37

"A party for a meteor shower?"

I glanced at Ryan, then back at the road. "Technically, it's a birthday party for Jo, but yes."

"And that's why we have to go to Damon's?"

I sighed. "No. Caroline needs my help with her dress."

"Help doing what exactly?"

I parked the car and unbuckled. "She's going to be really late and we're the same size, so I have to try the dress on for her."

I got out, and he followed me to the boarding house. "But your boobs are way bigger than hers."

I rolled my eyes and walked inside. He shut the door behind us. I stopped in the foyer, staring at Kai.

"What are you doing here?"

I stared back at Kai. "Caroline called me and told me she needed me to be here. What are you doing here?" He shrugged as he took a drink.

Ryan walked over and sat on the couch, "I just came for the joy of watching her be terrorized by the tailor."

Kai looked from Ryan to me. "Well, he just stepped out of the room to grab the dress -"

"You must be Evelyn."

I looked over at the man. He was wearing a bowie with his button-up that was covered by a fashionable, blue vest. "Yeah."

He held the dress out to me. "I'm assuming you don't want to get naked in front of me, so I've set up the study for you to be comfortable. This is the first option. There are about seven more. I'll be out here when you're done. My name's Tom."

I made my way to the study. I hung up the dress on the rack of other dresses. There was a trifold mirror making me stare at myself three times. I got undressed and then pulled on the dress carefully. There were no straps or sleeves. The front made a V shape. I felt tight around my boobs. Maybe Ryan's right.

I pulled my hair back, tucking it behind my ears. I stared in the mirror. It was stunningly white, and it had no texture or pattern. It was silky. It was form fitting until the midthigh point, then it flowed out. It looked hard to walk in.

I took a deep breath before making my way out of the study. I watched the floor to make sure I didn't trip. I heard Tom gasp. I looked up, and he was walking toward me. His hand was extended, and his other was against his chest.

"You look gorgeous!"

I laughed softly, "Thank you."

He took my hand, leading me to the middle of the, now open, living room. He held my hand as I stepped on the platform. I stared down at the dress, mesmerized by its beauty.

"Holy fuck."

I looked up. Kai's quiet words were accompanied by a stare that made me paralyzed. His eyes were stuck on mine. His brows were close together. His jaw was clenched. He parted his lips after swallowing. His eyes moved to his glass.

"...sure you don't need this dress? I could tell your sister I lost it or that it was taken."

I looked back at Tom, who was staring at me. "Sorry?"

"This dress was made for you, darling. It fits you perfectly. You move so gracefully. Tell me..." He moved his eyes to the dress. "Has your boyfriend proposed?" His eyes moved back to mine.

I tilted my head, "I don't have a boyfriend."

He looked shocked, then he furrowed his brows, "Girlfriend?"

I shook my head once. "I'm straight, I just-"

"Are you kidding?!"

I felt like I couldn't breathe. I closed my eyes for a few seconds. "Nope. Can we, um," I sighed before opening my eyes. "Can we hurry?"

He waved his hand, "We'll be done in no time." He looked down at the notebook in his hands and started writing. "My husband would absolutely adore you. I mean," he gestured to the dress, "He hires the models for the company, and you would be perfect."

I kept my eyes closed as I pushed my hair back off my shoulders again. "Yeah?" I opened my eyes, taking slow, deep breaths.

"Oh, absolutely!" He glanced at me. "Have you considered modeling?" He looked back as he kept writing. "What's your occupation?"

My mouth felt dry, and my head started spinning. "I'm..." I breathed out slowly. "I just graduated."

"Oh, that's lovely!" He whispered something to himself. "Are you okay?"

I opened my eyes. "I'm fine."

He furrowed his brows, "You look very flushed."

I shook my head, putting my hands on my stomach. "I'm okay." I took a breath. "Perfect."

"Alright." He moved his notebook to his side. "I just have to go grab something. I'll be gone for a moment." He started to walk away, then turned. "Don't move." He walked past Kai and Ryan, going to the kitchen.

