by Brent, Amy
“Well, if this is the only one we can prove, then we should go that route. I know my boss won’t want to attack them with anything that might not be true,” Ava said.
“We’re keeping this as clear-cut as possible because we do know that they have a possible chance of winning in court. This contract was the reason there was a stricter rewrite in the first place. I spearheaded that project, and what I should have done was retroactively update the rest of the contracts, and I didn’t. Since I feel somewhat responsible for the position we’re in, I can assure you, Miss Leary, that you have my full attention and that of my colleagues.”
“It’s not your fault, Ralph. Don’t blame yourself, okay? By the sounds of it, we aren’t the only company wrapped up in something like this. Figure it out, find the proof, and we’ll go to court well-armed if they won’t settle,” Ava said.
She was incredible, amazing to a fault. Even in the throes of a serious conversation, she had found a way to comfort someone. I couldn't stop looking into her eyes, into those ocean-blue eyes that sat against her tanned skin. I didn’t want things to be over between us, but I understood if they were. Once the meeting adjourned and everyone began packing up, my legs moved faster than my brain did.
“Ava, wait.”
She sighed as she turned around.
“Yes, Logan?” she asked.
“Can we talk?”
“I really have to get going. I’ve got a long day ahead of me.”
“It’ll only take a second,” I said.
“I really need to go, Logan.”
“Then have lunch with me.”
I put my arm out and stopped her from moving. Her eyes fell, and I abruptly released her, trying to keep control of my emotions. She slowly looked up at me, and something flashed behind her eyes. I’d never seen that expression on her face before, so I didn’t know what it was. But from the look in her eye, it didn’t seem good.
“I really have to go,” she said.
“Of course. It, uh, was really good seeing you, Ava.”
And even though I wanted her to return the sentiment, she didn’t. She simply nodded and exited the room before walking down the hallway.
I sat in my car in the garage of Ava’s building and groaned. I needed to talk with someone. My hand gravitated toward my dash, and I dialed Hunter, listening as the phone call rang out in my car. It rang and rang, a sound I had become accustomed to since Ava had been dodging my calls. The only person I had seen the rest of the fucking weekend had been the one person I hadn’t wanted to see. And that had only been briefly. I had packed up Camilla’s things and sent her a text to come get them Sunday night. I had sat the box outside my door and seen a glimpse of her as I’d looked through the peephole when I had heard her coming.
Other than that, nothing filled my weekend except thoughts of Ava.
“This is Hunter.”
“That busy of a day, huh?”
“Hey, Logan. Long time no talk. What's up?” he asked.
“You want to do lunch today?” I asked.
“You’re aware it’s three in the afternoon, right?”
“Wait. It is?”
“Oh, shit. That means something good is on your mind. And while I can’t meet you for lunch since I’ve already taken my lunch break, I can find it in my heart to give you fifteen minutes while you lay it all out for me.”
“How generous,” I said flatly.
“Talk to me. What’s got you so distracted?”
“Okay. Bear with me, because a lot has happened.”
“Oh, shit. What did Camilla do now?”
“Just listen, Hunter. So, you know I had that second night with Ava.”
“Oh, damn! How did that go?” he asked.
“Good, except she rushed out on me instead of staying the night.”
“That sucks. No round two?”
“Actually, we had round three at my place Friday night.”
“No fucking way.”
“We did. Without going into too many business details, I’m on a panel of lawyers helping her company with an issue. She and her boss are the two fielding the issue with the company.”
“Ava in trouble?”
“No. More like the company as a whole. I can’t really get into it, but it’ll get wrapped up soon enough. It’s fucking ridiculous,” I said.
“Then you’ll tell me about it?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Good. Okay, so you see Ava, invite her to your place, and get down to business. Go.”
“Not just that. I invited her over for dinner. I cooked. We ate. We talked. I got to know her.”
“So you asked her on a date.”
“I did.”
“And how do you feel about that?” he asked.
“I feel great about that. The chemistry was there and the sex was just explosive, Hunter. I don’t know how she does it, but it’s phenomenal. And she stayed over that night.”
“She woke up at your place Saturday morning?”
“Yeah. And during all this, I forgot that I had mindlessly told Camilla she could come by that morning and pick up her shit.”
“Oh no.”
“And when she turned up, Ava was wearing my damn shirt and not much else.”
“Oh, fuck.”
“And the two of them went at it.”
“Oh, fucking hell.”
“It was a mess, Hunter. Now Camilla isn’t talking to Ava, and Ava isn’t talking to me, and I can’t let it go. I can’t stop wanting to talk to Ava. What the hell do I do?” I asked.
“Okay. A few questions. You hate drama, right?”
“Right.”
“And there’s no going back to Camilla?” he asked.
“Not a damn chance.”
“And Ava isn’t talking to you?”
“She’s screening my calls and she just turned me down for lunch.”
“Then there’s your answer.”
“What?” I asked.
“Drop both of their asses and come out with me.”
“Hunter.”
