Chapter 14
Mark
All through breakfast, I sit and watch Ava eat with a blatant curiosity that I know Trystan sees, and it has several pairs of eyes from the opposite sex at the table looking back and forth between each other with a shit ton of loaded questions.
It all started when they noticed us walk into the lobby together and that I was toting her things.
I wasn’t being a dick for once, and she wasn’t biting back.
We’re not trying to hide anything from them, but we didn’t walk into the room and announce our “truce” either.
About halfway through our pancakes, she gives me googly eyes across the table, and I snicker.
“Okay, what the hell is going on here? What did I miss?” Jane bluntly asks.
“No asshole-ish behaviors? No sassy comebacks and eyerolls?” Trystan puts a hand across his mouth and snickers so hard he almost spits out his orange juice.
He’s got a terrible fucking poker face today.
His eyes lock with mine and get loud. Fuck. He’s gonna say something.
“You missed a lot,” he says on a quick inhale, taking another sip of his drink and looking out the window.
Jane points across the table at him, snapping her fingers.
“You. What do you know?” The table erupts in laughter because Jane cannot stand not being in the know. She wants answers and wants them right now.
Trystan raises his hands in surrender.
“Let’s just say they duked it out and finally found some common ground.”
“Oh thank goodness. I thought they’d never get along,” Jane says, taking a bite of her pancakes, but then freezing mid-chew and dropping her fork when it hits her.
It’s about the same time as it clicks with a few of the others, and I hear the collective gasp.
Trystan just laughs. I look from him to Ava, and she’s so adorably flushed with embarrassment right now that I just want to pull her across the table into my lap.
“Oh my gosh! What?! No way!” Jane squeals, looking at her red-faced friend.
“I knew you looked different this morning!” Jane looks over at me with her mouth open, then shuts it and grins.
She picks up her fork and begins eating again, then looks back at Ava and points her fork at her.
“Tuesday marg night better have some deets attached with it.” The whole table erupts into raucous laughter and goes back to eating like our whole group’s dynamic didn’t just change again.
???
My alarm clock blares at six Tuesday morning, and I want to throw it across the room.
After turning the noisy little fucker off, I grab my phone to see that Ava has already sent me a picture of her smiling with her coffee in a cute pink mug.
The word “Morning!” written across the top.
This gem of a woman. I text her back with a picture of me flipping off the alarm clock which gets an immediate response of laughing emojis.
I am not a morning person. She sends back a picture of a lacy, baby blue thong laying on her bed next to her pair of killer black heels.
I groan knowing that that’s what she’ll have on under her outfit today.
Me: Okay, I’m awake now. That is a gorgeous scrap of lace.
Ava: I figured that’d help get you up and moving ;)
Me: Grrr…
Reaching into my boxers, I shift my hard dick to a less painful position. Shit, that’s just not going to work for me.
Me: It got something up and moving…
Ava: LOL
Ava: What big project you guys got going today?
Me: Still at the Johnson place. Electrician finally finished, so we’ll get to put some drywall up today. The build is coming together.
Ava: Well that’s good. What are your plans for lunch?
Me: That depends on what your plans for lunch are.
Ava: I’d most definitely like a burger with a side of kisses.
I smile at the sweetness of her declaration, while my cock has other ideas and throbs with the possibilities it’s conjuring.
Me: I’ll pick you up for burgers and kisses.
Ava: Yas! Lunch for me is at twelve.
Me: I’ll be there.
Ava: XOXO
I hop out of bed and run through the shower, taking care of my situation before making sure I pick a functional yet handsome look for lunch. I stroll into the office ten minutes early and get a whistle from Trish at the desk.
“Which customer has you getting all foxified for them today?”
I laugh under my breath and grab the stack of mail to rifle through. Trish is a happily married, but shameless, forty-five year old flirt.
“I have a lunch date with Ava.”
“Oh? She has a name? Have I seen this Ava before?”
“Yeah, she dropped off wedding things a few times for Colin and Sydney.”
“Yes, that Ava.” Trystan comes in and taps her desk in good morning before smiling over at me.
“The one that always has him in such a tizzy?”
Trystan leans on his forearms across the desk like he’s sharing juicy gossip. Trish is eating it up.
“The one and only. They finally found common ground and quit fighting the attraction.”
