These thoughts bounced around in the back of my head the entire car ride over and well into the first course. As we eat and chat, I notice Avalee is much quieter around the Maysons, more reserved than before when it was just us in the car. But when she smiles, it’s like the sunrise.Just like that little girl I met so long ago, she lights up the space around her. But what was that earlier? When she pulled away from my hand? Had I done something wrong? I can’t stop stewing on that one either.
I push a pile of peas around my plate and stick my fork into mashed potatoes covered with the richest gravy I’ve ever tasted. A soft light illuminates the room from a chandelier overhead, and I gaze around the room where the fractals of light land. Avalee looks uncomfortable as she shifts in her seat and then sips her glass of sweet tea. Is she feeling awkward like I am?Where is that sassy spitfire from so long ago?I try thinking back to the company picnic and realize there are a few cues I missed, like how she chewed on the inside of her cheek or how she kept tugging on her blouse and now her dress. What has made her so wound up?
“What about you, dear?” Liz asks, turning her attention to me and disrupting my assessments of Avalee.
“Hmm?”
“What did you think of the picnic?”
Avalee’s rich brown eyes turn to me, and I inhale slowly. Nodding, I say, “Well, I got to reconnect with an old friend, so that is pretty awesome if you ask me.”
Avalee looks away from me and down at her hands and plate.Great. That’s two strikes in one evening.
“Yes, she mentioned you knew each other when you were children. How sweet. You said you guys went way back, but I just assumed it was before, well, you know,” Liz says.
I hold my breath and wait for what is inevitably about to come.
“Before what?” Avalee asks quietly.
Liz glances around the table, and I plead with her with my eyes not to say what I know she can’t help but say. She’s a warm and loving woman, motherly even, but she is also renowned for her gossipy status.
“Well…” She pauses to sip from her wine.
I clear my throat, about to interrupt her from going any further, when she surprises me.
“I just meant, or I guess assumed, you guys had dated in high school or something. The way the two of you keep looking at each other, it’s no wonder anybody makes the same guess,” she adds, winking my way slyly.
I release the breath I am holding and realize I’m clutching the tablecloth, and I release that too.
“Oh,” Avalee says, waving her hands and shaking her head. “Nothing like that.” She glances at me in a funny, thoughtful kind of way that I can’t read and then continues. “Well, I mean, we did date for a very short time. But we are just friends.”
We dated briefly when we were teenagers, but before I had the chance to see where our relationship was headed, she moved away and didn’t leave me any way of contacting her. Besides, I was too busy with my sentencing and life behind bars shortly after she left, so I really didn’t have a lot of chances to track her down either. Still, the way she saysjusthits me in the gut like a hammer, and I take a gulp of my wine to try to wash away the acid coating my tongue.Just friends.The rest of the evening flies by with more food, dessert, and even a few parlor games—which Avalee and I team up and win most of, though I think the Maysons let us have a few of those wins.
“Ruin, son, you are as good at Trivia Word as you are at leading the team,” Mr. Mayson, or Trevor as he’s insisted we call him, says as we clean up from the last game of the evening. “Where did you learn all that?”
“Here and there,” I say, not wanting to tell them that I spent most of my time behind bars hiding in the pages of books.
Mr. Mayson grunts in approval, as if he accepts my response as is, and takes out a cigar from his coat pocket. Liz swats at him and starts fussing about how he is going to burn their house down one day and to take his stinky, fat cancer rod outside.
They’ve always been this playful with each other, but I’ve never noticed how strong their family dynamic is until now. Even with their own children grown and out of the house, they are still in constant contact with all the members of their extended family—something my own family had neglected well before I was incarcerated.
When it is time to leave, I am surprised that I am sad the night has to end. It’s not usual for me to want to linger in any one place for very long, but by Avalee’s side is different.
“Thank you for this evening. It was so much fun,” Avalee says, and Liz wraps her in a hug. Avalee flinches slightly as Liz draws in close.
Why is she so jumpy when someone comes near?Maybe it isn’t me, after all, I think. Whatever it is, I plan to figure it out.
Four
Avalee
“Ruin has been stopping by an awful lot lately,” Jax Mayson teases as he and his uncle and my boss, Asher Mayson, walk in.
I roll my eyes and check another invoice before updating the company’s files and moving to the next invoice. “So?” I ask.
“So? Virtue, are you blind or dumb?” Jax pipes up.
At first, working in an office with all the members of the Mayson family dropping in so often had my nerves on full alert. But the fact that two of them are the very ones who saved me from that awful time in my life only makes it easier to slip into a groove with them. It’s probably the reason why I can banter with Jax and Cobi more naturally than I can the rest of the Mayson clan—since they didn’t see me in that vulnerable, broken state.
