“I brought your bag.” He handed it to me and I took it.
“Thanks,” I said, feeling like a dork but happy to have my purse.
“Your Rover’s in the garage.”
I looked at him and smiled, more than happy to have my car. “Thanks again.”
“Your keys,” he handed them to me and I took them. “Your purse is beeping.”
I dipped my chin, feeling kind of weird because he was really cute and kept grinning at me. “Thanks again, again,” I said to him.
His grin faded a bit but didn’t go away and he was now watching me closely. “You okay after last night?”
Wow, what a sweet guy, Good Ava said in my ear.
Flirt! Bad Ava yelled.
As usual, I ignored them.
“Sure,” I said. “It gives me something juicy to put in my memoirs.”
He threw back his head and laughed. His laughter was deep and nice so I laughed with him.
“You got that right,” he told me when he was done laughing.
I got over feeling weird and gave him a big smile.
“Matt.”
Both our heads swung to Luke who hadn’t moved but now his arms were crossed on his chest, his legs were planted and his brows were knit. He looked kind of pissed off, which was confusing. Maybe he wasn’t a morning person.
Matt looked at his feet and chuckled. I threw Luke a look, walked to the counter and plopped my purse and keys on it, digging for my cell.
“I need to go out,” I announced, still digging in my purse. “Get a diet pop.”
This was met with silence. I located my cell and yanked it out, flipping it open and glancing at Luke. Matt had come closer and both of them were staring at me.
“Diet pop?” Luke asked.
“Do you have any?” I returned.
“No.”
“Then I need to get some.”
“It’s seven o’clock in the morning,” Luke told me.
“I know.”
“You drink diet pop at seven in the morning?” Luke asked.
“Well… yeah. I need to wash the toothpaste taste out of my mouth.”
Luke and Matt kept staring at me.
I looked at my cell. Six missed calls.
Crap.
I pressed buttons on my cell, my eyes on it, and said, “I’ll just get dressed and pop out.”
I really did need diet pop to wash the taste of toothpaste out of my mouth. However, this had the double duty of being my excuse to get the hell out of there so my Diet Pop Destination was my very own fridge.
“Do you mind?” I heard Luke ask and my head came up. “Ava and me need to talk.”
Matt was grinning at me again. “You need anything else?” he asked me, amusement in his voice. “Breakfast?”
I looked at Matt then at Luke. “No, really, I’ll go.”
“You’re not going,” Luke said.
I narrowed my eyes at Luke. “I’m going.”
“Matt’s goin’.” Luke returned.
I opened my mouth to say something but Matt moved. “No problem. Diet pop,” Matt said.
“Get a case,” Luke told him.
My eyes bugged out. A case of diet would last me a month.
Matt burst out laughing and hit the button on the elevator.
“I don’t need a case. I just need one,” I told Matt.
“A case,” Luke said decisively.
The elevator doors opened and Matt walked in. “I’ll get a case,” he told Luke and the doors closed.
“Really, that’s unnecessary,” I said to Luke.
He didn’t reply.
I sighed, heavy and annoyed. He wanted a case of diet? Fine. Who cared?
I gave up and scrolled through my missed calls: five from Sissy, one from Riley.
Hmm. Riley. Interesting.
“Ava,” my head came up and I looked at Luke.
Shit. It was time for the talk.
“Do you have any food?” I asked in an effort to delay. I didn’t like to eat before I’d had my diet soda but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Do you mind?”
His body relaxed and his lips moved. They kind of twitched, like he knew my thoughts and found me amusing but was trying not to smile.
I squelched the desire to throw my phone at him as he offered, “Help yourself.”
I dropped my phone in my purse, walked around the counter the opposite side to Luke, and went to his fridge.
I was stunned to see it was packed with healthy eating options: low-fat yogurt, high-quality, multi-grain bread, tons of fruit and veggies. I spied a half a cantaloupe wrapped in cling film and pulled it out.
“Can I have some cantaloupe?” I asked, turning to Luke.
He tilted his chin up in a nonverbal “yes”.
There was a cutting board in his sink. I put down the cantaloupe and went to work cleaning the cutting board.
“You’re well-stocked.” Again, I was delaying “the talk”.
“Sandra went shopping.”
“Sandra?”
“A woman I’m seein’.”
At his words it took every bit of energy I had not to freeze, gasp or maybe vomit.
Of course he would be seeing someone. Luke was hot. Luke was a guy. Luke had a testosterone-fuelled job. He had to be getting it from someone. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would be faithful to his hand like I was faithful to my vibrators.
“Will she mind if I eat her cantaloupe?” I asked, drying the board and not looking at him.
“It’s my cantaloupe. Sandra got it but I paid for it and it’s in my fridge,” he answered.
I nodded, set down the board, unwrapped the cantaloupe and grabbed a knife out of a big butcher block and started cutting. I tried not to think about the messy bed Luke threw me into last night and hoped he hadn’t thrown me into a bed that got messy through his activities with another woman.
I failed at not thinking about it.
“Will she mind that I spent the night?”
Why did you ask that? Silly girl, Good Ava remonstrated me.
I’m so sure! He handcuffed you to him and slept with you when he’s seeing someone else. What a jerk, Bad Ava huffed.
“We’re not exclusive so it’s none of her business,” Luke answered.
See! He’s a jerk, Bad Ava ranted.
Good Ava kept her silence, likely pouting.
He had come to stand by me at the counter. I could see the side of his hip leaning against it out of the corner of my eye. I ignored the hip and kept cutting.
“Do you want cantaloupe?” I asked, keeping my eyes on my task.