“That was a drunken mistake,” Ava insisted, but I heard something else in her tone— and maybe even felt it through the bond, though perhaps that was just wishful thinking. Did Ava not regret the tattoos after all?
“You guys are together all the time,” Chancey pressed.
“We have to be,” I stated. “We share a Familiar. Would you drop it?”
He sighed. “Fine. I actually came over to tell you Captain’s moved our meeting to tomorrow night.”
Bymeeting, he clearly meanttraining session, but we couldn’t talk about fight club like that out in the open.
“Thanks for letting me know,” I said. As much as I loved training, it was nice to have the night off. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“See ya.” Chancey walked off.
I expected Ava to say something to fill the silence, but she didn’t. I got the sense that she was still uncomfortable about the topic of me fighting. But we were going to fix that soon, once she saw me fight next week. After she watched me in the ring, she’d understand why I loved it so much.
Ava sipped her drink loudly. “So, um… you told Chancey I’m your girlfriend?”
“No,” I said quickly, but only because that’s what I knew she wanted me to say. It wasn’t a lie, either. Ihadn’ttold him Ava and I were dating, but I also hadn’t corrected him when he’d called her my girlfriend before. “Chancey’s just… well, you know how he is.”
“I’ve heard stories from Ivy.” She snickered.
I almost inhaled my drink. “I’m not talking about how he is in bed! Ancestors, it’s like you’re obsessed with Chancey’s love life.”
She laughed. “Don’t you ever wonder?”
“Wonderwhat?”
“About people,” she said nonchalantly. “Don’t tell me you’ve never questioned how big Marcus’ dick is.”
“No!” I practically screamed, before lowering my voice. “Why would I ever wonder that?”
“You’d think it was small, but it’s massive— maybe even bigger than yours.”
“Did Kalina tell you that?”
Ava snickered as she slurped another sip of her drink. “No. She hasn’t seen it yet. But I bet it’s huge.”
“I’mnottaking that bet.”
“So you think it’s huge, too?” she asked. “Or do youknow? What have you seen in the showers? Tell me.”
“First of all, I haven’tseenanything,” I emphasized. “I’m blind, for the ancestors’ sake. Do you really think I’m going around groping people in the showers?”
Her tone brightened. “Why? Are you?”
“Pidge!” I couldn’t believe we were having this conversation.
“The Institute can get so fucking boring sometimes,” she complained. “I needsomethingto think about.”
“And you automatically go to dicks,” I stated flatly. “Of course you do.”
“A girl can have hobbies,” she teased.
“Yeah, but it shouldn’t be every dick in the Institute. Just—”
I started to say more, but I cut off. The truth was, the only dick I wanted her thinking about wasmine.
“Just what?” she asked curiously.
