2. Finn
Chapter 2
Finn
I can’t believe it. Ava was in my arms, albeit for a short time.
Obviously, the moment was ruined when she turned her attention to another man. He’s older, definitely late thirties, maybe early forties. Probably plenty of baggage to go with his stupid man bun.
By the way he looked at me—he knows she was once mine. Yet, the smirk he gave me shows me he’s planning on stopping me from making her mine again.
Just seeing her. Hearing her voice again for the first time in nearly four years is like a light strum to my heart.
She disappeared off the face of the earth and now she’s here, in the same building as me.
As usual, Ava looks hot as hell. She always did, even in casual jeans and a t-shirt. Though she now rocks the corporate suit. I notice she’s teamed it with a little blouse that shows off her perfect, perky breasts. Ava, as always, ensuring she does her own thing.
But where the fuck has she been for the past four years?
My hands ball in and out of fists, thinking of that. She could have talked to me. But she graduated and disappeared off the face of the earth.
The elevator has already ascended as I stare at her with him, and he stares back at me.
It’s as though he can feel the chemistry between me and Ava and needs to let me know she’s his.
Is she though?
When she was next to me, her body melded to mine like she always did, and I saw the heat in her eyes the moment she saw me. She remembers what we had.
As they walk toward the exit of the office block, he places a possessive hand on her lower back, small gentle movements as he strokes under her silk top and on her skin.
I can’t hear anything but the pounding in my head and the roar inside me that wants to get out.
When she shrugs from his touch to put her jacket on, I smile because he doesn’t look too happy about that.
She disappears around the corner, and my heart feels the same way as it did four years ago, but this time, I'm not letting her go.
I keep my distance as I follow them to the coffee shop, but hold back as they take their seats. Only when they’re speaking to the server do I take a seat in the coffee shop next door.
Luckily, I’m hidden by a barrier of fake ivy running up the screen which separates the two cafes.
I miss part of their conversation when the server stands in front of me and asks for my order. I quickly order a sandwich and a latte and wait for her to turn away.
“Did you love him?” he asks and I know now this man is American and wondering who I am.
“Yes. As I’m sure you loved your wife,” she says. Ava was never one for being a pushover, regardless of him trying to question her about us. But more than anything else, I’m glad she doesn’t deny me. Glad she doesn’t deny loving me.
Ava loved me for who I was, regardless of my flaws ... and I had plenty. She also loved me when I was a nerd, trying to fit in when my body seemed to develop a little slower than others.
But Ava loved the nerd who wore glasses, though now I wear contacts. She fell in love with the man with esteem issues, though nobody would guess that now either. I’ve caught up now, well and truly.
Beautiful Ava’s desire for me overwhelmed me. We started as friends only a couple of weeks after starting university.
We were more than friends not long after.
The professor assigned us to make a presentation in one of our law classes. I thought being so pretty, she’d be a bit of an airhead. Wow, was I wrong about that? No, Ava knew what she wanted, and she wasn’t afraid to go for it.
I wanted to take the lead in the presentation and at first it was a battle as I tried to exert my authority. Because as much as I was a nerd, my father instilled in me a forthright bullishness to get what I wanted from life.
Ava just wanted to prove herself.
I relented. She smiled. “That was hard, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but worth it to see you smile,” I said. I thought it was quite smooth at the time and so unlike me. The reason I thought it was smooth was because I leaned in to kiss her lips immediately after.
What I didn’t expect was for her to respond, not like she did, but she did, and that was the start of the relationship. One simple kiss, my first kiss, my first lover, my first everything. What made it sweeter was I was hers too.
I was going to be all her firsts. All her lasts.
She was going to be all of mine.
Always mine.
At least, that was the plan.
“What do you want in the future?” I asked. Holding her long hair with one hand and pushing it over one shoulder to give me access to her delectable neck.
“You know, the same as always, you, a career I love, and to be accepted. It’s easier for you with your father being who he is. I have to prove myself.”
She was right. I would take over my father’s business. He expected me to.
“Maybe we can run a legal firm together,” I said.
“I’ll concentrate on getting qualified first and then getting a good job. Running a legal firm is years away for both of us.”
We had lots of plans that we were going to do together.
Until that fateful night.
“Is he the reason you want to remain friends?” he asks, bringing me back to the present.
Friends?
I smile.
“We agreed to be friends, not just me. It was a mutual agreement. In fact, I would say it was you. You just got out of your marriage and wanted nothing else. I was happy with that.”
“Why were you happy with that? Why have you never fought for anything else?”
“Because... it’s all I need...”
“And me... what if I need more?”
I swallow as I know how men’s minds work. I know how Ava gets under your skin. She’s got to him and he hadn’t realized until I was there that she had.
“You were more than happy with this arrangement we have until I had a two-minute conversation with my ex-boyfriend.”
“How many ex-boyfriends do you have?”
“One.”
She’s had no other boyfriends until now. I must have really hurt her that night—but she hurt me, too.
“Come to the US with me,” her friend says. “I think it’s time for us to take it to the next level.”
I splutter, coffee splattering over the table as I crouch low and crawl into the coffee shop before they see me.
I’ve already lost her once. She never gave me a chance to make it right then. If I don’t do something soon, she’ll never give us another try.
But I saw the way she looked at me. I also know, despite the years apart, that Ava has always been mine.