Chapter 19
Cat
After I leave Nick’s office, I go to see Ava at her new apartment building.
She moved out of the hotel room she was staying in.
I love it. There is a doorman downstairs dressed in a bow tie and suit.
Ava has expensive tastes, and it shows in this building.
She has three bedrooms and there is a fireplace in two of them, and one in the center of the living room wall with a plush white bear skin rug in front of it.
Every room has cherry hardwood floors. It’s really nice and cozy.
I get a bottle of water out of the fridge and sit across from her at the kitchen table. “I saw Nick today.” I can see her perking up. She wasn’t quite herself today when I came by, but she said she was fine. So I left it alone; she’ll tell me when she’s ready.
“Really?”
I take a sip of my water. “I didn’t realize how irresistibly sexy a man with power could be.”
“Honey, yes.”
“I’m in trouble. I need to stay away from him.”
“Why would you want to do that? You have a man who’s powerful, sexy, and most importantly, into you like a fat man in a pie eating contest.”
I look down at the water bottle in my hands. I peel back the edge of the label with my fingers without thought to what I’m doing. “All of this is so wrong. I’m betraying my sister.” I feel a tickle in my throat, and I try to clear it without her hearing me.
“Git your little ass over here, don’t you start crying. It’s not a sin to be attracted to a man who is equally attracted to you.”
She waits till I look at her.
“You had sex with him again, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I went to his office to talk and apologize for the way I left without telling him.”
She slams her hands down on the table, and I almost jump off my chair. “Wait a minute, you had sex in his office?”
“Yes, it was wrong!”
“Wrong my ass. It was so good the first time you had to get it again. I hear that.”
“Ava!” I put my hands over my face and groan. “That’s not what I went there for.”
She pulls my hands down from my face and lifts my chin up. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. You’re getting more action than me, I should be ashamed.”
I tilt my head to the side. “Seriously?”
“Seriously, you two have something that keeps drawing you back to each other. You should try to find out what it is. One of the worse things in life is to have regrets.”
“I have regrets now!”
“But would you take back what you’ve already done?”
I say nothing, because I know I wouldn’t. She smiles at me.
“I didn’t think so. You and Nick should spend some time together and talk. Get to know who you are now. As close as you and he were, I’m sure there are things about him you don’t know and things about you he doesn’t know.”
As I found out today. “That’s the problem; every time we’re alone together we end up having sex.”
“I’m not saying you should have sex with him…” She leans over and lowers her voice. “Damn, is it that good?”
“Ava!” I reach over and slap her on the back of her hand. She holds her hand up and her eyes get wide like a Kewpie doll, with the top knot over her head to match.
“I don’t want to know, because he’s my cousin but I’m just saying, if it’s that good, then it can’t be that much of a problem. That’s a bonus, and y’all don’t even need a bed. Hmmm hmmm.”
“Get your head out of the gutter and help me.”
“I’ll try. You two should go to lunch in a public place.
No one’s going to think anything of it—you’re friends.
The only people who know you have passed the point of friendship are you and him; so as long as you can refrain from ripping each other’s clothes off and going at it on the table, it’s all good. ”
I roll my eyes.
“If he weren’t my cousin, I would pay to see that spectacle. Hot sex between two good-looking people, hell yeah.”
“I think we would be able to control ourselves. He asked me to meet him for dinner tonight.”
“Good.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think I should go.”
“Stop thinking so much. You’re going to be sitting here thinking while your life passes you by. Go live it, experience it, so you’ll have a great story to tell when you’re an old woman.”
She gives me a hug. Ava is the best friend I could ever ask for. I hope I’m as good a friend to her as she is to me.
I didn’t know that night would be the start of the best two days of my life, and the worst days afterward.