A Chance Meeting | Chris Evans

Chapter 93

Ten minutes later, Becs was halfway through her second coffee and starting to feel much more awake, when Scotty and Nick wandered into the kitchen.
Lisa got up to do her usual greeting and kiss on the cheek but Scotty held up a hand to stop her.
'You might not want to get too close mom.' He croaked.
'Scotty, you look like hell.' Chris laughed.
'Not so loud.' Scotty mumbled.
'Yeah, someone might have had a few too many frozen margaritas last night.' Nick said.
'Ah coffee.' Scotty said, seeing Becca's half finished cup, and picked it up and chugged it down before anyone could stop him.
'That was Becs' coffee.' Chris said.
'It's okay, he looks like he needs it more than I do.' Becca joked.
'I'll make you both a fresh one.' Lisa said, as Scotty sat down and placed his head in his hands.
A minute later, she put a coffee and a pack of Advil in front of Scotty and a coffee in front of Becs.
'Thanks mom.' Scotty said, taking the pills.
'Thanks.' Becs said.
They chatted quietly for a few minutes until a shriek broke the calm and Grace came running through from the play room followed by Ethan.
'Uncle Nick! Uncle Nick!' She shouted. 'Ethan was going to put a spider onto my head!'
'No, I wasn't.' Ethan laughed.
'Yes you were.' She shouted back. 'Look, he's got it in his hands.'
Ethan opened his hands, which had been suspiciously cupped as though he'd been holding something. 'No I haven't.' He said with a grin.
'You pretended?' Grace shrieked. 'That's mean!'
Ethan smirked at her.
'Urgh. Make them stop.' Scotty moaned.
'Okay, you guys need to tone it down a bit because Uncle Scotty has a headache. So, Grace stop shrieking and Ethan, stop pretending to put spiders on your cousin's head.' Nick said.
Both children looked at Scotty with curiosity, spider argument forgotten.
'Is he going to barf?' Grace asked.
Scotty groaned slightly.
'No, he's going to be fine.' Nick said with an amused smile.
'Because he looks like he's going to barf.'
'You're not meant to say that.' Ethan said to her.
'What?'
'If someone feels like they're gonna barf, then if you talk about it, it makes it worse.' Ethan explained.
'Huh.' Grace said, and looked at Scotty closely.
'Because he looks just like this boy, Jack Maxwell in my class, right before he barfed all over the teacher.' Grace continued.
Scotty groaned again, making Nick laugh. 'Okay, time to go back into the playroom and stop torturing Uncle Scotty.' He said to them.
Becca could hear the conversation continue as the children wandered out of the kitchen. 'All over the teacher? Gross.' Ethan said with delight.
'Urgh, kids are evil.' Scotty muttered.
'You should know.' Chris laughed. 'You were a nightmare as a kid.'
'Don't believe it.' Scotty said to Becs. 'He's making it all up - I was an angel.'
Becs laughed.
'At least Ethan didn't really have a spider. Or a hundred spiders.' Chris said.
'Here we go again. I can't believe you're still sore about this.' Scotty teased.
'I was traumatised.'
Scotty rolled his eyes. 'You're such a baby.'
'What?' Becca said, smiling at their bickering.
'I was 9 and Scotty was nearly 7, and he decided to-'
'It was a prank.' Scotty interrupted.
'He thought it would be funny to put spiders in my bed. Hundreds of spiders.' Chris said.
'There were like ten, fifteen at the most. And in my defence, I thought that you'd turn on the light, pull back the covers and see them.'
'But you didn't?' Becca asked.
'No. I just got into bed, and then I felt them crawling all over me.' Chris shuddered.
Scotty snorted with laughter. 'You should have heard him scream.'
'Like I said, traumatised.'
'Urgh, the thought of that's enough to give me the heebie-jeebies, and I'm not even scared of spiders.' Becca said.
'Yeah well, don't worry, he got his own back on me - he put poison ivy in my bed!'
'Poison ivy? Is that the one that makes you really itchy?' Becca asked.
'It itches and it burns.' Scotty said. 'And the more you itch it, the worse it gets. I was covered in it - couldn't go to school for three weeks.'
Chris smirked at him.
'You got into so much trouble for that.' Scotty said.
'Yeah.'
'You were lucky that your brother wasn't scarred for life.' Lisa said, disapprovingly.
'Well, in my defence, I would never have done it if I'd realised it'd be that bad.' Chris said.
'Anyway,' Lisa says, getting up from the table. 'I think it's time for breakfast.'
'So, what do you kids have planned for today?' Chris's dad asked.
'Ermm...I'm not sure.' Becca said, looking at Chris questioningly. 'Do we have anything planned?'
'Not really. What do you fancy doing?'
'Well, I've got to head home at some point, but other than that...' She shrugged.
'We're going to the movies if Scotty can get tickets.' Nick said.
'Oh, what are you going to watch?' Becca asked.
'John Wick, it's a-.'
'John Wick's out already?' Becca's eyes widened. 'When did that come out?'
'Last weekend.' Scotty said.
'Oh man, how did I miss that?'
'You know it then?'
'Are you kidding me? I've been dying to see it.' She said to Scotty. 'Pun intended.'
He laughed. 'You guys should come and watch it with us then.'
She looked at Chris eagerly. 'What d'you think?'
He smiled at her enthusiasm. 'Sure, we can go if you like. Which one's John Wick?'
'It's the one with Keanu Reeves as an assassin.' Scotty said.
'Ah.'
'Hang on.' Becca said, searching on her phone. 'Let me google the trailer.'
'Doesn't it look amazing?' She said once they'd watched it.
