DIVE [1; CHRIS EVANS]

XXV.

25. REAL LIFE

Minnie never expected to feel so at ease in his company. But Chris had stood there in front of her, making light conversation and telling downright awful jokes, and she couldn't have wiped the stupid grin off her face even if she'd have wanted to.

They'd tried to dance at the party, but even entirely sober, she'd been as clumsy as anything. Her feet seemed to have tried to move to two different rhythms, whilst the music played out a third.

All in all, she knew she was a little bit of a disaster, but Chris hadn't seemed to have minded. Instead, he'd swayed with her for a while later on in the night to something a little slower but upbeat, nonetheless.

So they'd laughed the night away with careful hands on a delicate waist, and slender fingers meeting and weaving together between broad shoulders. And the best part was that it didn't feel like too much, nor too fast. It was sweet and everything felt relaxing besides the pounding of her heart in her chest; the fourth brilliantly imperfect rhythm of the night.

Lola and Elizabeth were immersed in conversation off to one side, with what had started out as something borderline intellectual descended into giggles throughout the night, with the helping hand of a shot (or three) too many. They were happy, as were Minnie and Chris.

It played out as an evening of simplistically comfortable company, that seemed to draw to a close all too quickly.

But the ending, no matter how bittersweet, was perhaps Minnie's favourite part of all; a parting kiss through the window of a taxi that she could still feel on her lips as they drove away.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: and this effectively ends part one, next chapter takes place after a relatively lil time skip (part one was May all the way to August bc filming, part two is just September, there are effectively six "parts" but they're all shorter than part 1)