“You seem…”
Her phone buzzed again. This time, she didn’t bother to look at it, but I saw the way she tensed and got a pained look on her face.
“You can answer your phone, Ava. I don’t mind. It sounds important.”
“It’s not.”
Again, her eyes circled the room.
“Looking for someone?” I asked.
Her face flushed. “No.”
Leaning forward as if that would help me capture her full attention, I hesitantly brought up our kiss. “So… what happened at Jaden’s… I was?—”
“Lincoln, I thought you just wanted to catch up.”
“I do, but maybe if we talk about it, abouteverything,we can move on.”
Her eyes shuttered. I knew I messed up when she leaned back and folded her arms across her middle. That was her emotionally retreating pose.
Sighing softly, I prepared myself for the backlash because I wasn’t about to back down. “Come on, Ava. Talk to me.”
“I didn’t agree to this dinner to rehash the past.”
“Alright.Whydid you come? You must have known our past would come up. It’s going to keep coming up if we avoid talking about it. If you could just stop acting cagey, we can address it and get it out of the way.”
Fury sparked in her eyes. I was in for a lashing from that sharp tongue of hers, but that was good. At least she’d be talking, and we could finally get somewhere.
For a moment, she said nothing. “Fine, you want the truth?”
“That would be nice.”
“I didn’t want to have dinner. I knew it was a bad idea. But I accepted because I had an agenda, okay?”
My heart sank.
“I was following up on something.” Her eyes skated away from me. “A potential story. I knew you’d take me someplace that celebrities frequented. Like this place that I couldn’t get into otherwise. I was hoping to see someone or… someone associated with her.”
“Who?”
“You know what? Never mind that.”
I tamped down the hurt rising in my chest. “You came here to… use me?”
She had the decency to look guilty… for a hot second. “I didn’t know what would happen. I saw a chance, and I took it.”
I scoffed. “I can’t believe this. You played nice all evening for a story? Nice, Ava.”
“Don’t you dare,” she hissed. “Don’t you dare sit here and act like you have some moral high ground. As if you didn’t use me for an entire summer to pass the time just to discard me when you…” her voice cracked.
The play of emotions on her face sent me tumbling from my moral high horse rapidly.
“What doyouwant from me, Lincoln? What wasyouragenda for tonight? My forgiveness, so you can get closure and not feel guilty about what you did?”
My eyes widened. “Ava, you have it all wrong. I never used?—”
“Save it.” Her eyes glistened with tears. But she blinked them away. “You think an expensive dinner can fix everything?”
