13. 13
13
“Okay, so what is this date? Why was I supposed to bundle up?”Will asked, rubbing his chilled hands together through his thick fleece gloves.
The wind had finally settledfor once. The town was quiet. Smoke whirled its way up from chimneys, drifting and dissipating like wayward ghosts in the night air. The cloudy sky threatened to open up on them. Even in the moonlight, he was drawn to Ava’s beauty.
A pink hue had kissed her cheeks and her nose. Her hair was down in bouncy waves. Light makeup accentuated her features. Her lipstick drew his eyes to her enticing mouth.
“We are almost at the first stop.” She skippedahead, legs peeking outfrom beneath the hem of her coat, just above her completely impractical boots. She eyed him over her shoulder, driving him crazy with those glimmering eyes. Every time they landed on him,he felt himself melt beneath their warm gaze.
“Wait, first stop,” he asked.
“Just go with it. ”
Will shrugged. “Alright. I’ll bite.”
Will followed her into the back door of an intimate bar with a few booths lining the walls. Rusticdarkwood walls flowed into a hardwood floor.Gray beams ran up the corners and along the elevated roof. Country music played softly,muffled by the mumble of the scarce patronswithin the establishment. Each table seemed isolated, contained in some invisible capsule that separated them from the outside world. Ava took a seat in an unoccupied booth, and Willslid across from her.
Ava shrugged off her jacket, revealing a black cowl-neck top with shoulder cutouts.The fabric gracefully draped along her arms and cinched again to the cuff of fabric at her wrists. Her dangling earrings hung low, just above her shoulders, glittering like her eyes in the overhead lights.
“This is my treat this time. Consider it my penance forfalling asleep on you during the movie.”
“Blasphemy,” he joked. “Just kidding. It was actually quite adorable.”
Ava shiedaway from his sincere gaze.“Well, thank you.”
“It’s true. It’s also adorable how easily you getembarrassed. You’re blushing. ”
“Would you stop ?” She waved him away. “Big deal. I blush. I bet I could make you blush,too.”
“I’d love to see you try.” He leaned back. “Not much embarrasses me these days. Scrubbing floors in front of a bunch of women in nothing but a banana hammock desensitizes youa bit.”
“I’ll make those cheeks rosy. Just watch.”She grinned, wondering where her sudden brazen confidence had surfaced from. She secretly blamed it on the lace thong she had on, reserved for special occasions.
A waiter approached, his puff of curls bouncingatop his head. His eyes were bloodshot, and the odor of marijuanasaid he was at least ablunt deepinto his evening. “Welcome to Drexel’s. What can I get youtonight?”
Ava started. “I’ll have a—”
“Lemon drop martini?” Will grinned.
“You remembered?” Ava grinned.
“Onlythe important stuff.” He looked up at the young kid.“I’ll have an old-fashioned, please.”
“Got it.” The waiter jotted down, tucking the pen back into the curls behind his ear. He strolled away, leaving the faint air of weed in his wake .
“You know, this is the second bar you have taken me to in two dates. I think you have a problem,” Will teased.
“It’s just the first stop. I thought you might not be thrilled to be walking around out in the cold for our date. Figuredmaybe a little boozecould help keep us warm.”
“You know, alcohol thins the blood. It doesn’t actually raise your body temperature. It actually makes you more prone to hypothermia—”
“Wow. Someone is a know-it-all.”
“Learned that in my first year of nursing school.”Will chuckledand leaned back into the cushioned seat. The breadth of his shoulders and the tilt of his chin felt powerful. He took uphis entire side of the booth, stretching out his muscular arms.
“That was before my days as a man-maid.”
“Still feels weird calling you that.”
“People could call me a chicken wrangler for all Icare. A title is just a title. Ajob is just a job. It’s not an identity .”
“I was embarrassed to tell people I was a Chief Revenue Officer. Mostly because nobody knew what it was.”
