Ava's Wishes

by Karen Pokras

  “Hold on there! Did I hear you correctly? Did you just say he’s tutoring you?” Carly shrieked again.

  “Oh, did I leave that part out?” Ava stopped sketching and looked over at Carly.

  “Um, yeah! This story just keeps getting better and better. All right, missy, explain.”

  Ava sighed. “It’s kind of a long story, but Suzanne walked in on us … you know, kissing. She got mad and stormed out.”

  “I’ll bet!” Carly laughed. “From what you told me about that woman, she probably hasn’t ever been kissed, or laid for that matter. Now that I think about it, she could probably use a good—”

  “Could I tell my story, please?” Ava interrupted. Sometimes talking to Carly was like talking to a thirteen-year-old boy. Not that she talked to many thirteen-year-old boys anymore, but between herself and her sisters, she had crossed paths with quite a few. Their maturity level wasn’t much different than Carly’s at times.

  “Yeah,” Carly innocently responded. “I’m not keeping you from telling your story. Tell away.”

  “As I was saying, it turns out Max is a statistics geek or something, so he offered to tutor me.”

  Carly clutched her stomach and began laughing hysterically, backing up a few paces. After she caught her breath, she asked, “Can I watch?”

  “Watch what?” Ava went back to her drawing.

  “Watch you squirm. Do you really think you’re going to be able to concentrate with him in the room? If it was me, all I’d be thinking about is that kiss … and that …” Carly pointed to the nude sketch of Max that Ava was working on. “Just how are you going to manage that, Ava?”

  Ava pulled the sketch of Max off of her easel and replaced it with one from the lesson on facial features, which she’d originally wanted to work on during their studio time. She could feel her heart starting to race just thinking about Max’s kiss. It was so passionate—raw. Yes, Thomas’ kiss was wonderful, too, but Max’s was … she stopped to fan herself. Easy, Ava.

  “I don’t have a choice, Carly. I have to pass Statistics. Besides, he apologized and admitted it never should have happened. It was a mistake. I don’t think he’s interested in anything more than tutoring.”

  “Too bad. Well, at least there’s Thomas. What’s his story? Habaneros, huh? That place is pretty intimate, and it isn’t cheap, either. Guess flying photographers do pretty well these days.”

  Ava smiled to herself. Three hundred dollars for dinner and a ride home in a fancy sports car. Thank God she had waited to get to her apartment before puking. She would have died of embarrassment right then and there had she gotten sick in that car. Not that any of that was really all that important to Ava. She was more impressed with the fact that he made sure she was okay before he left and didn’t try to take advantage of her. True to his word, he called to check up on her in the morning and gave her a ride to pick up her car. She declined his breakfast offer, as her stomach was still a little queasy, but she agreed to meet him again for dinner this evening. Of course, before that she had to get through a study session with Max. Oh shit, Max!

  “What time is it?” Ava asked in a panic. She got so caught up talking about the events of yesterday, she almost forgot about her study session planned for today with her new tutor.

  “Just about two o’clock, why?” Carly asked.

  Ava threw her drawings back into her portfolio. “I lost track of time. Max has a room reserved.”

  “Well, wham bam and thank you, ma’am!” Carly laughed.

  Ava shot Carly a look. “A room in Bauer Hall. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It’s that huge building, also known as the library … we’re going to study.”

  “Is that what you kids are calling it these days?” She winked.

  “Ugh. Whatever, Carly. I have to run. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Why tomorrow? You skipping dinner at the student center tonight?”

  “I’m having dinner with Thomas.”

  “Again, huh? Well look at you. An afternoon romp with Max and a steamy night out with Thomas. I’ve taught you well. Just make sure you keep yourself safe, young lady. There’s a lot of scary stuff going around out there. Plus, you don’t want any little Ava’s running around, do you? You know what they say ... no glove, no love.”

  “Good-bye, Carly!” she shouted as she left the art studio shaking her head. Yup. Thirteen-year-old boy.

