Chapter 4 #2
“Rumi said you needed these,” Jack says, dropping the plastic bag on the counter. It took three different stores to find enough valentines for a class of twenty-two, but I’ve done enough last-minute runs for my younger brothers over the years. I know exactly what stops to hit.
“Oh my God, thank you.” Ava reaches for the bag and peeks inside. “Hopefully, these will be up to Georgie’s standards.”
“Your sister?” I ask, even though I already know, having filed the name away when Rumi mentioned it—keeping it in the same place in my brain that remembers when Ava mentioned her sister Phoebe, the first-year labor and delivery nurse who introduced Rumi and Ava, and her sister Jasmine, who I overheard recently is studying abroad.
Ava nods. “She’s staying with me for a little while.” Her voice is clipped, a mask of nonchalance. She glances down at the counter in front of her, adjusting the stack of coffee cups and lids, so they’re perfectly in line before she turns back to Jack. “How’s Evee’s first dance class going?”
The corners of Jack’s lips turn up as he reaches into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling out his phone. “Rumi sent me this.”
Ava’s eyes soften as she looks at the picture of Evee in her pink leotard and ballet skirt.
“Damn, I miss that kid.”
Jack chuckles. “It’s been what, a week?”
Ava rolls her eyes. “Going from seeing that girl every day for a year to once a week hasn’t been too easy on this ol’ heart of mine.”
I’ve learned most of what I know about Ava through Jack and Rumi—hovering on the sidelines, watching their relationship unfold, and picking up pieces of her story along the way. I actually met her on their first official date.
At some point that night, I asked how she and Rumi knew each other, and Ava told me about how Rumi moved in with her when Evee was still a newborn, how the two of them basically raised her together that first year, figuring it out side by side.
“Sounds like you traded in one kid for another,” Jack says, and I’m tempted to add something to the conversation, but instead volley my eyes back and forth between the two.
“I think the newborn trenches might be easier than the thirteen-year-old angst,” she jokes, reaching over the counter to fix the stack of Hey Honey’s stickers in front of the register. “I’m just glad Emerson doesn’t mind.”
“What don’t I mind?” Jack’s sister comes out from the Employees Only door behind the counter, her tattooed arms carrying bags of espresso beans, her dark hair pulled back by a bandana, aside from her blunt bangs hanging just above her eyes.
Ava bumps her shoulder with Emerson’s. “Just telling the guys how thankful I am that you’re okay with Georgie staying with us for a few days.”
Emerson chuckles, letting the espresso bags fall from her arms onto the counter and putting her hands on her hips. “No one else I’d rather co-parent an angsty middle-schooler with.”
Ava reaches for the fallen bags, setting them upright as she says, “Speaking of angsty middle-schoolers, I’m going to swing by the apartment, pick Georgie up, and take her to school. You good here alone? Brooke should be here in about an hour for her shift, and then—”
“Golden,” Emerson replies as she opens one of the bags of espresso beans, pouring it into the machine and cutting off Ava with a smirk.
She rolls her eyes, looking at Jack. “Thanks for the valentines. It saved me some time.”
Jack shrugs his shoulders. “Thank Anderson. He’s the one who knew where to go.”
Ava turns to look at me, scanning my face as if looking at me for the first time, and I feel my cheeks heat when she lifts a brow, a small smirk on her face. “You knew where to go for a last-minute class set of valentines?”
I clear my throat, coughing into my fist before shoving my hands in my pockets.
“Um, yeah,” I manage, “having three younger brothers does warrant that kind of knowledge.” My mind wanders to all the late-night runs for poster board for Archie’s school projects or early-morning trips to the store for oranges before rushing back home to slice them up for Auggie and Alex’s Saturday soccer game.
Ava’s lips part, a look of understanding crossing her features.
The sunlight coming through the window of the coffee shop highlights the outer ring of green in her hazel eyes, and I wish I had all the time in the world to count the flecks of amber.
“Well,” she says, wiping her hands down the front of her apron, tearing her eyes from mine. “I have a seventh-grade Valentine’s Day party to get to.” She reaches behind her back to untie the knot, looping the apron off over her head, and it causes more pieces of her red hair to come loose.
She heads to the Employees Only door, and I watch her until it closes behind her.
“Could you be more into her?” Emerson snickers before she finishes filling the espresso machines.
“You have no idea,” I retort, the crack in my voice giving me away even more. I know I’m too far gone to even be embarrassed about Emerson catching me watching Ava walk away like a lost puppy she left behind.
There’s no point in trying to deny it.
I am completely gone when it comes to Ava—and she couldn’t care less.