I didn't know how my hand could so thoroughly betray my mind. Even as every instinct told me to let it ring, I felt my thumb slide across the screen. I brought the phone to my ear, the silence on the other end heavy and expectant. For ten long seconds, there was nothing but the faint, rhythmic sound of his breathing.
Finally, he spoke.
"So... you haven't blocked me. Interesting."
His voice was a low hum in my ear, far too intimate for the distance between us. I felt a surge of annoyance at him for being right, and at myself for giving him the satisfaction of an answer.
"What do you want, Liam?" I snapped, my voice more defensive than I intended.
He chuckled, a dark, melodic sound that bordered on the edge of something unhinged. I was starting to think my assessment of his sanity was becoming more accurate by the hour.
"To ask you out, obviously," he said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Have you not listened to a single word I've said?"
"I listen, actually," he countered, his tone shifting into something smoother, more calculated. "You probably think I'm crazy, and you're right about that part, at least. But I'm not exactly used to being rejected, Carver. I don't understand the hesitation. Just get to know me. I'm not that bad... am I?"
He sounded like a total flirt, his words dripping with a confidence that felt like a trap. I realized then that I had completely underestimated him. In the lecture hall, he looked like the quiet, brooding type, but here, in the dark, he was a silver-tongued predator. It felt unreal, like I was talking to a ghost I'd summoned from my own sketchbook.
I didn't know how to counter that level of arrogance, so I fell back on the only defense I had.
"No."
The silence returned, stretching out until I thought he might have lost the connection. Then, a soft exhale.
"You're a tough nut to crack," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "Well, then. Have a great evening, Everly."
The line went dead.
He had hung up on me. The sheer, unadulterated audacity of it made me pull the phone away and stare at the blank screen in disbelief. He was beyond annoying,he was invasive. But it was his last sentence, the way he'd said my name, that stayed with me, vibrating in the quiet of my room.
I was restless, I realized I couldn't stay in this apartment a second longer. I needed to run, to let the physical exertion drown out the sound of his voice and the confusion in my chest. I grabbed my shoes and headed out into the night, desperate to clear my head.