When I get to the restaurant, I can see that it’s actually more of a club; a VIP club from the looks of it. I’m guessing the owners are friends of Max’s because it seems like exactly the kind of game he would play. I see Ava standing out front and wave to her as I walk up. Despite being a bit nervous, I can’t help but think about how beautiful she is. It doesn’t matter whether she is lying on the grass in an open field or standing on a crowded city street corner. She is the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen.
“Hey,” she smiles when I reach her. “You made it.”
“Yeah, I didn’t even get lost this time,” I laugh.
She looks nervous.
“It’s okay,” I say as I take her hand. “This will all be fine.”
She gives me a small nod, but I can tell that she’s worried about how tonight is going to go. I wish I could just pick her up and leave this whole place, but I know that there’s some sort of game here that needs to be played first.I hate games.
The evening goes as smoothly as I would have expected it to. Max gets a few jabs in about me being a country bumpkin, much to the amusement of the people he’s with. I just ignore it and focus on trying to make Ava feel as comfortable and at ease as possible. I also watch him. I watch Max like a hawk—his facial expressions, his body language, even the words that he hides behind other words. I want to figure this guy out. As the night draws to a close, I start to feel relieved that it’s almost over and we can go home and curl up on the couch again and try to figure out what we’re going to do to make things work. But I should have known that Max wasn’t going to let the evening end without feeling as though he had landed in a solid hit.
“So Trevor,” he says as he pays the waiter for the substantial tab of food and drinks that everyone has indulged in.
It’s kind of funny, because for a work meeting, there hadn’t been any actual talk of work-related stuff. I wonder if this is how all “work” meetings go in the city.
“How is the house in the country coming along?” he asks.
“Fine,” I say, not wanting to get into any sort of conversation with him at all before we leave.
“I was just wondering the other day about what would have happened if Ava’s mother hadn’t died,” he remarks as he eyes Ava from across the table. “I mean, I suppose that’s a rather morbid thing for me to be thinking about, but really, imagine if Ava had never gone back to her shitty little hometown and crossed paths with you again.”
I don’t say anything. I don’t know what to say to that because I’m not sure what he’s trying to do. I can see Ava squirming in her seat next to me uncomfortably.
“Ah, I suppose it doesn’t really matter,” Max continues. “Fortunately, she has all of us here to help her from throwing her life away on some nobody from nowhere.”
“Max!” Ava snaps at him.
“What?” he says. “Didn’t you say so yourself, just the other day? What was it you said again? Oh yes, I remember now. You thanked me forgiving you everything that you’d ever wanted. I believe those were your words, weren’t they?”
I look over at Ava in shock and see the horrified expression on her face.
“No,” she says as she looks at me instead of him. “That was taken out of context.”
“Did you say that?” I ask her in disbelief.
“Yes, but—”
That’s it for me. It was one thing to be made to look like a fool—that I could deal with. But to have it come from Ava was more upsetting than I could take. I get up and walk out, ignoring her calls from behind me and questioning whether I should have even come here at all.
5
Ava
“Trevor, wait!” I call after him as I run out of the restaurant.
“Let him go, Ava,” Max jeers. “He shouldn’t have come to the city to begin with.”
I ignore Max and keep running until I get out onto the street. I look all around me and don’t see Trevor anywhere.
“God damn it, Max,” I say under my breath.
None of this should have happened. I should have never asked Trevor to come tonight. I knew it was a set-up.
“Hey, did you see a guy just come out of here?” I ask the bouncer standing outside the club.
“Yeah, big, muscular guy?”
