Evelyn thwacked the horn violently. Traffic was the last thing on her mind.

Not only had the signals stopped her with a few moments to spare, but a car swerved right past her, blocking her way. There was no way she could skip the signal now. She muttered under her breath as she looked at the signal again; forty-nine seconds of staying still.

She looked at the road in front of her and it seemed impossible to reach Levi's place in under an hour. She would have loved to go through the contents with him by her side, but there was nothing to be done. 

She dialed his number and waited for his response.

"How much longer?" he asked, the same tone of eagerness that Evelyn shared a few moments ago.

"There's no way I can come over any time soon. The traffic is fucking irritating and I'd rather go directly to the firm instead," she paused.

She could feel the sharp intake of his breath reverberate through her phone. Clearly, he was trying to contain his dissatisfaction with the issue. They remained in silence and Evelyn was surprised by how much it upset her as well. 

She had been looking forward to poking around together. 

"Don't be all upset now. I'll let you know if I find anything," Evelyn said.

"I know that. It's just not every day that you get to pry around with your lawyer," he drawled.

Evelyn chuckled, "maybe we should start a zoom call just for this."

"I hope you're not joking," Levi said, liking the idea. 

"I was, but it's not a completely terrible idea," Evelyn agreed.

She caught her reflection in the rear-view mirror and was surprised by what she saw. Her eyes were dilated and there was a huge grin plastered on her otherwise monochrome self. She could hardly recognize the woman who looked back at her.

The loud honking from the car behind jolted her back to reality. She looked at the signal and it was only twenty seconds till it blocked her again. Angry slurs from the cars behind guided her legs to the accelerator as she fled from the green lights, unwilling to stay there any longer.

"Are you that terrible of a driver?" Levi asked, snickering. The symphony created by the horns of other cars was loud enough for him to hear. 

"Blame yourself, you distracted me," Evelyn said. The tumultuous laugh that erupted from her phone made her regret her choice of words immediately. 

"Shut it, Levi. You are not distracting. It's just hard to pay attention with your dreadful voice on the other side," she said.

"Okay, I believe you. It's not like my voice is music to people's ears or anything," Levi joked.

"It really isn't. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have traffic to navigate through," Evelyn said, struggling to keep her eyes on the road. 

"Alright. I wouldn't want to be the reason behind your accident," he said.

"I'll talk to you later," she said. They exchanged their goodbyes and she cut the call. 

With Levi's nonsense gone, the heat of the traffic got to her head. The sounds of people screaming at each other seemed to have grown louder and the way to the firm seemed a lot more dreadful. 

She remembered the smile she had seen on her face a few minutes ago, the image unwavering in her mind. During tailbacks, she could feel the heat get to her head and she would be one amongst many to blare the horns loudly. Yet, those few moments with Levi brought a smile to her face.

She slapped her face lightly and shook her head, bringing herself back on track. She didn't want to make time for confusion; all of it had a reasonable explanation. 

He just understands me in a way that no one else does. That's it, she told herself and sighed. There was a long way to go. 

She connected the car's radio to her phone and let her playlist soak her in. The low thrumming of the drums had a euphoric effect on her ears. She let herself get carried away by the harmonies but she wanted more. 

In her head, she could picture the way Levi spoke. His lips only ever slightly parted, something she never noticed anyone else do. The way he spoke so gently resounded in her ears.

She banged her head on the steering wheel, hating every passing second that she spent with her thoughts. This was not the person she was. Although her feelings for Noah had grown weak, she knew she couldn't cross this line. She wouldn't be able to look herself in the eyes ever again if she did, and she knew it.

She closed her eyes and reminded herself that they were just kindred spirits; She only longed for the familiarity that they had, not him. As old as she might be, her heart felt like that of a confused teenager and that made her want to throw herself out of the car. But she held herself in place. 

As soon as the case is over, I'll stay away from the Colemans, she reassured herself. 

But how do you tether a rope made of diamonds with nothing but a scissor?

⋆ ★ ⋆

Sometimes, Evelyn wished she had a Do Not Disturb sign in the firm. She had just about convinced her parents to let her do so, but they were fully against it. In their words, it was rather arrogant when her colleagues were only trying to be helpful.

Evelyn would rather they didn't.

They would have something negative to say about her either way and she'd rather save her dignity and not take favors from them. 

But that was going to be hard, considering that someone came in every once in a while, enquiring whether she wanted something to eat. 

Maybe they grew out of the hate they nursed for me, Evelyn considered, not wanting to put it past them. Still, she knew she did nothing to earn this care from them and she wondered what it was that they wanted.

Soon, her wandering thoughts and her colleagues started to irritate her and she finally decided to lock the door. She took her seat in front of her laptop, waiting for Levi to join the zoom link that she had sent him. He had seen the message four minutes ago and still hadn't joined. Evelyn stopped herself from growing impatient.

