Falling With Style {Chris Evans}

eighteen

As quick as it had started, it had come to an end. Mila was just grateful that for the thirty minute drive back to her dorm, things felt normal. After the kiss, it was like things went back to the way they were, and oddly enough, she felt fine with that for right now. It meant that for once, she wasn't overthinking it yet. She was just enjoying it all.
She could tell that he was doing the same. The way his smile met his eyes every time he took his eyes off the road to glance at her, the way his laughter came from the deepest parts of his stomach, the way his eyebrows showed expression as he listened to her every word when she spoke about anything. The thirty minutes felt like forever in the best ways.
It had to come to an end. At first, they had sat in the parking lot laughing and talking about their favorite parts of the day while the workers shut down the amusement park and got ready to go home. Why did they sit in the parking lot for an hour after it had closed? They were waiting for Ashley to confirm the paparazzi did in fact leave. The car they were in was going to grab attention nonetheless, but might as well still take a few precautions.
Chris didn't hesitate to also step out of the car once they were parking in front of her place. He walked her to the door, careful to look around though the security guards were still around for that as well.
"I've never had so much fun in my life," he looked down at her with a smile coming on.
She blushed at this, looking away from him holding her eyes as she said, "Oh, whatever!"
There was no way that the Chris Evans just attributed today as being one of the funnest days of his life. He was a movie star, a celebrity who had it all in the palm of his hand. Just as easy as it was for him to just "rent" an amusement park for the entire day, it was that easy to get whatever else he wanted.
"I'm serious, what about you?"
She shrugged playfully, "I don't know. Kim Kardashian really set a high standard when she rented all of Magic Kingdom just for her daughter's second birthday."
This got a chuckle out of Chris before he wore a mischievous look, "Don't give me any ideas!"
She only smiled in response before getting more serious. She looked back at him and said, "Thank you, Chris, I still don't know what I did to deserve it all."
"I want you," he breathed, dropping his head just a little to be closer to hers.
Despite him focusing on her lips, she kept her focus on his own pair of eyes. She waited for him to elaborate, and he did. "I want you so bad, is that awful? But you taste so sweet and I don't want to ruin you."
"Ruin me?" She almost couldn't let the words out of her own mouth. It was all so sudden and almost bittersweet.
Chris nodded. He went back to his playful demeanor and said, "You're just so... I just want to show you off."
"Show me off?"
It was like she couldn't come up with her own responses. She could only repeat what she was questioning that he said. She wanted to face palm herself for it, but she was really close to shutting down all functioning. With his words and how close his minty hit breath was grazing her face, she couldn't think straight.
"Show you off," he confirmed, "I want everyone to see the things that I do for you, that I've never done for anyone else."
"Then do it," she whispered, now looking at his lips.
This made him perk up a little. Giving him the green light to be a little more open about this, whatever this was, gave him even more things to look forward to. He smiled and without warning, he kissed her forehead and put his hand on her elbow. He slid it down her arm to her hand and gave it a squeeze.
"Noted, you'll be hearing from my people. Goodnight," he winked as he walked off, doing one final glance to make sure she made it inside safely once he was at the car.
Mila giggled to herself at this. Upon closing the door behind her, she put her back to it and slid down until she was sitting against it. She was exhausted from all the right things. If she would have sat there for a few moments longer, she would have fallen asleep on the floor. Luckily, she picked herself up and managed to take a quick shower before immediately passing out in her bed once Chris confirmed through a text message that he had made it back to his suite without any notice.
The next morning, Mila woke up earlier than she would have liked. Ashley had run in and plopped on her bed, saying things excitedly that Mila could hardly decipher through her half-asleep state of mind.
She blinked a few times to adjust to the light poking past the curtains into her room. She blinked a few more times to process that Ashley was sitting on her bed. Her lips were moving and there was definitely sound, but Mila literally couldn't understand anything.
Not even realizing Ashley was still talking, Mila interrupted, "Woah, slow down... what?"
Ashley took a big deep breath before groaning and shaking it off. Instead of immediately speaking, she pulled her phone out and pulled up something to show Mila instead.
On the screen was an Instagram post from just an hour ago. Chris posted a candid picture taken from behind of Mila reaching to pet the elephant calf with Chris right behind her with one arm on her waist and the other reaching up to pet the mother elephant. In the corner of the picture, you could see that it was getting dark and all that was illuminated was from the recently setting sun.
"Shout out to Kyle from security for this amazing shot during one of the most magical moments in my life," Mila read aloud, squinting at the bright phone screen.
Magical moment was an understatement. It was universally known that Disney World was the happiest place on Earth, but that definitely had to be a close second!
"Why am I always finding out these cute details through the internet and not my best friend?" Ashley was somewhat joking and somewhat serious despite her childlike grin.
Mila fell back on to her pillow, letting her hair fly all over the place. She had a huge smile on her face, "Ash, what am I doing?"
"Living your best life?" Ashley suggested as if it was rhetorical. It was quite obvious by the amount of fun Mila was having that there was much more to it.
She sat back up and looked at Ashley and whispered, "We kissed!"
"You kissed Chris Evans?!" Ashley whisper shouted, slapping the palm of her hand to her now opened mouth from her jaw dropping.
