Catching Avery

by M. E. Clayton

  I finally came out of my stupor and shook his hands off me. “Whatever on earth for?”

  He slipped both his hands in his pockets and adopted his I’m-so-sorry look. You know, the one that your big, goofy, adorable pet dog gives you when he’s overturned the plant in your house and he’s so sorry and you’ll forgive him, because, come one, who can resist that look. “The truth?”

  I readjusted my purse strap over my shoulder like it would cloak me in armor against him. “Are you capable of that? I mean, I thought honesty made you break out in hives?”

  He closed his eyes at my barb, but reopened them, and surprisingly, lasered those baby blues right at me. “Okay, I deserve that-”

  I leaned into him, ready to do battle. “You think?”

  “VeeRee-”

  I tapered my eyes at him. “Do not call me that. You are not allowed to call me that anymore.”

  He pulled his hands out of his pockets and held them up, in mock surrender. “Okay, Avery. Is that better?”

  “No,” I hissed. It was beginning to dawn on me that we were standing in the middle of the SMA Global lobby where anyone could witness this relationship tragedy Act 2, Scene 1. “What would be better is if you walked right back out the doors in which you entered and didn’t try to contact me ever again. That would be way better, Eric.”

  He looked crushed, but I knew better. “Avery, don’t be like that. Just hear me out. If nothing else let me give you the apology you deserve.”

  And then he did something that teleported me right back to the days when I didn’t know any better. He lifted his hand to tuck a loose strand of my black hair behind my ear and resting his palm on the apple of my cheek, he caressed the small scar under my right eye with his thumb. I had gotten it the night we first slept together. I was whipping off his belt as I sat on the bed in front of him and the buckle cracked me in my face. It was a tough scar to have. I saw it every time I looked in the mirror and it will always make me think of him. “Eric, there’s no point. I can’t-”

  “Ms. Ellis.” I groaned and wanted the floor to swallow me up. Every single time I have been in this man’s presence, it’s been in some sort of embarrassing fashion.

  I closed my eyes and did my best to compose myself. I was definitely going to have to go home and eat my feelings tonight. I turned and smiled at Nicholas, forcing Eric to have to remove his hand from my face. “Mr. Savage, how are you?”

  He passed a quick glance at Eric and it wasn’t lost on me that Nicholas looked irritated. “I’m doing well. I just wanted to remind you of the all staff finance meeting today at one.”

  I wanted to roll my eyes, but I didn’t know Nicholas well enough to know if he’d react professionally to the eye rolling or lose his mind. “I haven’t forgotten, sir. I was just on my way to lunch, but I will be back in plenty of time.”

  And like the narcissist Eric was, he cleared his throat wanting me to bring my attention back to him. “Yeah, so-”

  To my dismay, Nicholas turned his attention to Eric. “Sorry if I’m interrupting. May I ask who are you?”

  Eric stuck out his hand in an introduction. “Eric Anderson.”

  Nicholas shook Eric’s hand and it didn’t look friendly. “Nicholas Savage,” he said as he looked back down towards me, then back to Eric. “Are you a friend of Ms. Ellis?”

  And because they were men, this is where they started bumping dicks. “I would like to think Avery and I are a little more than friends.” Eric raised his hand and caressed my shoulder. “Right VeeRee?”

  I had to stop my knee from rising up and slamming into his baby maker. I was grinding my teeth so hard, it was a wonder I could form words. “We used to date, but that ended a few months ago.”

  I noticed the hardening in Nicolas’ jaw. Yep, he was irritated.

  “Anyways,” Eric didn’t take the hint when I shrugged his hand off me again, “I was hoping to take Avery to lunch. We have some things to discuss.” The smirk he gave Nicholas was a clear indication that the lunch discussion was going to be of a personal nature.

  I had to stop this insanity quickly. “Uh, I have to get going before I miss out on my lunchtime.” I gave Nicholas my best professional self. “I’ll be sure to make it back in time for the one o’clock meeting, sir.”

