Not Without You [Chris Evans]

81

Chris' POV

"I love you, baby," I murmured, her forest green eyes holding mine. "You know that, right?"

Megan looked at me for a long moment and opened her mouth to say something but shut it again, her eyes cutting to the driver and then back to me. I took her small hand in mine and brought it to my lips, brushing a firm kiss over her knuckles.

She looked away, her teeth worrying her full bottom lip as she thought. I brought one hand up to cup her face, dragging my thumb over her lip to free it. My motives were partially selfish - it bothered me when she bit into her lip hard enough that she'd break the skin; I fucking hated tasting blood when I kissed her.

Her reaction to that motion gave me the biggest insight into her mood. I knew I wasn't completely out of the doghouse when she didn't playfully nip at me, or affectionately nuzzle my hand, or teasingly kiss my thumb. Instead she set her sharp teeth into my thumb, biting just hard enough to get my attention, my eyes cutting back to hers as I pulled my thumb free.

"I was planning on coming home...eventually," she said quietly, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against the worn leather seat. That didn't make me feel any better and I felt my anxiety rising again, threatening to choke me. "You didn't need to come looking for me, Chris."

"Where would you have gone if you didn't come home?" I asked, my voice somehow calmer than I felt, a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

When she didn't answer right away, I reached over and brushed the back of my hand over her cheek. She opened her eyes and caught me in her emerald gaze, the city lights illuminating them. She shrugged lightly, breaking eye contact as she turned to look out the window.

"Doesn't matter anymore, does it?"

That wasn't meant to make me feel better, I knew. I replayed her words in my mind and while she'd agreed to come home; she hadn't agreed to stay. Maybe I was just overthinking things, maybe she'd meant both. I needed to distract myself, so I changed the subject.

"You should call Tom," I said. "He was worried when you weren't answering your phone earlier."

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Megan's POV

I pulled out my phone and noticed that in addition to it being really late, I had several missed calls from Chris, Tom and Sebastian. I hadn't actually looked at the screen earlier, just bypassed it from the home screen and went straight to the camera.

Even after a couple months, I still wasn't used to how protective my male friends were; they only wanted me to be safe but sometimes I felt a little smothered after being completely on my own for so long. I felt a little better knowing they did the same things to Scarlett, Lizzie and Sadie, too - so it wasn't just to annoy me.

I'd talked to Sebastian earlier in the day, so I assumed that call was Chris' doing. I sent him a quick text before calling Tom. He picked up on the first ring and I felt guilty that he'd obviously waited up for me when he needed to be getting up for the day in a couple hours.

"Hey Tom; it's me."

"Megan," he exhaled loudly in relief. "Thank God! I was getting worried when you didn't answer earlier. Did Chris find you or do I need to come get you?"

"Breathe, Tom," I said quickly. His voice conveyed more agitation than I was used to hearing from him. He was usually the calm one of the group next to Sebastian. "I'm with Chris now. I'm really sorry for worrying you. I put my phone on 'do not disturb' while I was writing and didn't keep it near me."