  Chapter 13

  “I know, I’m late, I’m sorry!” Ava ran into the room, holding her Statistics book, completely out of breath.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Max answered.

  Damn he looks good, Ava thought to herself. Stop it, Ava. You’re here to study.

  “Besides, I figured that the probability of you getting here on time was about 45%.” Max looked at Ava and smiled. “That’s a little statistics humor. Get it?” He cleared his throat. “Okay then. Why don’t we get started?”

  Ava took off her coat and spread out her books. Normally she sat next to Suzanne so she could point things out in her books and watch her go through her problems, but Ava decided it would be best if she sat across from Max, even with their agreement to keep it all business.

  “So, what are we going to work on?” Ava asked.

  “Well, I need to see what you know and what you don’t know, so I prepared a test for you to take.” Max pulled a sheet of paper out of his notebook and handed it to Ava.

  “You’re joking, right?” Ava asked.

  “Um, no. I’m actually serious. How else will I know where to start?”

  “Let’s just assume I know nothing about this stuff and start from the beginning,” Ava remarked, pushing the paper over to Max.

  “That sounds fun, but we only have a few days. Just humor me, will you?” Max pushed the paper back to Ava.

  “Oh fine.” Ava looked down at the paper, trying to concentrate over the sound of a buzz coming from her phone. She ignored it and began working while Max worked on his own problems. Ten minutes later she was only on the second problem … struggling.

  Max declared time and took the paper away from Ava. Looking at her work, he scrunched up his forehead and rubbed his temples.

  “Told you,” she remarked.

  He sighed. “So three semesters of Basic Statistics and nothing clicked?”

  Ava shook her head and shrugged.

  “Okay, well here are some very basic rules and tricks. May I?” Max pointed to the empty seat next to Ava.

  She sighed and said, “Sure.” Certainly she could control herself for the sake of passing this stupid course.

  Max came around and sat next to her. As he pulled the chair in, his leg lightly brushed against her, creating a chill up her spine. She closed her eyes and desperately tried to re-focus. “Do you understand, Ava?”

  She opened her eyes. “Could you explain that again, please?” she asked. Pay attention, Ava. Pay attention!

  “Wait a minute, that’s how you measure standard deviation? That actually makes sense. Why didn’t anyone explain it like that before?” Ava asked. “Keep going.”

  Max continued to write down shortcuts to common formulas while Ava’s phone continued to buzz.

  “Don’t you want to check that? It sounds like someone is trying to get in touch with you,” Max stated. “You’re doing really great. Let’s take a break. I’ll write up some problems for you from what we just went over.”

  Ava grabbed her phone and walked over to the window. This time there were four text messages: Two from Carly with lewd comments about being alone in the room with Max, one from Tessa gushing about some boy she has a crush on in school who finally asked her out on a date, and one from Thomas … apologizing for interrupting her studies, but he was going to have to cancel their dinner date due to some sort of business something or other. She quickly texted Thomas back that it was no problem, then texted Tessa a congratulations and a good luck. Carly’s texts she ignored. Finally, she put her phone on silent and returned to the table, waiting while Max
wrote out some problems from her textbook. Ava felt absolutely giddy. She didn’t even care that Thomas had cancelled her date. The important thing was that she understood statistics. Finally.

  “Everything okay?” Max asked.

  “Fine,” Ava answered, smiling. “You know, I have to admit, I didn’t think this was going to work out at all. I mean, besides the whole mess that happened with us, I didn’t think anyone would be able to teach me this stuff. I don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to understanding probabilities and all this other junk.”

  “So I heard,” Max responded.

  “Exactly! But I totally understood what you just taught me. And if I can understand this, then I just know I’ll be able to understand the rest, too. Or at least enough to pass. It all builds upon these basics, right?”

  “Something like that,” Max agreed.

  “I haven’t felt this positive about all of this in … well, in three semesters! Thank you!”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” Max said, placing a new sheet of problems in front of her. “Let’s see if you can apply what you learned to some of these questions.”