  Turning back to Eric, I started to give him the go-fuck-yourself brushoff, but I was tired of embarrassing myself in front of Nicholas. “As you can see, I need to hurry back for a meeting, you coming or not?”

  I didn’t wait for his answer and I didn’t give Nicholas another look as I headed to the lobby’s front doors. It was Lifetime Movie moments like these that made me wish I was fierce like Q or classy like Izzy. They would have known how to handle the shit storm that was Eric.

  He followed me around the block to Aunt Stella’s, going on about how well he’s been doing at his job and some other useless ramblings that I cared nothing about. I couldn’t believe I couldn’t see how much of a twatwaffle he was before. Love really did make you stupid.

  We got to Aunt Stella’s, got in line to place our orders and managed to snag an empty table for two. Yay….not.

  Settling in, I finally spoke to him as we waiting for our order. “Eric, say what you have to say and be quick about it. I have about twenty minutes left of my lunchtime.”

  He placed his arms on the table and clasped his hand together in front of him. “Avery, I miss you.” I started to shake my head. “No, please. Just let me say this.”

  I knew he didn’t deserve it, but I had once believed that I was in love with this man. Even if he didn’t deserve it, my feelings weren’t superficial and whatever I had once felt for Eric deserved the closure. “Okay, Eric. I promise to listen and not interrupt.”

  He gave me a grateful smile and continued, “I was an ass and I’m not here to give you excuses for it, but you deserve an explanation.”

  The waitress chose that moment to deliver our sandwiches. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

  “No, thank you,” I replied before Eric could answer her. I didn’t have time for anything more. She smiled at both of us and headed back the way she came.

  I gave Eric a pointed look to continue. “I was embarrassed, Avery. I knew you were…uh, less than satisfied in the bedroom and I needed some ego boosting.” He actually looked contrite. “I wish it was more complicated than that, but it wasn’t. There’s no childhood trauma or neglect that made me act out, it was just my ego.” Neither of us had made any effort to eat the food in front of us.

  I wanted to rant and rave at him. I wanted to call him every name in the book and beat him over the head with all the hurt I had felt in the weeks following our break up. But it wasn’t lost on me how hard it is for a man, any man, to admit he sucked in bed. And the truth was, no matter how I chose to react to his apology, it wasn’t going to change anything. He cheated and no amount of regret could make me move past that. I wasn’t my mother. “Eric, thank you for the apology, but it changes nothing. I will never be with a man I cannot trust and no matter how genuine you are in your apology and regret. I could never trust you as a boyfriend again.”

  His small smile was so sad. “I understand, Avery, I really do. I just had to try.” He stood up from his chair, grabbed his sandwich and kissed me on the head before he utter his final words to me. “You’re a great person, Avery. Don’t let my fuck up fuck you up.”

  I wanted to lean into him for those thoughtful words, but I didn’t. He didn’t look back at me as he walked out of the café. I sat in my chair, staring at my food knowing I wasn’t going to have time to eat and make it back to work before my lunchtime was over.

  As I wrapped my sandwich up in a couple of napkins, I couldn’t help feeling that Eric’s apology was worth eating at my desk for.

  Hopefully Nicholas wasn’t sitting at it when I got there.

  Nicholas~

  I knew I was hot headed, but seeing Avery with that fucking prick had me in a rage that rivaled Julian’s. I knew shit was
getting serious when just watching her talking to some strange guy had me already puffing out my chest. But when I saw him put his hands on her shoulders, like he had the right to touch her, I was ready to call my lawyer to put him on standby for the assault charges I was about to incur.

  I had stormed over to them with every intention of knocking him the fuck out and then whipping my dick out to piss a circle around her, but as I was doing my storming, I noticed she didn’t seem to please to see him and that gave me some small measure of comfort.

  The meeting announcing Spillner’s and Cynthia’s firing was due to kick off in fifteen minutes and I was still in my office, pacing back and forth, trying to get my unreasonable rage under control. The three shots of whiskey hadn’t put a dent in my madness either.