“Chief Revenue Officer,huh? Sounds,” he struggled for the right term,“I don’t know. Frankly, it sounds very boring. ”
“Oh God, yes.So much red tape, paperwork, coordinating people…schmoozing clients I didn’t like. I wasn’t even a cog in a machine. I was a tine of a cog in a machine. Big title, big paycheck,bigresponsibility, lots of travel…and in the end,it meant nothing. None of it was as tangible as what you do. When you clean a room, you can stand back and see your efforts. You made something betterin this world, even if only temporarily. Mine was all theoretical. Just a ten-year blur of numbers and graphs.”
“That may be, but you got a beautiful house out of it.I’ve seen it.”
“True. And…it’s almost paid off. Fortunately,I have a nice little nest egg to fall back onas well. So I am in a good position to figure out what it is I reallywant to do.”
“Might I suggest being a maid?” He laughed. “It’s very fulfilling.”
“As you well know, I am not the clean type.”
“What?! You? Noooo,” he teased.
“Although that chicken wrangler thing you mentioned sounds like it could be fun.” She threw her cocktail napkin at him as the waiter came back with their drinks.
“Here you are.” With the precision and focus of someone working on a nuclear bomb, the waiter’s bloodshot eyes stared intently as he set each drink downin front ofthe wrong person.
“Thanks,” Will said with a nod.
As soon as the waiter walked away, they swapped their beverages. Will picked up his old-fashioned and smelled the sweet blend of alcohol and muddled fruit.Avaexaminedhis drink. Aneat ball of ice floated inthe center of a pool of amber liquid, the rim decorated with a slice of orange.
“I never had an old-fashioned. Are they any good?”
Will took a sip.“They’re amazing. This one is pretty good. Would you like to try it?”
Ava nodded,eagerly drawing it to her face.“Smells like whiskey.”
“It is.”
“Ah.” Ava took a sip and stopped cold. She grimaced, unsure what to do with the tingling bitter liquid.
He stared at her intently, an upturn in the corners of his lips. He could see it written in the creases of her eyes.
She hated it.
Ava forced herself to swallow it, mouthwarped with regret and discomfortas the potent mix scorched its way down her throat. She exhaled what felt like fire.“Gah! That’s…. Bleh ! ”
“Pretty sure I would react the same witha sip of yours .”He made a face at her martini.
“Mine tastes like sunshine and candy. Yours tastes like lighter fluidand fruit.”
He shook his head andtook alongsip of his cocktail. Something about hiseye contact and serious expression turned her on.
She took a swallow of her martini to combatthe disgust and slid it over to him.
“No, thanks.”
“If you like sweet things, you’ll love this.Trust me.”
“No self-respecting man would be caught dead with a drink like that in public.”
“News flash:nobody gives a shitabout that kind of gender crap anymore.”
“Are you trying to get me drunk?” He chuckled. “ Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me, aren’t you? ”
She raised an eyebrow at that. “Would I even needto get you drunkto do that? Women talk, you know.Your reputation precedes you.”
“ Madison .” He shook his head, a little embarrassed.
“Love the girl, but she always spills the tea.”
“Ah, well,what can I really say? Yeah, I should just be straight with you.”
Ava sipped her martini, eyes never leaving his.
“I had my fun. After Sarah and I split, I went on a bit of a spree.” He shrugged and swirled the ball of ice in his glass. “Got a bit of a reputation. I also got that wildness out of my system. There was one night something happened and I decided… that’s enough, you know? Ihad to change some things.”
“One night? What happened?”
“Well,talking about this kinda stuff is not really good date conversation.”
“On the contrary. Dating is how we are supposed to get to know this stuff about each other to find out if we want to keep investing time and effort into each other.”
“Mmm. I see your point. You sure you wanna hear this?”
“Positive.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Starla, my little girl, her blood sugars spiked while she was at a sleepover. One of the parents didn’t know she was diabetic, and they ordered pineapple pizzaand washed it down with punch.”
“Disgusting.” Ava feigned gagging. “The pineapple on pizza part, I mean.”
“ Agreed .” Will pointed to her and then fondled his glass again. “She’s a little self-conscious about her illness and how it makes her different from other kids, so she was too shy to say anything. When she checked her numbersafterward, they were sky-high. She went to the girl’s dad and showed him, and he freaked.Started calling me over and over.Across town, I was in the middle of… um … it. My phone was across the room.I didn’t hear it for like an hour.”