I closed my eyes and started humming to try to push away the nauseous feeling. The heat was getting to my head. I stumbled back, unable to catch myself. I gasped as I fell back. Before I could get too close to the ground, there were arms under me. I opened my eyes to see Kai staring at me. His eyes moved from my lips to my eyes.

"Are you okay?"

I couldn't think of what to say. He's holding me like a bride while I'm in a wedding dress and he won't even admit he has feelings for me. I'm far from okay. But I won't admit that to him.

"Now that's ironic."

Ryan's voice pulled me out of the situation. "You can put me down." There was a look in his eyes telling me he wanted to just run away. He carefully helped me to stand back on the platform. I took a deep breath, breathing out slowly. I glanced at Kai, then quickly looked at the bottom of the dress. "Thanks."

"Yeah," he answered quietly.

The front door opened. I looked up to see Stefan and Damon. There were panicked looks on their faces. They both stopped when their eyes found me. They both looked confused.

I stared at Stefan. "Cover your eyes! What are you doing?!"

"That's Caroline's dress?" He took a few slow steps further.

"Not anymore!" I put my hands over my face, sighing in frustration.

"Why are you in the dress," Damon asked.

I moved my hands to my hips, kicking out the dress. "She asked me to try them on." I looked up at Stefan.

"Where is she?"

I shrugged, "She's your fiancé aren't you supposed to know those things?"

He sighed as he walked into the living room. "She's avoiding me."

"Mm. Sounds healthy."

He tilted his head, stopping a few feet from me. "Is that the only dress?"

I furrowed my brows, "Are you sure you should be marrying her?"

He sighed, "Evelyn."

I dropped my arms to my sides. "No. It's not."

"Okay." He nodded. "Do you know where she is?"

"Of course I do." I looked at Kai, reaching for his hand. He grabbed my hand and helped me off the platform.

"So where is she?"

I turned to face him. "If she wanted you to know she would've told you."

"Evelyn."

I rolled my eyes as I turned away. I walked to the study, letting the door shut behind me. I walked toward the middle of the room. I stared at myself in the mirror for a few minutes. I wasn't sure how to get it off. My attention moved to the corner of the mirror where Kai was standing at the top of the steps. He walked closer.

"I thought you were supposed to be avoiding me?"

"I am." He stopped a few inches behind me. I could feel the space between our bodies, making my stomach flip. His eyes skated across the top of my back, then down the back of my body.

"You never told me what you were doing here."

A smile flickered across his lips, staying just slightly. "I wanted to have fun. And I knew you were coming here, so..."

I tilted my head, "No. We're not doing this." I turned to face him. His eyes stayed planted on my chest. "I am not some toy for you to play with whenever you want. I am a breathing, feeling, living human being. If you want to do anything with me, you need to talk to me first and explain why you're being such a dick. Why can't we just have a conversation without it turning into sex?"

He didn't respond or look at my face. I stepped closer, grabbing his chin. I forced him to look into my eyes.

"I am speaking to you. The least you can do is look at my face."

His eyes wandered my face for a second before settling on my eyes. "You look really beautiful, Evelyn." He stepped closer as he pulled my hand away. "And even though you don't think so, I was listening." He placed my hands on his chest. "I know you want to talk." He moved his hands to the back of the dress and started undoing the buttons slowly, with every button free I could breathe deeper. "And I would love to talk to you. We will talk, I promise. Just not right now. I can explain everything tonight. After I'm done with my problem." He leaned down, his lips just close enough to be touching but not.

"They'll hear us." I waited for the kiss.

"Let them."

I moved my hand back to his jaw and pushed him away. "Go home."

The smile on his face was hot enough to make me moan. But I didn't. He put his hands up as he backed away. "I'll see you tonight."

I scoffed. Before I could disagree, he was out of the room. I snapped out of his trance and got dressed. I hung the dress back up before walking out. Damon was compelling the tailor at the door. I walked over and sat on the couch.

"What's tonight?"

I looked at Stefan, who was sitting beside me. "What?"

"You and Kai. What's tonight," Ryan chimed in from the other couch.