  I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t get worked up over women like this.

  Ever.

  I was self-aware enough to know that my issues with committed relationships were childhood born and my mother was the cause of it all. However, I didn’t use Donna’s lack of parenting skills as a crutch for my reservations about love, neither did I ignore that the issues existed, though. The idea of baring ten-years old Nicholas’ soul to a woman in hopes that she would still love me, demons and all, seemed too painful to actually ever go through with, so I kept everything female related extremely casual.

  Until Avery.

  And now one drunken peanut butter fantasy later, I was fucked.

  Standing in front of my floor to ceiling window, staring down at the scenery that is San Jose, I heard my office door open. “Hey Nick, ready for the meeting?” No, I wasn’t. But if I spilled my guts to Julian right now, he’d be laughing so hard, he wouldn’t be ready for the meeting either.

  I needed new friends.

  “Yeah, let’s get this done.” I reached for the back of my chair to retrieve my suit jacket. I was pulling it on and adjusting it when I asked about Chase.

  “He’s already in the conference room waiting to greet any early arrivals.” Julian had sent out a departmental email this morning requesting that everyone attend. In fact, since this primarily affected the finance department, it really should have been Julian there to greet the employees.

  “It’s finance. Shouldn’t it be you greeting the employees?” I went over to the bar to down one more shot of whiskey.

  Julian gave me a curious look. “Uh….yeah,” he drew his eyebrows in, trying to figure out why I was drinking like it was happy hour at a strip club, “but Chase volunteered to do it and directed me to come get you.” He walked over to the bar and plucked the glass out of my hand. “Personally, I think he’s hoping to cop a feel when Quinn got there. Nicholas, what’s going on?”

  And, because we were bonded by childhoods so shameful, nothing was off limits, there wasn’t anything I would ever be embarrassed to tell him, I clued him in on my level of irrationality. “I caught Avery going to lunch with her ex-fuckface.”

  He mashed his lips together before he spoke, “Caught?”

  “Huh?” He lost me with that question. And truth be told, he shouldn’t even be asking me questions, he should be mad right alongside me, just because. They didn’t make friends like they used to anymore.

  “You said ‘I caught’, suggesting she was doing something wrong,” he pointed out. “And it’s driving you to drink in the middle of the day, dude?”

  I stretched my neck from side to side, cracking it in hopes of relieving some of the tension the pacing and whiskey hadn’t conquered. I went for honesty. “I’m fucked, Julez. I was heading back from my meeting with Clayton Financial Group when I saw this asshole put his hands on her. I was so pissed. I almost came up on them swinging.”

  Julian let out a low whistle. “Damn Sav. What’d ole boy do when you bonked Avery on her head with your club and drug her behind you?”

  Here I was sharing like the little old ladies that we were and he had jokes. “Nothing, you asshole. I introduced myself, he introduced himself and they went to lunch.”

  You know those cartoons where the character’s eyes are boinging out of their head in surprise or pain? That was Julian right now. “Whoa, wait,” he shook his head, “are you telling me you let another man…one who happens to be Avery’s ex…take your girl to lunch?”

  The next words out of my mouth felt like gargling glass. “She’s not my girl, Julian.”

  He arched a black brow. “Really? So you’re willing to risk a sexual harassment suit and a felony assault charge for someone that is not your girl?”

  “Felony? Carson would have gotten it down to a misdemeanor, I’m sure.”

  “Nick, what are you doing, man?” I didn’t blame Julian for being concerned. Hell, I was concerned.

  I clapped him on his back. “Don’t know and I’m not going to figure it out in the next five minutes before this meeting, so let’s just put this on the back burner until we have a few hours and a few bottles of alcohol at our disposal.”

  “Alright,” he agreed cautiously as he was following me out of my office.

  We had a conference room that took up an entire floor for gatherings of this size, and when Julian and I arrived, I could see that most everyone was already in attendance. Truthfully though, only Ian or Julian would know if anyone was missing. This wasn’t my division.

