally danced. Sebastian was just plain goofy tonight so we did a crazy jump around thing to a techno song, which left Sadie doubled over in laughter and me needing a drink. I made my way to the bar, just ordering an Angry Orchard to change it up and fanning myself to cool down.