“No, man. Come on, Logan, I’m serious. This has gone on long enough. You dug a hole, it was nice and cool, and then you peed on it and marked it as your territory. Now it’s time to climb out of the hole before the rain pouring down on you drowns you.”
“How the hell did that somehow make sense?” I asked.
“Because I’m great like that. Look, Camilla’s trash drama. We get it. Ava is connected to said trash drama through association. We get it. Get rid of them both, come out with me, and let’s find you someone new. Be single for once, Logan. You’re a man with a six-figure job, his own damn business, and a condo with one of the best views of Manhattan. You’re well on your way. Do you know how much pussy you would slay?”
“I’m not interested in the whole one-night-stand thing, Hunter.”
“Then find yourself another long-term goal, and this time remind yourself to stay away from her damn best friend, dude.”
I groaned as I pressed my head back into my car seat.
“You know I’m right. You might not like it, but you know I am. Camilla made her choice, and it sounds like Ava has, too. It sucks, and I can hear the hurt in your voice, but you have to move on, man. Groveling is beneath you. It’s beneath anyone, really,” Hunter said.
But I wasn’t sure I could do that. I wasn’t sure I could simply move on. I wanted Ava. I knew that now more than anything. I wanted her in my arms and against my body. I wanted to wake up to her and cook breakfast with her like I hadn’t been able to. I want to cook her more dinners and peel more clothes off her and discover more things about her body, then teach her all the wonders, kinks, and fetishes of sex.
I wanted to do it all, and I wanted to do it all with her.
“Thanks for talking with me,” I said.
“Anytime. Whenever you’re ready to go celebrate your newfound freedom, hit me up. Drinks will be on me,” Hunter said.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“Well, don’t sound so excited on my account.”
“If you didn’t have a dick, I’d swear you were a woman, Hunter.”
“It’s why you love me, man. Gotta go. Talk soon?”
“Yep. And drinks even sooner.”
“Atta boy.”
“Boy?” I asked
“Shut up. Get off the phone. Go do something with your life that isn’t sulking in your car in some parking garage.”
“Are you fucking serious right now?” I asked.
I looked around my car as Hunter laughed at me over the speaker system.
“You’re predictable as hell, man. Catch you soon.”
Then the phone call was over and I was left with only one thought on my mind. It caused me to crank my car, speed out of the garage, and drive myself across town to work in my favorite restaurant just so I didn’t do anything else idiotic.
Ava
I walked into the strip club Camilla worked at and paid the cover charge. She wasn’t going to stand me up the way she had and get away with it. I was angry. I was hurt. I wasn’t walking away from this bar until we had an adult conversation. I took a seat in a corner chair, belly-up to the bar, and rested my forearms on it. I didn’t see her immediately. In fact, another bartender I didn’t recognize served me. I ordered an appletini and sipped on it, keeping my eyes peeled for my friend.
And when I found her, I shook my head.
The door to the back room of the bar opened, and I caught a glimpse of her. Her leg was hiked over her boss’s hip and their lips were locked in a way that made my stomach turn. They were practically devouring one another. Camilla kept swirling her tongue on the outside of his lips, and her boss was one tick away from whipping his dick out right there and fucking her against the wall. I sipped on my drink and watched as the door swung open and closed, open and closed. People were walking by them as if they were completely used to the sight, like they’d been watching it for weeks.
The revelation made me ache for Logan.
She had apparently moved on. She’d found herself someone else. And she obviously had no remorse for the things she had done. I sipped down my entire drink, watching the show as the door continued to open and close. I didn’t know what to think. Well, I did, but it was terrible. What I really thought was that she had no right to unload on me the way she had. If she and Logan had broken up and she still had feelings for him, that was one thing. If there was a chance for reconciliation, things would be different. But considering the way she was lip-locked with her boss in the back room with no apparent resolve to actually work her damn job, it was obvious she didn’t give a shit about Logan.
So why run me through the ringer over it?
I asked the bartender for another appletini just as Camilla finally came up for air. Her boss kissed down her neck, and she lobbed her head to the side. I sipped my drink and watched, just waiting for her eyes to connect with mine. When she finally fluttered them open to move back toward her boss, she saw me sitting there at the bar, watching them and waiting for her to finally come to her damn senses.
The anger in her eyes was enough to set me on edge. She marched away from her boss and tossed a rag over her shoulder before she planted her hands on the bar in front of me. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I want to talk to you and was politely waiting until you were done,” I said.
“Oh, is that what you were doing? Or were you spying on me like Logan always did?”
“I’m not here to fight, though I’ve got plenty of ammunition. I want to talk. And since you didn’t meet me at the restaurant, I figured I’d bring the talk to you.”
“I got caught up in something.”
“Drop the lies, Camilla. I know you intentionally stood me up, just like you intentionally stood Logan up when the two of you were supposed to go shopping. And now that your boss has walked away from the back room, why don’t you take an actual break and come sit with someone you claimed as a friend at one point?”
