"Quite the arrogant prat?" Elizabeth repeated in reflection. "Ah, I can see how that image came about. What with all of this searching for a source of jealous energy that isn't even there. No wonder you have captured the hearts of many a girl," she said as though the idea were a sudden stroke of genius, "you trick them into believing that they harbor some unknown envy towards those that they would never dwell twice on. Suddenly, they are quite captured with the idea of being your dame as they have all of this unconscious resentment for those that hold your affection." With a devious smile she finished, "You are quite the trickster, and here I was on the verge of admitting to some fabricated hatred for your Housemate. You had me going, Evan. But I refuse to fall into your trap."
The senseless justification was mere a decoy, a diversion to avert his attention from her slip-up that proved her ravenous ways. Who was she to be vexed by Evan's way with women? Already she had established that their friendship was little more than that, but some moments she found that it took excruciating strength not to reach out toward him. Namely when his stoic facade faded into the admiring gaze he held now. Her blush held.