'Sure.' Chris said, smiling. 'But you know, if you really wanted to see it, you should have said - I got offered tickets to the premiere a few weeks ago, we could have gone.'
She snorted, thinking he was joking.
'No, really.' He said, seriously.
Becca looked down, not quite sure how to respond to that.
Go to a film premiere with Chris? Out together in public? Just the two of them? Like a date?
The idea was enough to give her palpitations. On the one hand, how cool would it have been to watch it weeks before it came out at the cinema. But on the other hand, the thought of all those people watching her and Chris, and taking photos and asking questions...urgh!
She looked up to see Chris watching her closely.
'Don't let Carly hear that you turned down tickets to the premiere.' Scotty said.
'Why? Did she want to see it too?' Becca asked, glad to change the subject.
'Does a bear shit in the woods?' Scotty said with a laugh. 'Sorry.' He added, after a stern look from Lisa.
'Of course, she wants to see it - it's got Keanu Reeves in.'
'Carly's got a bit of a soft spot for Keanu Reeves.' Chris said.
'Haven't we all?' Scotty chipped in.
'Oh well, you should have taken her to the premiere - she could have met him.' Becca said.
'She already met him.' Chris said. 'And I don't think she's in a hurry to repeat the experience.'
'Why not?'
'She came to the Oscars with me last year, and I introduced them. Let's just say she got a little flustered.'
Poor Carly. I can relate to that.
Also, what kind of world have I stumbled into where people think it's normal to just drop 'she came with me to the Oscars' into a conversation?
'I'm texting her to see if she wants to come back early and join us.' Scotty said, tapping away.
'Did she get up at 4am in the end?' Becca asked.
'Yes, she did.' Lisa said, shaking her head in disapproval. 'I told her that she should skip it this year, what with being so unwell, not that she listened. But Ryan drove them down there and he's going to wait around and bring them home.'
'He's a good guy.' Chris said.
Scotty's phone binged. 'Oh yeah, she says that she's definitely up for John Wick. No surprise there.'
'Let's have a look at times.' He said to himself. 'Okay, there's tickets still available for the 7pm and the 9.20pm screenings. What do you think?' He asked.
'Either.' Said Chris.
'Don't mind.' Nick replied.
'Becs?' Scotty asked.
'Well, if it's okay with everyone else, I'd rather go with the earlier one.' Becca said. 'Otherwise you're going to have to drive me home really late.' She added to Chris.
'That's no problem, just stay over another night.' Chris said.
'I can't.' Becca said. 'I've got to work tomorrow morning.'
'What? It's the holidays.'
'Yeah, I know, but I said that I'd go in and help out - we're revamping the Children's Library while the place is closed for Thanksgiving.'
'That sucks.'
Becca shrugged. 'It'll be worth it when it's finished.'
'Okay, so six tickets for the 7.00 showing? Booked.' Scotty said.
'Yay.' Becca grinned. 'I'm so looking forward to that.'
'Okay boys.' Lisa said. 'Can you put the breakfast things on the table please?'
Chris, Scotty and Nick all jumped up and began gathering cereals, juice, bowls and things.
'Now Becs, would you like toast?' She asked, putting a plate of it onto the table.
'Yes please.' Becca said, taking a slice.
'Do you want peanut butter or jelly on your toast?' Scotty asked her, picking up jars.
Jelly on toast. Ha.
Becca smiled to herself. 'No thanks, I'll just have mine buttered.'
'What's so funny?' Scotty asked.
'At home jelly is what you guys call jello, which would be pretty weird on toast.' She explained.
Behind her, she could hear Chris murmuring something to his mum, and then opening a cupboard.
'Thought you might like this.' He said, putting a small, unopened jar of marmite on the table in front of her.
She smiled at him, surprised to see it.
'Thanks.' She said, starting to spread it on her toast.
'What's that?' Scotty asked.
'It's marmite.' Becca said. 'It's something from home.'
'Chris said that you liked it.' Lisa said.
'What's it taste of?' Scotty asked.
'Umm...it's kind of hard to describe. It's savoury, but it doesn't really taste like anything else - it's kind of got its own unique flavour.' Becca said.
'It's great, you should try it.' Chris said to Scotty.
Becca looked at Chris in surprise, remembering his reaction to eating it. He grinned at her from behind Scotty and put his finger to his lips.
'Okay, I'm up for anything.' Scotty said, taking the jar.
'Make sure you put a good thick layer on to get the taste.' Chris said, quickly covering his mouth, presumably to stop himself laughing.
Becca watched Scotty spread it ludicrously thickly onto his toast and wondered if she should say something despite Chris's request to stay silent.
It only took a few seconds from Scotty taking a big bite to when he started coughing and gagging as though he'd eaten poison.
Becca felt like rolling her eyes.
Honestly, Americans! It's not that bad.
Scotty then spat it out onto his plate and started chugging orange juice from the bottle as though his life depended on it.
'What the fuck?' Scotty said, still coughing.
Behind him, Chris was laughing his head off.
'You bastard.' Scotty said to Chris, making him laugh harder. 'You just wait.'
For a second Becca was worried that Scotty was cross,  but the insult seemed good natured.
I don't always get siblings.
'You're not really going to eat that, are you?' Scotty asked as Becca went to take a bite of her toast.
She smiled at him. 'Yes, it's much nicer if you spread it thinly.'
'I don't care how thinly you spread it, it'd still taste fucking awful.' Scotty said.
Becca shrugged. 'I like it.'
Chris was still chuckling and wiping his eyes when he sat down next to Becca.
'You know that you're a terrible person, doing that to your poor brother, right?' She joked.
He grinned at her.