  A knock on the door interrupted them.

  “Come in!” Max yelled.

  “Max?” the petite blonde asked.

  “Hi, you must be Megan.” Max got up from the table to shake her hand. “Ava, this is my statistics tutor, Megan Gillard. Megan, this is Ava Haines. I’m tutoring Ava in basic.”

  As Ava stood up, she felt the euphoria leave her body. She suddenly felt quite inadequate standing next to this perfect specimen of brains and beauty. “Nice to meet you,” she lied.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to kick you out of the room,” Max stated, looking at Ava.

  “What?”

  “Sorry, it’s my turn to be the student. Take this paper with you, and I’ll meet you in thirty minutes out at that table to go over the problems. I know you’ll do great on them. If you finish early, you can go over some of the material in the textbook in chapters one and two.”

  Max handed Ava the paper and smiled at her encouragingly, before he pulled out a chair for Megan. Picking up her textbook, Ava walked out into the main room of the library. The door to the room she had shared with Max just moments before shut behind her with a quiet tap. Ava was not quite sure why she felt so jealous. After all, Megan was just there to tutor him, right?

  Chapter 14

  Thirty minutes later, as promised, Megan and Max emerged from behind closed doors and into the main room of the library, looking at each other and giggling. Ava wished Suzanne was still around. Suzanne never giggled. Never. Max said good-bye to Megan and headed over toward Ava’s table. Tossing down his coat and books, he took the seat across from her this time instead of next to her. Ava wondered what that meant, if anything. When did her brain become so damn analytical? What did it matter anyway? They were there to study. That’s what they had agreed to.

  “So she seemed nice,” Ava started. Ugh. Don’t sound like a jealous girlfriend. She had been sitting out here for thirty minutes staring at that door … and working on problems, but mostly staring at that door. As if it would tell her why it was she was thinking about Max so much when she should be thinking about Thomas—an awesome, handsome, sexy, more mature guy who was actually interested in her. Someone accomplished who worked in the arts, the field she was most interested in. Not some numbers geek who liked to strut around nude.

  “Who? Megan?” Max responded, looking at Ava strangely. “Well, she’s helpful for sure. I was lucky to find her on such short notice.”

  “Yeah, lucky,” Ava said through gritted teeth. Focus, Ava.

  “So how did you do on your problems?” Max asked.

  Ava handed the paper over to Max and waited while he looked them over.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Max smiled. “They’re all correct.”

  “Awesome,” she replied. “I really feel like I’m getting the hang of this!”

  He pulled out a blank piece of paper, scribbled down a set of numbers and words on it, and slid it back over to Ava.

  “What’s this?” she questioned. “More problems?”

  “Well, those were pretty basic. Let’s see if you can take it one step further now. You don’t have somewhere to be, do you? A hot date perhaps?” He winked and went back to his own work as Ava sighed.

  “No,” Ava replied, grabbing her pencil. Her hot date had unfortunately cancelled on her. She worked through each problem as best she could before handing the paper back over to Max.

  He moved the paper behind his pile of books as he looked it over, blocking Ava’s view. All she could see was the expression on his face … his crinkled nose, gritted teeth, and occasional grimaces. He seemed to be taking an excruciatingly long time to look over her work.

  “What’s the hold up?” she finally asked. “Either I got them correct or I didn’t. And if I didn’t, I’d like to know already so I can work on getting them right. Time’s ticking here, you know. Less than a week until the exam.”

  Max still didn’t respond. He kept his eyes down and his brow furrowed, appearing to be deep in thought.

  “Well, I guess that means I got them all wrong. Could I have the paper back so you can help me figure out how to get the right answers? Unless, of course, you have somewhere to be … a hot date perhaps?”

  Max finally looked up, smirking. “Actually, Ava, you got them all right.”

  “What?” she shrieked. Then, remembering where she was, she lowered her voice back down to a whisper. “What?” she repeated.