  I looked around for the girls, and much to my already irritated self, I noticed they hid themselves in one of the far corners in the back of the room. It bothered me that they were trying to hide from us and it really bothered me that I had to behave as if I didn’t know them on a more personal level.

  I followed Julian to go stand near Chase, who was already commanding the room. “Alright everyone, if we could have your attention, please.” The room instantly began to quiet down.

  Chase move to the other side of Julian so that we flanked his sides. This was his division and even though he hated speaking to people, we all knew he needed to be the one to take the helm on this one. “Thank you all for being here. We have a couple of announcements to make,” Julian began. He made sure to survey the room so that everyone would feel included. “Effective as of this morning, there has been a new change in management.” You could hear the low gasps and murmurs, but Julian continued, “William Spillner and SMA Global have decided to part ways.” The murmurs began to get louder, but Julian’s intimidating tone quieted the room again. “While we wish Mr. Spillner well on his new journey, we are very pleased to announce the promotion of Mrs. Angela Jackson.”

  I knew we made a good choice when everyone around us started clapping. I searched the room for Mrs. Jackson and when I found her, she was smiling and giving everyone a little wave. “Angela has been with us for many years and we have every confidence in her leadership abilities. She will report directly to Ian James, who will still report directly to me, any questions?”

  All three of us scanned the room, and when no one spoke up, Julian continued, “There’s also a recent vacancy in our Human Resources department.” This time the room was silent. Looks like we were the only knuckleheads who didn’t know Cynthia was Spillner’s sister-in-law. “As you all hopefully know, we prefer to promote from in-house, however, H.R. Manager is too important a position to be allowed vacant for long. Our goal is to have the position filled by next Friday. I suggest anyone interested in working in that department, dust off your resume this weekend and turn it in first thing.” Julian gave one of his rare good natured smiles. “Now, you guys are probably wondering…turn them into to whom?” The employees laughed at Julian’s rare show of humor. “Well, Ms. Heather Luna will be acting H.R. Manager in the interim. You can turn them in to her.”

  I finally jumped in to give Julian a breather. “Does anyone have any questions about these changes or does anyone have any concerns they’d like to bring to our attention?”

  Many of the heads in the room turned this way and that to see if anyone was going to speak up, and I have to admit, I was hoping like hell no one would. I wanted to get Avery alone and the sooner
this meeting ended, the sooner I could make that happen.

  When no one spoke, Chase closed the meeting. “We thank you all for being patient and welcoming these new changes. As a show of appreciation, we are closing the offices today at two and you guys can all get an early start on your weekend.” Chase gave his signature smile. “The last hours of your day will be paid, of course, so now you can really enjoy the start of your weekend.”

  Most everyone chuckled, but they were quickly making their way to the door already. I didn’t blame them. I’d be running out the door too if my boss told me I could leave early paid. We still needed to do more to make up for Spillner, but at least this was a start.

  I saw Avery and Quinn trying to blend in with the crowd, making their escape, most likely hoping we wouldn’t notice them, but that wasn’t happening, “Excuse me, Ms. Ellis, Ms. Erikson do you mind staying a moment?”

  I saw the girls freeze in their tracks. I could only imagine how viciously they were murdering me in their minds. And I also knew I needed to find a better way to camouflage my fixation on Avery or else the entire building would know soon enough that I had a problem.

  A couple of employees looked back at the girls, obviously curious about why I was calling them to stay behind. “Of course, Mr. Savage.” I had to give it to Quinn, that girl was always on her toes. “Was there something you needed from us to ensure Mrs. Jackson’s transition goes smoothly?”

  “Actually there is, and I, as I’m sure Mr. James and Mr. Moretti as well, would be most grateful for your assistance.” This pretending shit was harder than I imagined it would be, and I was finding that I was starting not care if everyone knew I wanted Avery.

  As soon as the last employee filed out and shut the door, the girls took their battle stances.

  I was fairly certain Julian had probably already bought his fifty cans of spray paint.

  And I was fairly certain I was going to deserve it.