1
Ava
Iam so shocked to see my senior partner from the firm here in my lowly, little, rustic hometown that I follow him around the house like a confused puppy as he looks for a bedroom to unpack his things in.
“Max, what are you doing here?” I ask as I stand in the doorway to one of the guest bedrooms in my mother’s house and watch him toss his suitcase up onto the bed.
“I already told you,” he answers, shooting me back a grin. “I came here to work offsite with you.”
“But there is no reason for you to have come all this way. I’ve been keeping up with everything via video chat. I just talked to you online yesterday.”
I can’t believe that he drove all the way from Manhattan to here. Max is a senior partner at the firm; surely, he has better and more important things to do than to drive to Fairport, New York to check in on me. I can feel Trevor’s eyes staring into the room from behind me. He didn’t like Max even over the phone, so I can only imagine how much he dislikes him here now that he has barged into my mother’s home uninvited. It is unusual, to say the least. I’ve never known one of the senior partners to make house calls, especially not ones that are a half a day’s drive away. I have been doing my job and keeping up with the project, so it’s not even like a trip to check up on me is warranted.
“Look,” Max says as he walks toward me and puts his hand on my shoulder. “I know that you always think you have everything under control, and for the most part you do. But this project we’re currently working on is way too important to blow. Not that I think you’re going to blow it, just that I want to make sure it’s all under wraps. We have alotof work to do on it still, and I just think it will be easier if we do it together.”
I can’t really argue that, since he has seniority over me and since he didn’t say anything that was actuallywrong. I might not really get his motives for driving all the way here, but his words sound above board. It sounds like he was willing to make the trip just to make sure the project goes off without a hitch since he and I are the two people doing the most work on it.
“Let’s get started,” Max says as he pulls his laptop out of his bag.
“Uh, okay,” I say. I turn to look at Trevor and shrug. “I think you’ll have to work on the repairs on your own today. I have work that I need to do with Max.”
Max laughs from behind me.
“Oh Ava, don’t tell me that the handyman has been wrangling you into helping him do repairs on this old dump.”
“He’s not the handyman, Max,” I clarify again. “He’s an old friend of my mine, and this place isn’t a dump; it was my mother’s house and my childhood home.”
Max rolls his eyes and pushes past us through the doorway to head to the living room.
“Delightful,” Trevor says as he glares at him walking down the hall.
“Yeah, Max can take some getting used to if you aren’t familiar with hisbigpersonality,” I say. I thought that was a nice way of phrasing the fact that Max could be a real asshole sometimes.
“Is that what you call it?” Trevor huffs. “Well, I’m willing to bet that his personality is the only big thing about him.”
I giggle and smack him playfully on the chest.
“I’ll help with repairs tomorrow,” I say as I follow Max into the living room to get to work. “Unless I can get done early, and then I’ll come find you.”
I can tell that Trevor isn’t pleased that I will be working alongside Max today instead of with him. I’m hoping that I can breeze through the design work for today quickly and then still have time to go work on a few things with Trevor. But every time I think we are about finished for the day Max keeps me occupied with something else that needs to get done. As it stretches late into the afternoon, I am still unable to get away to help Trevor work on the house, which not only slows down the progress on the repairs, but also dramatically increases the level of angst between us. I can see Trevor watching me carefully from the corner of his eyes as Max and I are working on the designs and on video conferences with other partners at the firm in Manhattan. He seems like he is on edge, and I can tell why. Max keeps scooting himself closer to me on the couch, saying that he is trying to get inside the camera window for the video calls, but really there’s no need. The scope of the video chat covers the entire room, which makes it seem as if he’s just trying to cozy up to me for some reason. Every time I catch Trevor’s eye, I can tell that it’s really pissing him off. I can also tell by his exasperated expression that he thinks I don’t notice it, but I do. I notice everything Max does; I’m just trying to ignore it and get the work done.
But the entire time that I’m trying to focus on work, I can’t help but daydream about the intimacy that Trevor and I shared instead, and how much I wantmoreof it. Every time Trevor walks past us to get a tool that he “accidentally” left on the table or to wash his hands in the kitchen sink, I am constantly distracted by watching him. Everything about him turns me on and makes me lose track of what I was thinking about before he walked into the room. Everything about the way he moves makes me think about how it felt to have him inside of me.
I find myself getting more and more stressed as I try to balance my responsibility with work, trying to fend off Max’s slow scoot toward me while I am already as far pressed against the side of the couch as I can go, and the unrelenting longing that I feel for Trevor. I feel like I need some fresh air in order to breathe again and clear my head.
I’m not sure if Max is picking up on how flustered I am or not, but he seems to be momentarily distracted himself. But then, as if he had some sort of random and spontaneous glitch, Max’s hand that has been holding his coffee jerks in a sudden motion and spills his hot coffee all over me. I shout and hop up from the couch. It’s not that hot, definitely not hot enough to burn me, but the shock of it startles me enough to make me jump.
“Oh Jesus, I’m so sorry,” Max says in an overly dramatic way as he grabs a napkin from the coffee table and starts rubbing it against the coffee stain on my chest.
I am just about to tell him to stop and that it’s no big deal, but before I can even open my mouth, Trevor is standing there beside me. He grabs Max’s hand and pushes it away from me as I turn to see the angry expression on his face. I don’t think the spill was an accident, and I think that Trevor knows it.
2
Trevor
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I shout at the idiot in front of me wearing a designer suit in the middle of a small town living room.
“Take your hand off me,” Max snaps. “I washelpingher.”