“Ooooh, that fine line between love and hate.” She sighs dramatically.
Trystan nods, getting a kick out of how she’s playing into it. I interrupt their oh-so-interesting discussion about my love life.
“Hello…I’m still here.”
Trish snickers as Trystan winks at her and follows me into my office, shutting the door behind him. He plops down onto the leather chair across from my desk and props his feet up, which I automatically knock down.
“So… Ava…”
“Yes… Ava.”
“You’re serious about this? She’s not just another notch?”
I set down my pen, clenching my jaw hard while forcing myself to take a deep breath before I lash out.
I know he means well. Exasperation is written all over my face when I look up at him with fire in my eyes because, damnit, I am sick and tired of nobody taking me seriously.
I know that I’ve kind of made that mess for myself, but I’m really trying here.
“Yes, I’m serious about her. I meant what I said at the river that day.
That I was sick of the game. I want something meaningful in my life.
It took me six months of fighting these feelings to figure out that they were indeed feelings.
I’m fucking scared of how she makes me feel, but I want to try, and I want to try with her. ”
“Shit…” Trystan rubs his palm across his mouth. “Okay. I’m sorry, but I had to ask. She’s one of ours and has been through a lot with Eric.”
I glare harder at him.
“I’m not Eric. I know how that bastard treated her. Got a front row seat to it a while back, remember?”
Trystan raises his hands.
“Okay, just checking in. I wouldn’t be a good friend to either of you if I didn’t ask. Just don’t hurt her, okay? Ava’s sweet.”
“Trystan, I have no intention of hurting her. Now get the hell out of my office.”
“Yeah, sure thing,” he says gruffly, sending a grimace of a smile before taking a sip of his coffee and heading off to the site.
I didn’t mean to get so testy with him, but damn, I just want someone to be happy for me.
To have a little faith that I can do this.
I’m twenty-eight for fuck’s sake. It’s beyond time for me to grow up, but now that I’m taking the steps, it feels like nobody actually thinks I’m capable of succeeding. At least in the woman department.
I open my phone and look at Ava and her coffee.
Her hair looks freshly styled, and she’s got those red lips painted again for me.
My insides twist with the memory of her swiping that lipstick across the plump flesh in the reflection of the hotel’s bathroom mirror.
I smile and close out of the picture before I end up with a hard on from hell.
I need to be able to work here, that way, after lunch, I can get my ass out to the site to see how things are going and perhaps get my hands a little dirty.
Sunshine and dirt will do me some good. Just have to get through a few more hours of busy work.
???
Ava
At ten til noon, I pull out my compact to retouch my lipstick and eyeliner.
Today I picked a grey blazer and skirt with a baby blue blouse to match the thong I sent a picture of to Mark this morning.
I know it was a little risque, but it wasn’t a picture of it on me.
I know he’s not a morning person, and I wanted to put a little pep in his step.
If he’s anything like me, he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about last weekend.
I am craving his lips like crazy. I dab my rollerball perfume on and visit the bathroom to pee and finish freshening up.
I walk back in my office to gather my things when Sami comes slamming in the door and closes it behind her. She looks flustered.
“What’s wrong?”
“A seriously hot, and I mean hot-as-sin specimen of a man, just walked in and is at the front desk talking to the temp. What if he’s a potential client? I do not look nearly good enough to deal with him today.”
I giggle.
“He’s not a client. That’s just Mark.”
“Just Mark? I beg your finest pardon? You know him? Mark is gorgeous. How come I’ve never heard of him?”
“It’s new. We’ve known each other for almost a year because our friends all run in a bit of a circle due to Sydney and Colin. To be honest, we didn’t really start off all that friendly, but somewhere along the way, things changed.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I think I really like him.” I sigh, smiling dreamily at her.
“Good for you, girl. You deserve it.”
My phone line buzzes. It’s the temp standing in for Colleen who’s out on maternity leave.
“Yes?”
“Um, yeah, there’s a man here who says you guys have a lunch date?”
“Yes,” I giggle at how flustered she sounds. Mark could rile up any woman who looks his way with just a smile. “Tell Mark I’m on my way up.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’ll see you in a bit, Sami,” I say, walking by to go see the gorgeous man in our lobby.
“Does he have a brother?” she whisper-shouts to me as she walks back into her office, and I shake my head and giggle.