Finding Chris Evans: The Hollywood Edition Read Online Free

her? She had to believe he would. The best night of her life couldn’t have been nothing to him—could it? Just another Friday?
    The line moved ahead of them, mall personnel counting bodies until a security guard stepped in front of Ellie, stopping her. “Wait here please.”
    The fans in front of them filtered toward the small blue tent that had been set up to one side of the stage.
    Ellie caught her hand suddenly, squeezing it tight. “This could really be it. My Chris Evans.”
    “Yay,” Trina mumbled, hoping she wasn’t about to puke on her new friend’s shoes from the nerves twisting her stomach into knots as she watched their turn get closer and closer.
    The security guard blocking their path lifted a hand to his ear, listening to something over his earpiece. His mouth tightened slightly and Trina knew what was coming even before he lifted his arms to quiet the crowd and called out over it.
    “I’m sorry, ladies. That’s it for today. Mr. Evans has a plane to catch. Better luck next time.”
    Better luck next time.
    “Crap,” Ellie murmured.
    No.
    Trina couldn’t afford a next time. He didn’t have another appearance for weeks and that one was some kind of black tie thing with four hundred dollar tickets. Her budget was already stretched past the breaking point to squeeze in this trip. Flying to Vegas for a fundraiser was going to mean no food next semester. Or no tuition. She already didn’t know what she was going to do about school. Who had a baby in the middle of medical school? By herself?
    She could do it. She could be a single mom. Her mother had been a single mom and she’d been amazing, but all they’d had was one another and when her mother had gotten cancer it was like Trina’s entire world had been yanked out from under her. She never wanted her child to feel as alone as she’d felt since she lost her mother. Her daughter. Because she pictured the tiny fetus inside her as a sweet little baby girl, even though it was too early to know for sure.
    “Please,” she said to the security guard, feeling the horrible press of tears filling her eyes, knowing she was fighting a losing battle. Keep it together, Trina . “You don’t understand. I have to see him today.”
    “I’m sorry, ma’am. We have to cut it off.”
    She was going to have to do this alone. Figure it all out alone. Somehow support her child alone. How was she going to stay in school?
    A vision rose up in her mind’s eye, so vivid it seemed to block out the heat of the outdoor mall around her—or maybe she was having heat stroke. She saw herself seven months from now, a giant belly distended in front of her, in a labor and delivery room in some distant hospital when some helpful nurse put the Addition Magician on the television to calm her down. That was as close as she was going to get to having her child’s father with her for the birth—and it would be the only way her baby was going to know her daddy.
    No.
    Trina burst into tears. Loud, sloppy tears. Later, she would blame it on the pregnancy hormones, but in the moment all she felt was a crushing sense of loss, of failure, of isolation. “Oh God!” she wailed. “I can’t do this. I can’t do this alone.”
    “Hey.” Ellie wrapped an arm around her and guided her away from the security guard who was visually measured her for a straightjacket. “It’s okay. Everything’s okay.”
    “No, it isn’t. I can’t do it, Ellie. I can’t have this baby by myself.”
    “Oh wow.” Realization crashed over Ellie’s face. “I knew there was more going on than you were letting on. It’s his?” She nodded toward the blue tent where security guards formed an impenetrable wall.
    Trina nodded, sniffling as the first blast of tears dried. There was something unbelievably comforting about telling someone. Her mom had always been her best friend and since she’d died Trina hadn’t known who to confide in. Her friends from undergrad were all back in Seattle, wrapped up