“You’re not going,” Luke said.
I narrowed my eyes at Luke. “I’m going.”
“Matt’s goin’.” Luke returned.
I opened my mouth to say something but Matt moved. “No problem. Diet pop,” Matt said.
“Get a case,” Luke told him.
My eyes bugged out. A case of diet would last me a month.
Matt burst out laughing and hit the button on the elevator.
“I don’t need a case. I just need one,” I told Matt.
“A case,” Luke said decisively.
The elevator doors opened and Matt walked in. “I’ll get a case,” he told Luke and the doors closed.
“Really, that’s unnecessary,” I said to Luke.
He didn’t reply.
I sighed, heavy and annoyed. He wanted a case of diet? Fine. Who cared?
I gave up and scrolled through my missed calls: five from Sissy, one from Riley.
Hmm. Riley. Interesting.
“Ava,” my head came up and I looked at Luke.
Shit. It was time for the talk.
“Do you have any food?” I asked in an effort to delay. I didn’t like to eat before I’d had my diet soda but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Do you mind?”
His body relaxed and his lips moved. They kind of twitched, like he knew my thoughts and found me amusing but was trying not to smile.
I squelched the desire to throw my phone at him as he offered, “Help yourself.”
I dropped my phone in my purse, walked around the counter the opposite side to Luke, and went to his fridge.
I was stunned to see it was packed with healthy eating options: low-fat yogurt, high-quality, multi-grain bread, tons of fruit and veggies. I spied a half a cantaloupe wrapped in cling film and pulled it out.
“Can I have some cantaloupe?” I asked, turning to Luke.
He tilted his chin up in a nonverbal “yes”.
There was a cutting board in his sink. I put down the cantaloupe and went to work cleaning the cutting board.
“You’re well-stocked.” Again, I was delaying “the talk”.
“Sandra went shopping.”
“Sandra?”
“A woman I’m seein’.”
At his words it took every bit of energy I had not to freeze, gasp or maybe vomit.
Of course he would be seeing someone. Luke was hot. Luke was a guy. Luke had a testosterone-fuelled job. He had to be getting it from someone. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would be faithful to his hand like I was faithful to my vibrators.
“Will she mind if I eat her cantaloupe?” I asked, drying the board and not looking at him.
“It’s my cantaloupe. Sandra got it but I paid for it and it’s in my fridge,” he answered.
I nodded, set down the board, unwrapped the cantaloupe and grabbed a knife out of a big butcher block and started cutting. I tried not to think about the messy bed Luke threw me into last night and hoped he hadn’t thrown me into a bed that got messy through his activities with another woman.
I failed at not thinking about it.
“Will she mind that I spent the night?”
Why did you ask that? Silly girl, Good Ava remonstrated me.
I’m so sure! He handcuffed you to him and slept with you when he’s seeing someone else. What a jerk, Bad Ava huffed.
“We’re not exclusive so it’s none of her business,” Luke answered.
See! He’s a jerk, Bad Ava ranted.
Good Ava kept her silence, likely pouting.
He had come to stand by me at the counter. I could see the side of his hip leaning against it out of the corner of my eye. I ignored the hip and kept cutting.
“Do you want cantaloupe?” I asked, keeping my eyes on my task.
“No, I want to stop talking about cantaloupe and start talking about your troubles.”
Shit.
“Okay,” I said, still cutting. Then I was silent.
So was Luke, for a moment, then he broke the silence.
“Ava,” his voice held a warning.
My mind raced for an excuse for another delay and it found none.
Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Time to get it over with.
“Um… well. You know my friend Sissy?” I asked, eyes on the melon.
“Yeah.”
“She’s married to Dominic Vincetti.”
“I worked that part out,” he told me.
“Now, they’re kind of separated.”
Silence.
“She’s going to file for divorce.”
More silence.
“She’s up in Wyoming, staying with her Mom.”
I looked at the cantaloupe and realized I had cut far too much for just myself. Oh well, at least Sandra wouldn’t have to worry about cutting up the cantaloupe next time she was there. I put down the knife, picked up a chunk of melon and popped it into my mouth.
“Are you done?” Luke asked, my eyes slid sideways to look at him and I swallowed.
“Um… yeah.”
“That’s it? Your trouble is that Sissy’s filing for divorce?”
I grabbed another chunk and put it into my mouth while I turned to him and leaned my hip against the counter. “She’s my best friend. Her troubles are my troubles.”
Luke stared at me for a beat then said, “So why were you there last night?”