Ava
Iam so completely flustered by that kiss, and even more flustered by the fact that I wanted it and that I kissed Trevor back when I tripped into his arms. I find myself questioning everything about my life, and I don’t like the feeling of uncertainty that it is causing me. I barely slept at all last night after Trevor left, and this morning when he comes back to continue work on the house, I find myself getting irrationally mad at him for making me second-guess things. My life was set perfectly, just the way that I wanted it. I don’t need him suddenly screwing it all up. I have a job to focus on, and a life in the city to get back to. This is just a slight and temporary detour and I need to get it wrapped up and get out of here before I find myself tripping into his arms and tripping up my life again.
“Good morning,” he says as he walks into the kitchen and stands a bit too close to me while I pour my coffee.
“Morning,” I say abruptly as I grab my coffee cup and head out of the room to grab my laptop.
“Aren’t you going to work with me today?” he asks.
There is a slight confusion in his voice. I know what he’s thinking. He thinks that after last night I will be even more excited to work with him, that I will want to spend the day by his side instead of attending to the work that I need to do for my actual job, and honestly—he’s right. That is exactly the reason I can’t.
“No,” I say as I sit down and open my laptop. “I haveactualwork to do today.”
I realize that my comment was abrasive, and I can see Trevor’s reaction from the corner of my eyes. I’m nottryingto hurt him; I’m just trying not to get hurt myself. I can’t let myself get sucked back into this life again. I got out of here for a reason and I’m not coming back.
“Thisisactual work,” he says.
I can feel myself getting ready to make matters worse. I just don’t know what to do about my feelings, so the best that I can do is to try and push everything away to give myself room to breathe.
“Well, it might be work to you,” I say. “But I need to actually get back to using my brain.”
Ouch. I knew that was wrong of me to say. After such a wonderful day together, and that unexpected, amazing kiss; I was completely blindsiding Trevor by acting like a bitch for no reason.
“You know,” he says as he gathers up his tools before leaving the room. “I thought I was right about you. I thought that everyone else was wrong and that I saw something in you that they didn’t. But I guess you’re right; I guess I’m not as smart as you. Because you’re every bit the city girl that everyone else in this town thinks you are; a stuck-up, selfish, pain-in-the-ass brat.”
Trevor turns to walk away, calling over his shoulder as he goes.
“I’ll be working on the outside of the house today,” he says, without looking at me. “That way you won’t be interrupted by my country-boy stupidity.”
Once he leaves, I try my best to get my mind clear enough to get back to work. It’s been a while since I got any of my own work done and I am falling behind. Trevor and I don’t talk for most of the day, but we cross paths a couple of times as we run into each other in the kitchen while getting water. There is an awkward mix of frustration and sexual angst, and it makes me more and more uneasy about staying here. I can’t concentrate and I’m spinning my wheels trying to get anything at all accomplished. I decide to get all the paperwork ready for the sale of the house. As soon as the repairs are complete, it will all be ready to go. By the time it is nearly dusk, I have the paperwork sitting on top of the kitchen counter for Trevor to see when he comes in.
“What’s this?” he asks as he glances at the pile of documents while he finished washing his hands.
“It’s the paperwork for the sale of the house. In a couple of days, when you’re finished, I’ll start searching for a buyer,” I say. “I thought it would make things go a lot faster to have the paperwork ready to go.”
“Hate to break it to you,” Trevor says. “But these repairs are going to take much longer than first expected.”
“What? Why?” I can feel myself starting to freak out. This can’t take any longer. I need to get back to Manhattan. I can’t be away from work much longer and I need to get out of here. I’m worried that the more time I spend here, the more distanced I will become from my city life, and I can’t let that happen.
8
Trevor
Iknow that the repairs don’t need to take as long as I told Ava. In fact, I could probably get all of the major repairs done within the week. But as much as she as acting like a brat right now, I can’t get over the feeling that Ava should spend a bit longer here at home. Besides, I secretly don’t want her to leave. She’s infuriating at the moment, and I don’t know what has made her flip a switch since our wonderful day yesterday to acting like she hates me and this entire town today. But I have a feeling it has something to do with that kiss. I know it caught her off-guard. Hell, it caught me off-guard too. But unlike her, I am not going to push those feelings away just because they’re confusing.
* * *
Ispend the next several days drawing out the repairs. Sometimes Ava decides to work alongside me because she thinks it will hurry the process up, and sometimes we work a little too closely next to each other, to the point of causing a visceral reaction that I have trouble shaking off. Other times, I just listen to her video chats and conference calls while I work on the repairs alone. Some of the video chats are with a guy who rubs me the wrong way; I can’t help but overhear the way he talks to Ava as if she is some sort of bimbo over the phone. She tells him her ideas, he compliments her makeup or some other bullshit empty accolade, and then completely dismisses whatever she says and moves on to his own ideas—which coincidentally seem to be almost identical to the ones she suggested to begin with.
“Why do you let that guy talk to you like that?” I ask when she hangs up the call.
“What are you talking about?” Ava says as she looks over the top of her laptop screen at me. “He’s my partner. We’re equals in the firm; he’s just bouncing ideas off of me. That’s how we work.”
“Doesn’t sound like that to me. Sounds like he’s being pretty damn condescending and chauvinistic.”
Ava rolls her eyes at me dramatically as she sighs.
“You just don’t understand,” she says. “Men in the city are driven. They don’t like to waste time; they like to get things done without mincing words or wasting time.”
