I spend the afternoon finishing up the current work with Max, and then go back to helping Trevor with repairs in order to speed things up while Max finishes some video chats. I can hear Max getting things set up for the new project and talking to the other partners about my new position at the firm. There is so much agitated awkwardness between Trevor and I as we work side by side, that neither of us says anything for a long while. On top of that, the sexual angst between us is still thick. Every time we accidentally brush up against each other, I am instantly reminded of last night and have to stop myself from completely derailing my thoughts into wanting to stop everything else and make love to him again now.
“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about why I said you should take the offer and go,” Trevor says as I hold a long wire in place for him.
I sincerely hope that he knows what he’s doing and that I don’t get electrocuted in this process.
“You don’t need to tell me your reasons,” I say as I cut him off. I know that whatever he has to say is just going to make this worse and make me more sad and upset about it. “You have your life here and I have mine. It was silly to think that things would be any different than that.”
He keeps trying to explain himself to me and I keep pretending that I’m not listening and don’t care.
“It’s not that I don’t care about you,” Trevor continues. “It’sbecauseI care about you that I think you should take it.”
I am very aware of the fact that I am being stubborn and so is he, which is exactly how I want it. I want him to know that I won’t listen to him about it now. It doesn’t matter what he says to me now. He already said that I should “take it and go,” and that is enough of an answer right there. I had no intention of coming here and being disarmed by him and letting my guard down, or letting him in. And now that I have, I find myself again in a position where I don’t feel like I am in control of anything. I should have listened to my gut feeling about all of this to begin with and never have agreed to stay more than a day or two. I should never have let a guy (and especially not two guys) interfere with my goals. As far as I am concerned now,allmen suck and I am going to throw myself into focusing solely on my career.
8
Trevor
Ihave to give it to Ava; she doesn’t waste any time once she sets her mind on something. The next day, the realtor is already coming to look at the house.
“Ava, so good to see you,” the woman says as she walks inside. “And this is your husband?”
She looks down at our hands and is visibly turned around to see no rings there.
“My mistake, I assume this is your boyfriend instead?” she says as she thinks she is correcting the situation instead of making it infinitely more unnerving.
“No,” Ava says bluntly. “This is the co-owner of the house.”
The realtor reaches to shake my hand and then pauses as she stares at me.
“Trevor? My gosh, that is you. Well, this is just such a small town, isn’t it?” she says with a wide smile. “I knewbothof your parents. Ava, I knew your mother, and Trevor, I knew your father. Have to love living in such a small place and knowing everyone, right?”
“Right,” Ava says. There was more than a touch of sarcasm in her voice.
“Boy, I just don’t know why you want to rush into selling this place,” the woman says. “Both of your parents put a lot of work and a lot of themselves into this house. You two sure you want to let that go?”
“Yes,” Ava says quickly as if she is trying to make sure she doesn’t let herself back out of her decision now that it’s been made.
As we walk around the house, the realtor seems to be dragging her feet with the formalities of the process and the paperwork. I get the sense that she is also picking up on some feelings between me and Ava because she keeps looking between the two of us and smiling. Every once in a while, she frowns, as if she knows things aren’t exactly smooth sailing between us at the moment, but then she goes back to a smile and to talking about how she would suggest waiting for another few weeks before making the listing go live. But Ava demands that the house be put on the market immediately, and so I concede to agree with her. Just before the realtor leaves, she plunks a “for sale” sign down in the yard. I walk the realtor out to her car while Ava goes back inside.
“It would be a mistake to let her go without a fight,” she says with a kind and gentle expression.
“What, the house?” I ask. There isn’t much I can do about that except try to stall the sale, but since I was the one who told Ava to take the offer and go, it wouldn’t be right of me to hold things up now.
“No, not the house,” the realtor says. “Ava. I can see that you two have feelings for each other. It would be a mistake to let her go back to the city without a fight.”
Later that night, after I get out of the shower and am walking back to my room, I hear soft crying coming from Ava’s room. I stand just outside her door, which is open a tiny sliver, and I almost go in and comfort her. But then, after a few stalled moments on the other side of the door, I decide that it’s just better for her to move on again and forget about me.
The next few days, we finish up repairs without too much interaction. Several interested buyers come to look at the house while we are working. One of them makes a serious offer.
“Okay,” the realtor says while she is here on her second visit to the house. “This offer is a good one. If you’re sure about selling the house, then the decision hinges solely upon both of your signatures on the paperwork. I’ll let you sit on it for a day.”
She hands me the stack of documents and then leaves.
I can hear Max packing up his things and taking them out to his car and getting ready to leave in the morning. He was preparing to lead Ava back to the city she loves; a place that I am a complete foreigner to. I hand Ava the paperwork. She can sign them first. I don’t want to.
Later that night, I can see through the open door that the stack of paperwork is sitting on top of the nightstand next to her bed. I wonder if she’ll sign it all tonight or whether she needs to sleep on it. Maybe the morning will bring a new and clear answer. But I am mostly just worried that tomorrow Ava will leave with Max and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it. When I casually peek in a second time as I pretend to go and get some water, I can see that the documents are no longer on the nightstand. She must be reading them over now and getting ready to sign.
9