“Oh…”
He rubbed his lips, struggling to keep the emotion out of his voice. “She had to go to the hospital so doctors could intervene. Iwasn’t there when she needed me.”
Ava’s eyes dropped to her martini for a moment. It was hard to watch him chastise himself for being a human with needs and desires.
“I wasn’t thinking.” He cleared his throat again, hoping to swallow the lump that had arisen. “I wasso busy trying to get laid instead of being a dad.It was selfish. I don’t want to be that guy. I’m looking for something more now, anyway.”
Ava suddenly felt empathetic, “You really seem to care about your daughter. She’s very lucky to have you.”
“I’m the lucky one.” He took a swallow of his drink and smacked his lips. “Ah, so, you’ve heard some of my drama. Now, I want some of yours.”
“Like what? I’m an open book. ”
“So, how long ago did you and your ex… husband …?” He fished to see if he was correct.
“Yes,” she nodded, “ex-husband.”
“How long ago was your split?”
She looked up at the light as if to calculate. “The divorce was finalized… just about sixmonths ago.”
“Whydid you guys split? If you don’t mind my asking.”The dangling light over the booth illuminatedthe closely-shorn stubbleon his face, bathing him in delicious honey-colored light.
“Oh, you know that old story… boy meets girl. Boy marries girl. Girl finds out she’s infertile. Boy stops touching girl. Boy starts touching every girl but his girl. Boy knocks up his secretary. Girl finds pregnancy test in her kitchen trash can.”
“Wow.” His eyes were large.
She laughed through the pain in her gut. “She just had the baby last week.”
Will sat stunned across the table, scrambling for something to say.“I’m so sorryI even asked.”
“Nah, don’t be.” She waved him off. “I’m not. Single best decision I ever made. We were miserable together.”
“Sounds like you landed on your feet.”
“I landed on my face… I get knocked down, but I get up again—”
“ Neva’ gonna keep me down, ” Will finished the lyrics.
Ava clapped quietly. “Encore!”
Will smirked and pretended to curtsy in his seat.
A comfortable silencepassed between them as they looked into each other’s eyes.To Ava, his blue eyes felt like…home.She couldn’t explain it. She had the urge to touch him, to caress him. Every cell of her being screamed for her to leanacross the table and kiss him.She picturedtheir lips pressedagainst one another, his hungrytongue exploring the depths of her mouth, manly hands in her hair, eagerly pulling hercloser…
Ava didn’t dare to tell him his crystal-blue eyes felt like peering into glacial waters she wanted to endlessly swim in.
She licked the rim of her martini glass, and Will’s mind drifted, imagining what the inside of her mouth would feel like wrapped around him.He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “Penny for your thoughts.”
“You have a really kind, disarming smile.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” He tossed back the last swig of his drink. “So… where to after this? ”
“You’ll see.” Ava smiled and tossed some money down on the table for the tab. She put on her coat and thick gloves. “Bundle up.”
“ An ice rink? ”
“Yup!” Ava’s high-heeled, impractical boots crunched into the driftagainst the building, choosing the grip of snow over the iceof the walkway.
“You should come over here and walk on this slick-ass sidewalk with meso I have an excuse to hold your hand,” Will hollered, arms jutting out for balance on the icy path.
She clomped through the snow like a newborn elk and snagged his hand mid-air,weaving her fingers through his. “You don’t have to have an excuse.”
“This is gonna be rough .”
“Oh, come on,” Ava teased. “What’s a good date without a few injuries?”
Avadug in her purse and produced two five-dollar bills, placing them on the chilled wooden counterof the skate rental shack.
“What size?” the teenage girl asked.
“I need a pair of size nines,”Ava chirped.
Will stood up straight. “Can I get a size nine, too, please?”
Ava smirked. “I have the tact to say nothing .”
The attendant handed over two identical pairs of skates.
Will seemed unfazed. “Thanks.”
They carefully stepped over to an unoccupied bench to put on their footwear.
