Ava looked to the bar and the few onlookers I had attracted,but she raised her hand to the older woman at the bar. The woman turned to the bouncers, and soon they were on either side of him and escorting him out.
“You have friends in high places,” I teased her, and she gave me a tight smile.
“We’ll be careful when we leave. I don’t want the scumbag waiting for you.” Ava squeezed my hand before she pulled me after her to her friends and asked them to wait outside with us until our cab was here.
I didn’t want to tell her I was perfectly capable of kicking the guy’s ass myself, and truthfully, it was entertaining watching her boss the guys around. She was protecting me, and I decided I would personally castrate Jett if he fucked this up with her.
“I’ll come with you,” I heard Mia tell Ava. “Sleazy douches have taken me out of my social mood.”
“So you want to come have some food and be Debbie Downer with us?” Ava baited. “You’re not ruining my pizza fest with your sour mood.”
“No, I won’t.” Mia stuck her tongue out at Ava, and I watched as they giggled. “I’m not eating pizza though.”
“Eating on Monday gives you all week to work it off.” It was how I justified slices of cheese pizza on a Monday night anyway.
“Exercise?” Ava looked horrified.
“Yeah, running, Pilates, light weightlifting.”
“Like actual exercise?”
“And look at that, you’re already running with me on Wednesday and Friday morning,” I told her with a grin.
“You look like you seem pleased.” Ava’s voice was high-pitched, and I realized I was her worst nightmare.
“Healthy body, healthy mind.” The mantra I repeated every day to myself.
“Cab’s here,” Mia said as she pulled Ava to the car, and theycalled their goodbyes to their friends. Mia looked at me with a grin. “You’ve just become her kryptonite.”
“Yeah, well, sex with a Devil is all well and orgasmic, but you need more than that to be in shape,” I said with a smirk as I got into the car. “Exercise builds stamina. Trust me, Ava, he’ll thank you. Or me,” I mused. “Semantics.”
“Where you heading?” the cab driver asked, and we paused awkwardly as we exchanged looks.
“You can come to ours,” Ava offered. “It’s not much, but it’s clean and it’s home.”
“Sounds good.”
Itwassmall. It was tiny, but they looked so at home that I kind of envied them.
We sat and shared a cheese pizza, with music playing in the background, and I learned more about Ava and Mia. I realized the dynamic I had missed before; they were as close as sisters. They were in the same class at school, and both had one-parent families, their moms had realized early on that when money was tight, you pooled your resources. So instead of paying for two sitters, they paid for one who watched two girls. Ava joked that it was a good thing they got on so well, or maybe it wouldn’t have been so successful.
“What about you?” Ava asked me as she rubbed her tummy after finishing her slice. “Siblings?”
“No. Just me.”
“But you have three brothers, kind of.” Ava reached for her glass when Mia snorted.
“Awkward. She slept with her brother, remember?”
Ava looked at me and then started to laugh. “Sorry, I never thought.”
“It’s fine, what’s a little incest between friends?”
Both girls froze before they collapsed in laughter, and I laughed along with them. “So, Mia, music major?”
“Yeah, afraid so.”
“What do you play?” I asked her, even though I knew. I just wanted the conversation off of me and the Santos.
