Part 9: Eve's Garden

"Where do you go?"

I turned to see my brother casually standing in the door. "Huh?"

"Where do you chill out?" He asked. "And with who?"

I frowned in perplexity. "Nowhere, and with no one."

"Come on, Addison."

"I'm not Addison. And I'm not lying. I hang out nowhere with no one because I don't go out and I don't have friends." I told him turning back to the novel I was reading. I loved reading and everything to do with it, as long as it wasn't for school purposes.

Addison. That was my name. But I wasn't really a fan of it. Everyone had that name and I hated sharing. Not even my name. I chose Adey for myself, I felt it was rare to find a girl with a name like that so, why not?

"I thought so." Devyn walked into my room and grabbed my book.

"Oh, come on!"

"Oh, come on!" He mirrored my reaction. "You're practically dead, Adey. You're off the grid, like you live underground. You don't have a life."

"Hello hi, excuse me?" I flipped over. "I have a life and proof is you're holding it right in your hand, duh?"

Devyn raised the book and read the tittle. "Sephie C. Wrong Identity. This is not a life. This is someone else's imagination that you're living."

"And I'm gladly doing so." I lifted a questioning brow.

"You don't get it, do you?" He asked and when I continued to silently watch him, he replaced the book on the shelf. "Come, we're going out."

"Huh?"

Devyn smiled. "I'll introduce you to a great place you can go to, alone, without anyone disturbing you and you can get any service you desire for free just by showing your face."

My jaws nearly dropped. "Where's that, a charity center?"

He shrugged. "Call it whatever you want. Come on."

"Hi, I'm your sister, do you still remember?" I waved at him.

"I think so but one thing I'm sure I clearly remember is, a few nights ago you confessed to me."

I narrowed my eyes at him and he shrugged before blinking. Sexy. If he wasn't annoyingly nice or my brother, I'd drug him and make him promise to stay single for life to guarantee undivided attention to me. Oh crap, I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

"You're thinking dirty about me, aren't you?" Devyn teased. He had no idea how nearly true his words were.

"What I meant earlier was please excuse me so that I can change into something else." I told him.

"Wow, you're taking this date serious, aren't you? Then later I take you to meet my mom, or is it your mom?

"Devyn, please get out."

He made a slight courtesy bow. "With pleasure."

Less than an hour later, Devyn parked his car in an "authorized parking only" zone.

"Won't you like get a fine for ignoring that sign?" I asked him.

He smiled and shrugged. "I don't think so. If my little sister can come here and get free shots, why can't I violate their rules a little?"

"Can I really get stuff for free?" I asked as I followed him out of the car.

"Yep."

"What if I bring my friends?" I asked again hurrying to catch up.

"As long as they are with you, and they don't pick a fight, they can too."

"Eve's Garden," I read aloud. "What type of name is that?"

"You don't like it?" Devyn was looking at me, like I've just hurled away a Christmas gift he got for me.

"Just sounds stupid for a... Whatever this is."

"Well, I beg to differ. Do you remember Eve from the Bible? She lived in a beautiful garden before she was banished." He stated. "In the same way, Eve's Garden is a place where you can find everything you desire. Anything."

"I didn't know a demon like you knew about the Bible's existence. Also, what if that's not the idea the owner had in mind when he named it that?"

"That's the exact idea, believe me." He held open the door for me. "And I'm not the slightest surprised that a devil like you can utter the word 'Bible'. After all, they say the Devil knows the scriptures by heart."

I rolled my eyes at him and walked through the doors into... Not the garden I had in mind at all.

With polished floors, high leather chairs and comfy couches surrounding about six dining tables, in addition to two wall-mounted televisions on opposite sides,soft purple-pinkish lights plus soft, slow and low music playing from heaven knows where, it was way far from what I had in mind.

Four of the six dining tables  and six of the eleven high chairs surrounding the point of sale were occupied by either happy families, groups of friends or single losers like me. Except, I wasn't single.

"Eve's Garden is the place where you can find everything you desire my foot you can't even find a hot boy here."

If it wasn't for Devyn laughing out loud, I wouldn't have known I had spoken aloud. But I still had to ask, "What?"

"You sound disappointed. I thought this place would be paradise for a nerd like you." He ushered me to the high chairs. "Just when I thought you were gay, you had to ask for hot boys."

"I... you... you shouldn't judge me based on something I unconsciously said." I told him.

"That's the best and safest way to judge a person because that's the closest anyone can get to knowing the true thoughts of the next person." He said and I looked away.

"I didn't know business consultants and investors could also pose for professional psychologists." I muttered. I didn't know why I was sore and disappointed but I was.

"You really hate this place, don't you?" Devyn asked. He didn't sound as hyper as usual.

What was I doing? My brother was trying to be nice and took me out and all I was being was an ungrateful little devil. But I was being me, in all honesty. I don't go out but that doesn't mean that I would appreciate some lame place that looked like some café from the future.

Deep down I wanted to go to a striping club with drug dealers and professional thugs and watch crazy couples having the life I crave but dare not imagine because everyone thinks I was an innocent fallen angel that was unfairly deceived by the devil to abandon heaven.

"That was an unexpected thought." I realized.