Ava chuckled. “I’m sorry, but I have never dated a guy with the same size feet as me.”
“Well, it can’t be easy being a girl with such big feet.”
“I don’t have big feet! You have small feet. Size nine is tiny for a man.”
“You know what they say about men with little feet?”
Ava only stared at him, lacing her skates.
“Little shoes .” He laughed and stood on his skates like a wobbly giraffe. “Good Lord, I’ve never done this before. Please tell me you are good at this.”
“Yeah,” Ava said, tying the lace of the second skate into a knot. “I’m alright.”
“Good, because I need somebody to keep me from breaking both my legs at this!”
Ava made her way gracefully to the icewith no wobble to her stride. She turned back and extended a hand to him as she arrived at the gate. On quivering legs, he made his way toward her. He leaned out to clasp her hand and used it to steady himself .
“Look at you! Ms. Ice Castles over here. You are just full of surprises.”
“Why, thank you.”
“Promise me, Ava, if I die this way,you’lltell my daughterI died in, like, a way cooler way. Tell her I was eaten by a bobcat…or losta brawl. Something manly .”
Ava led him slowly ontothe ice. Other skaters circled around as Will struggled to stay upright, grabbing onto the side rail for stability. Avaskatedbackward.
“Of course, you can skate backward. You make it look so easy!”
Ava held out her hands and smiled, the tip of her nose rosy. “You got this. Come to me. I’ll pull you for a bit until you get used to it.”
Stiff-legged and rigid,Will’s skatesmet the shallow grooves in the ice left by those before him, and he scuttled forward awkwardly until his gloved hands were in hers.
“See?You got this.” Ava teased, releasing his hands.
Several small children bundled up in puffy jackets whizzed past them.
“ Pfft , show offs!” Will hollered.
Ava chuckled, gently dragging him along, legs weavingwith skill and precision.“See how I’m moving my legs?”
“Like a snake?”
“Yeah, try it.”
With unsteady knees and rubbery ankles,Will attemptedan awkward weave, mimicking Ava’s movements to the best of his ability.
“How are you so good at this?!”
“I played hockey for a little bit in highschool. I loved being on the ice, but I got knocked hard into a wall during a game. Got a really bad concussion. Parents pulled me out after that.”
“A concussion? That explains a lot,” Will teased.
“Wow. What’s that? You wanna skate on your own ?”She let his hands go and skated backward away from him.
Will flailed, laughing “What? Wait a minute!No! Come back here!”
“Remember, weave, don’t walk.” Ava whooshed ahead, skated back, and executed aquick hockey stop, showering him in shavedice.
“Hey,” shouted the skate attendant, hollering to get Ava’s attention. He shook his head, knitting his eyebrows together.He wagged a finger at her as if scolding a naughty puppy.
Ava held up a hand. “Sorry!”
Will’s skates slipped. “Shit!” He grabbed the side rail to keep from falling.
“It’s alright. You got it. Just stay close tothe wall and grab on when you think you’re gonna fall. It will help you gain your balance.”
Will pulled himself along, lapped by small children who were chasing each other across the ice.
“Alright. I think I am getting it.How’s this?” He wove his feet slowly, fighting to keep his eyes off of his skates.
“Eyes up.Look at me, not the ground, okay?” Ava bellowed.
“Like this?”
“Yeah, you’re doing it!” She rejoiced, watching the smile fall from Will’s face all of a sudden.
“ Ava, look out! ”
The second that Ava turned to look, a skater slammed into her full force. Both legs slid out from under her, sending her smashing into the ice face-first.
“Oh God. Ava!”Will pushed himself away from the wall and used the momentum to skitter toward her.
“Well, this is… embarrassing,” Ava croaked as she held the cobbled-together excuse for an ice pack to her injured nose. Will had made her one on the fly with an old peanut butter and jelly sandwich Ziploc bag Starla left in the door’s pocket packed with fresh snow from the parking lot. Ava soaked up the warmth from his heating vents and subtly looked around. The interior of Will’s truckwas recently detailed and smelled like the new sandalwood air freshener that hung from the rearview.
