“Go on.” Ted shoved me toward the door. “I’ll be in touch.”
I stumbled out into the hallway, blearily making my way back to the main lobby where Ivy was waiting for me. She said something that I couldn’t quite catch due to the roaring of blood in my ears.
Passing her by, I waved and headed back out into the afternoon heat, greedily sucking in the fresh air while my body shook from pent up rage.
Across the parking lot, Alexander Steele was holding the door to a corvette that was parked backward open for Ana, his back turned toward me. She came around the front of the car, slipping past him to slide into the passenger seat.
Once the door was shut behind her, Steele moved around to the back of the car to pop open the trunk, swinging his bag of documents around to toss inside. Through the windshield, Ana stared directly at me, her face falling into a slight frown that could’ve easily been mistaken for that flat face she’d worn during our meeting if I wasn’t already paying such close attention to her.
Suddenly, I had the urge to lift my hand up, four of my fingers folding back until only one was facing her. Childish, of course, to flip her off. But at this point, I didn’t give a single fuck.
Fuck her and fuck my father.
Her eyes widened for a single second, and then she smirked.
CHAPTER 19
Brandon
I could tellsomething was off the moment I climbed into the passenger seat of Avery’s car—an unexplainable hunch that whatever happened after he’d left my shop, wasn’t good.
His energy seemed controlled, hampered in a strange way that I hadn’t been expecting when he’d pulled up to my house an hour after I’d gotten home, freshly showered and shaved—not that I was expecting anything to happen tonight despite my traitorous dick thinking otherwise—and dressed in a new set of clothes I’d picked up after work.
The tendons in Avery’s hands flexed while he gripped the steering wheel, his gaze tracking me as I pulled the seatbelt over my chest and hooked it into the mechanism. We sat there for a long moment, both of us filling the awkward silence with nothing but the sound of our own labored breathing.
Was it wrong of me to want to touch him in some way?
Bridge that gap between us like we had back in his bedroom and earlier today at the shop?
I never thought I’d be the kind of person to be touch-starved. Yet, the second Avery had left my shop, my body had grown cold, no longer warmed without him by my side.
I’d had these moments of flare-ups back in high school. That longing and wanting practically choked me with how badly I needed to be with Avery in any capacity. Those impulses had been so easy to ignore with how much time we’d spent together, only really growing frustrating once I was back at home and in my own bed while I stared up at the ceiling all night.
Now with this weird...thingbetween us, I had no idea how to relieve myself. Clearly going out with Max had done nothing. Only served to slap me across the face with how obviouslynot overAvery I was.
The problem with trying to move on with my life while said person that I’d had such deep affections for was still around was thathe was still around.
How the hell was I supposed to get a grip on reality when Avery was drowning out all of my sanity?
And last night.
God, last night.
I was getting hard just thinking about it.
Leaning back in my seat while subtly trying to readjust myself, I asked, “So, where to?”
Avery blinked hard, seeming to come back to reality. “I’m bringing you over the bridge.”
To Ellington?
I guess that wasn’t a surprise. There were places to go in Edgewood, but not the kind that were sit-down worthy. More pizza joints and corner store Chinese takeout places than actual restaurants with a laminated menu and music to set the ambiance.
I’d been trying to reconcile with myself for the entire afternoon, leading into evening, that thiswasn’ta date andAvery was simply taking me out to reconnect. Or something of that nature. Getting my hopes up was only asking to be disappointed.
He could be intending to thank me for the blowjob for all I knew. That’s the kind of guy he was.
Avery looked good, though.
