She nodded. “I did, and you’re fine.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Last night didn’t freak her out in the slightest, in fact, you’re gonna have a difficult time holding her back if you’re really committed to not doing anything else until she doesn’t have a scratch on her body,” she said. “You could probably hang her upside down from the ceiling and she’d be fine.”
I considered that for a minute and a smile rose to my face, prompting Milli to grumble out, “Ugh. Don’t hang her from the ceiling.”
“So she’s not going anywhere?” I asked.
“No, not at all. At least, as long as you figure your shit out, she won’t.”
“What?” I said. “Figuremyshit out? What amIdoing?”
“Nothing, that’s the problem,” Milli said.
I looked at him with a furrowed brow. “You know what she’s talking about?”
“The fact that you’re treating Avion like a half-a-million dollar hooker? Yes, I’m aware of that.”
“What?” I stood up from my office chair and looked down at them. “What are you talking about?”
Kelly looked over at Milli, though she was laughing as she said, “If you knew, why didn’t you say anything?”
“He didn’t ask,” Milli replied simply.
“I’m not treating her like a hooker,” I said.
“Oh, okay. When was the last time you just spent time with her that wasn’t related to sex?” Kelly asked.
“Yeah, but that’s… I mean, that’s our thing that we do.”
“It’s also a thing that people do with hookers,” Milli said under his breath.
Of all the things I’d dealt with in my life, I was suddenly panicking the most I ever had about anything. “Well, what do I do? What should I be doing?”
Kelly stood up from her chair, exhausted. “I am not trained for this, Milli. It’s on you.”
“You wantmeto instruct thismanon how to deal with thatwoman?” he asked.
I honestly didn’t understand the disdain. I thought I was doing fine with Avion. What was I doing wrong?
Kelly gave me one final, exhausted look. “If you don’t want to lose Avion, you’re going to have to be a little more honest with her, Giovanni.” She rolled her eyes. “And try taking her out on a goddamn date.”
After what Milli had dug up about a possible inside threat, it didn’t feel like that was what I should be focusing my attention on, but a very large part of me, the part that had been fostering a fear of losing Avion for the past three weeks, was now running around my brain like a chicken with its head cut off.
If what Avion wanted was a date -- if what she wanted was my fucking car -- I felt inclined to do whatever it took.
Here I was terrified that I was going to lose Avion if I simply mentioned that she was free to go if she wanted. I had no idea I was doingotherthings that could risk losing her. So I stopped what I was doing, gave Milli and Kelly each a couple of tasks, and planned a date.
Probably my first real one ever.
“It’s Giovanni Raines,” I announced after knocking on Avion’s door, and being terribly unsure why I opted to use my full name. “Gio. Sorry, that was weird. It’s Gio.”
I heard the door latches being undone and then it opened to Avion on the other side. It would have been irritating how quickly she made me the less-attractive one, if she didn’t look so damn good. I’d put quite a bit of time into having my new, French cut, navy blue suit custom made, but it seemed like all Avion needed to do was be herself to stun a room. She was wearing a floor-length, emerald green dress with a slit up to ler left thigh, and a pair of black heels. Her red-orange hair was folded back on the left and falling down the right, and her green eyes were sparkling.
“Uh… wow,” was all I managed to get out.
She giggled a little. “Yeah? Wow.”