“Don’t be embarrassed. Who cares that you biffed it? In spectacular fashion,I might add. I mean, Ava… you caught air .You’re like a superhero. I wasn’t aware you could fly .”
Ava chuckled, voice nasally through the cold pack. “One of my many talents.”
“Doesn’t look like you broke anything or need stitches. It could have been way worse. But, you may end up with a black eye or two.”
“Eh, that’s fine. It’s not like they’re going to ask me about it at my job tomorrow.” She scoffed and returned her green eyes to him. “Just a bummer. After this, I was gonna take you to see Harvey at the little theater near my house. They’re doing a 35mm screening of it.”
“Yeah? I love that one. I tried to get Starla to name her stuffed rabbit Harvey.”
“No, you did not!” Ava laughed.
“Oh yeah. But she insisted on another equally dumb name.”
“That’s funny.” Ava sighed, slumping a little with defeat. “Yeah. I wasgonnainvite you back for a coffee at my placeafter the screening. I don’t have a fancy coffee makeror imported stuff like you—”
“Oh?”His mind ping-pongedbetween the thought of going back to her home and what he would do to her body if given the chance.His thoughts drifted to fantasies of kissing her neck.Cupping those bare breasts.Trailing fingers down her stomach…
He refocused his eyes on the injured woman in front of him.“One time on a date, I ate something that didn’t agree with my stomach. We started driving down this washboard backroad—”
Ava pulled the cluster of napkins away from her nose and chuckled. “What? You sharted oror something?”
“No.” He chuckled. “Thank God. But I threw up.”
Ava laughed. “Okay, that’s worsethan a bloodied nose, I think.”
“Oh, no. Just wait. It gets better.” Will grabbed a fresh napkin from inside the bench between them and softly dabbed at the fresh drop of blood beneath her nosewith care. “I didn’t have time to get out of the truck. I threw up on the dash.”
“Ewwww.”
“And as I skidded to a stop, it all came rushing back at us.”
Ava closed her eyes, battling not to laughrightin his face butlosing miserably.
He paused for a momentto touch her cheek, taking in her bright, beautiful smile, tousled hair still a disheveled mess. He’d never wanted to kiss someone so bad in his life.
But hewas serious about doing things differently this time. He’dmade a promise to himself. He wasn’tabout to break it.
As if she could tell what he was thinking, she leaned into his hand, laughter abating, rubbingagainst the soft flesh of his palm, staring back into his eyesfor a moment that wasnearly perfect.
It took every cell of Will’s body to pull his hand away.“I guess we should probably get you home so you can tend to these wounds.”
“We probably should.”Ava was taken aback. Despite the catastrophe, she’d secretly heldout hope he would come home with her.
After all, this was their thirddate, the one traditionally rumored to be the night where even a well-mannered gentleman makes his move.
Ava removed the MacGyvered ice pack from her face and looked down at the blood stain on her coat. “Oh no. Dammit. I loved this coat.”
“The easiest solution is cold water and soap. Just scrub,scrub,scrub. Hydrogen peroxide, in my opinion, doesn’t work as well, especially on colors.You can end up doing more harm than good.”
Ava smiled. “I love that you’re a stain expert.”
“Occupational hazard.”He breathed deeply, fogging up the truck windows. “Let me walk you back to your car.”
Ava nodded without a word, trying to hide her disappointment. As they arrived at her black SUV, she spoke. “Thank you for coming tonight. I’m sorry about… all this.”She pointed to her nose, pink from injury and pale in spots from the cold, and then fiddled nervously with her keys. She got inside, started the vehicle, and rolled down the window.
He leaned in, pressing his forearms to the door. “Wanna do thisagain sometime?Maybe something without so much blood?”
She snickered. “I’d like that.”
“Me too.”
Ava looked up at him, heart thundering in her chest, stomach fluttering with a potent mixture of excitement and jangled nerves.
“Okay. I’ll text you tomorrow. Drive safe.” Will patted the side of her SUV gently and turnedaway.
As Ava drove away, wheels crunching through snow and black ice, all she could wonder was where she had gone wrong and what she’d done to make him not want to at least kiss her .