It hasn't even been five minutes yet, she chided herself and soon enough, Levi joined. 

"My laptop was getting updated, in case you were wondering," Levi said.

"While you were gone, I started looking through her images," Evelyn spoke.

"Just because I was four minutes late?" Levi asked.

"No, I started looking even before. You don't need to see the unimportant things," Evelyn said.

"You know you're already invading her privacy. Doesn't make a difference if only one of us does it or not," Levi said. 

"It makes a difference to me," Evelyn said, "anyways, I found nothing so far."

"What were you looking for?" Levi asked.

"I was just thinking. If she has something on you, she must have proof of it. I thought maybe she had a video of you guys talking about it," Evelyn said. Hearing those words from her mouth, she realized how ridiculous it sounded.

"I won't completely scratch that off, but surely she wouldn't have kept it safer," Levi said. 

Evelyn nodded in agreement and continued to scroll through the pictures. Frequently, she'd zoom in on papers, hoping they were important documents but they were only class notes. She watched every single video that was present and none of them had Levi. In fact, Levi wasn't there in any of the pictures she had taken.

"What were you and Andrea?" Evelyn asked out of the blue.

"Huh?" Levi asked, confused.

"I assumed you were close but she has no pictures with you on her phone," Evelyn said.

"That's odd. We took a lot of them on her phone," Levi said.

"Maybe it was all pretending. She must have deleted them as soon as she went home," Evelyn said.

She looked at her laptop's screen and could see his smile morph into a thin line. It was more than just winning the case and not going to prison; he had lost someone he thought was a friend. Till now, she had only seen the Levi who was worried and would do anything to save himself. 

In the midst of the chaos, she had missed the boy who was hurting and upset that a friend did this to him. There was probably a time when he thought he pushed Andrea to the point of betrayal, not knowing that this was something way beyond him. 

It pained Evelyn to think that Levi had no one to talk about this to, but it gave her a sense of fortitude. 

We don't trust each other enough, and that's a good thing, she told herself.

"So, when are you going to fill me in on the meeting with Iris?" Levi asked, breaking the silence.

"Oh right, I didn't tell you," she replied mindlessly as her fingers scrolled down the pictures.

"Well, why did you hang up?" Levi asked.

"It's something that I'm not proud of. I didn't want you to know about it, so I hung up," Evelyn said. Levi nodded, accepting her reasons and that made her smile. 

He didn't expect her to give him any explanation. He gave her space, all the while giving her the reassurance that he would be there if she needed him.

Not that I need him though, she thought.

"Let's just say, no one ever reprimanded me the way they did today," Evelyn said.

"Not even your parents?" Levi asked.

"I might have been harsh on them, actually. They weren't nice to me because of what I did but talking to Iris brought a whole perspective," Evelyn said. 

It was true. She looked up to Alec her whole life because he comforted her when she needed it the most. Her parents didn't do that for her because all they wanted was to correct her. She perceived their worry as hatred and went years without being close to them. 

She had a lot in common with Levi there too.

"Maybe you should talk to them," Levi suggested.

"Maybe I should. Who's it going to hurt?" Evelyn asked and scrolling for the last time. There were no images left to go through.

"There's nothing here! All my efforts can't have been a waste!" Evelyn exclaimed. She was sure the images would have something for her, hence why she went through it first. 

"Calm down Evelyn. No one can have that clear of a slate. We will find something soon," Levi soothed. 

"That is wishful thinking. We have nothing on her so far and she has something on you! We don't even know what plans they have for me and I was hoping not to find out!" Evelyn exclaimed.

"Relax. You probably don't know what to look for. How about you send me everything and I'll go through it?" Levi offered.

"I can't. The probation officer will come tomorrow and she might check your phone. I would send it to the burner phone, but I don't want to create a connection between that and me," Evelyn said. 

"Right. I forgot about Tamara," Levi said, "nonetheless, don't worry about it. As soon as Tamar leaves tomorrow, I'll let you know. Drop your phone off at my place and I'll deal with it." 

"I can't leave you to it all by yourself. What if-" Evelyn started.

"Calm down Evelyn. I know what to look for. Leave it to me," he said reassuringly. 

"Well, what am I supposed to do without my phone?" Evelyn asked.

"Talk to your parents," Levi said nonchalantly. 

Evelyn smiled, "you don't have to do extra work just to make time for me."

"I want to. Also, there's not much to do when you're on house arrest," Levi chuckled.

"Sometimes, I forget about that," Evelyn said. 

"You can thank yourself for that," Levi said.

"How so?" Evelyn asked.

"Somehow, you make everything more bearable."