"Were you eavesdropping?"

"No," Damon answered as he sat next to Ryan. "We just heard that part. So what's tonight?"

"Nothing."

"You answered that entirely too fast for it to be true," Stefan responded.

I looked at him. "It is true. I'm not doing anything tonight, especially not with him."

Ryan laughed. I looked at him. He stopped laughing. "Oh. You're serious." He furrowed his brows. "Why?"

"Would you hang out with him?"

"No, but I'm not sleeping with him, so-"

"You're sleeping with him," Stefan asked angrily.

I looked at him. "No! I'm not." I looked at Ryan. "We're not even friends."

"You looked pretty friendly to me."

"When? What happened," Damon intruded.

Ryan's smile made me throw a pillow at him. He threw the pillow back while he answered Damon. "He was drooling over her when she walked in here. And then she tripped, and he caught her. They shared a very romantic moment."

Damon gasped as he looked at me. "True love."

I looked at Ryan. "I'm going to kill you."

He smiled, "I look forward to it."

"Wait, so you're in love with each other but you hate each other?"

I looked at Stefan. "We're not in love with each other."

"The first stage is denial," Ryan sang as he stood up. He stopped behind the couch I was sitting on and poured a drink. I turned to face him, resting my arm on the back of the couch. "I was there when you realized you loved him, Evelyn. Just admit it and move on. Then you can accept that you two love each other and live happily ever after. You could probably even wear that dress to your wedding."

"That will never happen."

"Mhm," he responded.

"Why not," Stefan asked.

I looked at him. Has he not been paying attention? My happily ever after isn't real for me. "Whatever fairy tale life I want to have isn't possible. I'm fine with it now. I've accepted it. The more he's around, though, the less accepting I become."

"Why can't you have it," Ryan responded. "He's right there."

The front door opened, and Caroline walked through it. A few seconds later, Valerie walked in. My heart dropped to my stomach. Ric and Jo followed them in. Caroline had a serious look on her face. Valerie was holding a video camera at her side.

The Salvatores were on their feet, walking closer. Ryan was closer to me.

"She's not here to do any harm," Caroline assured us. "She's here to help."

After ten or fifteen minutes of checking to make sure she wasn't here to kill us, she was seated on the opposite couch. I was standing behind the couch I was once sitting on, drinking whatever I could. Ryan put his hand on my back as he stepped closer.

After Valerie explained that she had recognized the spell on the tape of the camera as a spell not to imprison Kai, but to transport the twins Jo was pregnant with to a magical fail-safe, Damon laid out a map on the coffee table. She used Ric's blood for the spell.

He and Jo sat on the couch in front of me, holding onto each other. Caroline was sitting at the end of the table. Stefan was beside her. Damon was by the other couch; his arm was crossed over his body and his other fist rested under his chin. We were all silent as we focused on the blood traveling across the map. It was slowly leading toward the edge. Then it went off the edge. It spilt over the table, dripping onto Caroline. She pulled back, a look of fear and shock on her face.

"What the hell does that mean?"

Valerie exchanged looks with Caroline. Valerie gasped quietly. "You're the fail-safe."

She laughed. "That's ridiculous."

I felt nauseous. Valerie looked at Ric and Jo then at Caroline. "Not necessarily."

"She's a vampire, she can't be pregnant."

Valerie looked at me. "With the right spell-"

"It defies the physics of the universe. It's impossible," Caroline interrupted. She stood up and backed away from the table. "There's no way."

Stefan got up and walked after her. I stared at Valerie as she focused on the map. She looked up at me. "She has to take a test."

I shook my head, "She's not pregnant." The jealousy and rage that was filling me made me even more furious. She's getting married and she could possibly be pregnant?

"In a world of magic, everything and anything is possible. She won't listen to me, but she'll listen to you. If there's even a small possibility that I'm right, we have to find out."

"Please, Evelyn," Jo begged.

I looked at her. The sad look in her eyes persuaded me. Ryan followed me as we went to my car.

"Where are we going?"

"To get a pregnancy test," I answered as I started driving.