She looked behind her as her boss stalked off to the other side of the club. He was clearly disappointed that he hadn’t gotten laid, and I didn’t give a shit. Camilla panned her glaring gaze back to me, and I grinned at her as I sipped on my drink. She wasn’t wiggling out of this conversation. We were going to say what we needed to say, and then whatever happened would happen.
“Fine. You want to talk? We’ll talk. Yes, you were my friend, Ava, my best friend. But best friends don’t sleep with their best friend’s exes,” Camilla said.
“You spent the last two months of your relationship cheating on him with your boss, Cam. Do you really expect me to believe you still have feelings for Logan?”
“Feelings don’t matter. It’s the principal of the thing. You broke girl code. That’s sacred shit.”
“So you don’t want to be a decent person, but at least you have the girl code right?”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“You fucked your boss for a raise, Cam. You cheated on a good man because you wanted more money. And then you left Logan because your boss could give you more money than he could.”
“Are you calling me a gold digger?”
“Yes, I am, and I still love you. You’re still my lifelong friend. But you’re a gold digger, and I’m not going to allow you to dance all over me, stand me up, and run me through the ringer on the premise of a girl code violation. Not when you’re out here switching men whenever someone with more money comes along and catches your attention.”
I drew in a deep breath as Camilla gritted her teeth.
“For your information, I was only with Logan for his money,” she said.
I narrowed my eyes at her as she leaned closer.
“I’m with my boss because I enjoy him, and not just his wallet—though it’s a pretty nice one he doesn’t mind using, unlike Logan by the way. He was tight as a tick throughout our entire relationship.”
“So you got pissed off at me for sleeping with him when you were really only using him for his money.”
“I got angry at you because you didn’t even wait a week before diving into my sloppy ass seconds,” she said.
I didn’t even wait two days, Camilla.
I shook the thought from my head. The last thing I needed was to make this situation worse than it already was. I was astounded by the things she was saying, and the more we talked, the more my heart ached for Logan. I had no pity for her, no sympathy, no respect. But him? I had all of that for him.
“He cared about you, you know,” I said.
“He only cared about the sex,” she said.
“No, he didn’t. We’d run into one another for lunches sometimes, and the entire time he’d gush about you, talk about how you were the best thing to ever come into his life, how you made him happy. And, yes, how good the sex was. But he never openly talked about that. He never spilled his sex life like you did.”
Camilla wavered slightly, pulling away from the bar.
“Logan is a good man. He was a good man for you, Cam.”
“Then I only have one question to ask you,” she said. Her eyes hardened on me, and I braced myself. “How does it feel to be nothing but the rebound girl?”
Her words were like knives to my heart. I’d been shocked to learn of her gold-digging ways, stunned by her blatant use of men for money and trinkets. But watching how much pleasure she got from making me speechless due to pain, seeing how proud she was of her words, I realized I was staring at a stranger.
“A nice little thought for you to ponder while you drink. I’ve got work to do. Nice chat, Ava. Hope you’ll stick around for the show. It’s one my boyfriend put together. It’s supposed to be a doozy.”
I felt as if I had been slapped and deprived of air as Camilla walked away. Her hips sashayed in that proud way they always did when she thought she had won a fight. I used to admire her for that walk, for the pride she took in standing up for herself, in beating other people down. I used to think they deserved it,
that if they had incurred Camilla’s wrath, they must have done something to deserve it.
But now, sitting on the other side of the situation, I wondered if those people ever deserved her anger.
After paying my tab, I abandoned my drink. I just needed to get out of there and breathe, to think about what had just happened. As far as I was concerned, I wouldn't ever be speaking with her again. The venom that had poured from her lips made me sick, and I didn’t want to be associated with anyone like that. I walked out of the club with my purse clutched close to my side, hurrying to my car. I slammed myself in before the tears began to fall.
My best friend.
My confidant.
My murderer.
Her words had killed a part of me I wasn't sure I’d ever get back. But as I started my car and made my way home, the only person I could think about was Logan. He was the real casualty in all this, and I wondered what he was up to.
I wondered if he was really okay.
Logan
After sporadically calling Ava’s phone throughout the entire week, I finally got her to pick up. Finally, after talking with her for nearly thirty minutes, I got her to agree to go on a date with me. A real date. Not at my apartment, just the two of us in a public setting where we got to know one another better. I promised her that it was just to talk and nothing else, that I wasn't faking any of this to get more intimacy from her and that this wasn't somehow attached to Save the Date.
I just wanted to sit down and be with her, and I finally convinced her to agree.
As I sat in the booth of a small restaurant across town, I twirled my glass in my hand. I had no idea if Ava would show up. I hadn’t heard from her all day, and I knew there was a good chance she wouldn't show. I hoped she did. I really just wanted to talk with her, spend time with the amazing woman I found her to be.
My heart raced in my chest as I waited. I wondered how her week had gone, how things had been in her life since that crazy weekend. I wondered if she had talked with Camilla and if things at work were going well despite the fraud case. Or had her world gotten as dim as mine had been lately?