  “Yup. I have to admit, I can’t quite believe it either. But you did … every one of them. These weren’t easy either. I even threw one in from my advanced class. I think if we just keep practicing these concepts you’re going to be just fine.”

  “Oh my God! Oh my God! I can’t believe it!” Ava looked around the room, hoping her voice wasn’t too loud. She leaned in across the table to get closer to Max. “Thank you so much. You have no idea how grateful I am! Suzanne’s been trying to teach me this stuff for like ever! Why didn’t she show me these tricks?”

  Smiling, Max raised his eyebrows.

  “How can I repay you? Suzanne was getting twenty dollars an hour. Please, you have to let me pay you.”

  “Forget the money,” Max replied, flashing his smile. “How about dinner tonight? Just you and me, somewhere quiet?”

  Ava leaned back in her chair. There was the Max she remembered from art class. Suddenly, she felt her wall going back up, despite her earlier jealousy. “What about what you said yesterday, remember? I can assure you that we will just study from now on.”

  “If it makes you feel better, we can bring the Statistics books with us.” Max grinned.

  “I’d rather not, thanks,” Ava replied.

  Max shrugged. “Fine then. Listen, I’m guessing you have to eat at some point, and you just said you wanted to pay me for the tutoring session. I’m just suggesting you pay me in food, that’s all … and maybe some company.” Max sat back in his chair and wrapped his fingers behind his head, looking smug.

  Ava tilted her head to the side. “Oh, I see. You helped me, and now you want sex.”

  “Well, I really just wanted dinner, but if you’re offering sex too—”

  “No, I’m not. I was offering twenty dollars an hour,” Ava explained.

  “For sex?”

  “No!” Ava exclaimed.

  Four people at the next table collectively “shushed” Ava.

  “Sorry,” she whispered to them.

  “Come on, Ava. Let’s just have dinner and talk about something other than statistics. We’ve both been working really hard. We deserve a little break. What do you say?”

  “Oh, okay. Besides, the probability that I’ll have sex with you is less than 5% anyway.” Ava smirked and closed up her books. “Do you want to meet at D’Angelos Café at six o’clock?”

  “Nice choice. See you there.” Max smiled before swingi
ng his coat over one shoulder. “By the way, you know that means there’s still a 4.99% chance,” he added before disappearing amongst the stacks of books.

  Chapter 15

  “So, flight school, huh? Have you always wanted to fly?” Ava carefully chewed the grilled chicken from her salad before starting to speak. She wanted to order the pasta, but never ordered spaghetti on a first date. Not that this was a date or anything … although she would be paying the bill, but only to thank Max for tutoring her. Even her thoughts rambled when she was nervous. She pushed the lettuce around on her plate as she waited for Max to respond.

  “Yes, always. My parents took me to California when I was three to visit my grandparents. It was the first time I was on an airplane. I thought it was the greatest machine I had ever seen. A five-hour trip, and I couldn’t sit still for any of it. I was too excited.”

  “Well, you were only three,” Ava reminded Max.

  Max ignored her and continued, “One minute you’re on the ground, the next you’re in the air, able to travel to places in just hours that would otherwise take days or weeks to get to—soaring through the clouds, thousands of miles off the ground, moving against gravity at incredible speeds. Completely defying nature. Aerodynamics is fascinating. All it takes is something to be one thousandth of a millimeter off and that plane is nose-diving back down.”

  “I gotta say, Max, you’re really not making it sound all that appealing.”

  “Oh, I’m just messing with you. It’s actually the safest form of travel. Don’t you like to fly?” Max asked.

  “I’ve never been.”

  “You’re kidding.” Max laughed. “Really? Never? Wow!” He shook his head, laughing all over again.

  Ava took another bite of her salad, trying to decide if she was insulted or not. She chose instead to change the subject. “So nude modeling, huh? You know there are other ways to make money.”

  Max looked up at Ava, still smiling from his last comment. “Maybe, but the money was good. Besides, I had something nice to look at also.”