Mila nodded quickly over and over, slightly freaking out as it was finally setting in. He kissed her on the lips and then on the forehead. He said he wanted her. He wanted to show her off. Where did Mila even begin to tell Ashley?
After briefly catching her up, Mila and Ashley could have gone on for hours, she was interrupted by a phone call from the one and only.
"Chris," she greeted with a smile in her voice. She was blushing from Ashley making faces and teasing her.
"Pooh, I know that we were supposed to have another movie marathon today, but I have a quick conference phone call I have to do for the next three hours. Can we push the marathon to tonight?"
Mila looked at the time, nearly forgetting that she promised to be ready for him to pick her up for a date with some nice food and another movie marathon, where this time he picked out his favorite Disney movies to watch. "Oh, yeah, of course. Just shoot me a text when you're on the way. I think I'll just spend the day packing."
"Perfect... I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. I can't wait to see you, Mila."
She loved the nicknames he had come up with in the few short months they've known each other, but there was also just something about the way her name rolled off his tongue. She wanted to hear him say it in person.
What did she even say to that?
"Hey, I already agreed to have that date with you. You don't need to kiss up!" She joked.
Alright, so she was bad at this. It had been a while since she last put any effort into really flirting or anything of the sort. Fortunately for her, Chris was as much of a child as she was, if not more of one. He got a laugh out of this before reassuring that he'd call back soon once work was taken care of and then hung up.
Just as she said, Mila spent the next few hours packing up a few things that she didn't use on a daily basis. In the background, some television channel was playing episode reruns of a TV show neither of them had even heard of.
"And then what? He kissed you before or after that picture with the elephants?"
Mila giggled at Ashley taking notes, "After!"
Ashley hummed, "Oh, alright, I see, I'm caught up now! And then what?"
"We just sat in the parking lot talking until you texted that the coast was clear. I told you this probably five times now! Let's change the subject. How are the designs coming for your show?"
Ashley was already lit up with joy from hearing about her best friend's night, but a new look of excited features came over her once given the opportunity to talk about the big things she had coming up in her own corner of the universe. "Sofie has been such a big help... Every time I start to doubt myself, she reassured me. Every time I don't know what the next step is, she puts me into contact with someone that makes it happen. All my designs are done, I'm just waiting for the seamstresses to bring them to life."
Mila squealed with excitement, "And did you find out the exact date for the show?"
Ashley nodded rapidly with happiness, "I'm so glad you asked! It's going to be on April 18th. I had the chance to make it for the last day of March, but I figured this would give you enough time to choose."
Mila furrowed her brows and stopped packing some of her knick knacks into the cardboard box, "Choose what?"
"Like, choose the outfit you want to walk in?" Ashley was telling her, but it really sounded like a question with how confused they both were.
Mila burst into laughter until she realized her best friend was being serious. "Outfit? Walk in? What?"
"I guess I forgot to tell you that you are one of five models wearing my designs!"
"I guess you forgot to ask!" Mila cried out, but still smiling from her laughter from before. Ashley crossed her arms, almost pouting. She said, "I thought it would be fun to have you in the line up."
"Ash, I've never even seen what you designed for the show. What if it's not my style and I look silly?"
Ashley giggled at this, "Look in the mirror, sweetie, that is literally impossible. I wouldn't let just anyone walk in a fashion show with my debut line that is featuring Sofie Willow!"
That was true. Ashley took pride in everything that she did, naturally, and this was no different. She knew a blessing when she saw one, and the fact that Sofie wanted to help sponsor her fashion show meant that it was really going to be an event now. Sofie had already taken care of arrangements for a venue not far from where they were.
Mila sighed, "We'll have to see. That's barely a month from now!"
"Aren't you glad I did April instead of March? That gives you plenty of time to have first pick on the outfit you want to walk in, and that gives everyone plenty of time for the promotional photo shoot Sofie planned at the end of the month."
"Sofie is coming to Valdosta?"
"Only for that afternoon for the photo shoot, then she won't be back until the weekend of the fashion show next month!"
Mila brought her hand to her head. She couldn't possibly say no to Ashley, especially not after how much she's done to look out for Mila in the last few days alone. Ashley would never say Mila owed it to her, but Mila knew that Ashley deserved whatever she wanted that she could get her hands on for something as spectacular as her first fashion show.
She wasn't necessarily opposed to the idea. It wasn't going to be that big of an event, right? It was by ticket reservation only. That didn't stop Mila from feeling flustered. It all felt so last minute.
"I look forward to it," Mila genuinely smiled finally, earning a squeal from Ashley as they both resumed packing. Ashley replied, "Great! As soon as the seamstresses make the last touch ups, I'll send you some pictures of the outfits for you to choose from."
Time rolled by quick with Ashley going back and forth about the fashion show, gossip with girls in the dorm building, and everything else in-between. Mila was in and out of listening. She found herself and her mind wandering off, thinking about how a certain pair of lips felt on hers. As if on cue, her phone vibrated indicating a call from Chris himself. He was on his way and she had never been more excited.

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Author's Note
This chapter feels like it ended abruptly but I still love where this is going! I hope you guys are liking and loving it too :) tomorrow I'll be going back and editing chapters for errors and fixing the layout because it's 3:30 in the morning and I know there's a ton of mistakes hahaha enjoy!!!