I shoved again but Luke still didn’t move.
“You’re lying,” he said.
“I am not!”
His face came closer. The closer I thought it would have come a moment ago when, for one heart-stopping, insane moment, it seemed like he was going to kiss me. This time, it came in threateningly.
“You waltz in here, after five years, not lookin’ like you, not actin’ like you, jittery and bitchy, somethin’ I never would have expected from you. You lie through your teeth then stare at my mouth like you want to stick your tongue down my throat and when I’m ready to give you that opportunity, you go back to bitchy and lying.”
I was staring at him. I couldn’t help it. I’d never heard anyone be that brutally honest before in my life.
And he told me he was going to give me the opportunity to kiss him.
Um… wow.
“I’m not playin’ this game, Ava,” he warned, snapping me out of my thoughts. Gentle, affectionate Luke totally gone, we were back to dangerously pissed off Luke. “You got trouble, you tell me right now so I can help you. I find out another way, you’ll pay.”
My head jerked. “What?”
“You heard me.”
I had heard him and I couldn’t believe what I had heard. “Did you just threaten me?” I asked.
“It wasn’t a threat.”
Read: It was a promise.
Yikes.
I didn’t know what “paying” would entail and I sure as hell wasn’t going to find out.
“I’m not in trouble,” I told him. And I wasn’t, not really. Okay, maybe a little bit. But I was worried I was about to be in a lot in trouble.
“I find out you are…”
“You won’t find out I am. In fact, I can promise you won’t see me again,” I bit out, glaring at him.
“I’ll see you again,” he said in a way that I felt a thrill go up my back.
Seriously, it was high time to escape.
“Step back,” I demanded.
He stared at me.
“Step back!” I shouted.
He stepped back.
I whirled, threw open the door and stomped down the hall.
Then I was twirled around, a hand at my elbow and I jerked my arm out of Luke’s grasp. He was, for some reason, now grinning, face relaxed, one corner of his lips tipped up.
“Wrong way,” he said and he looked about ready to laugh.
Great.
I was a total dork, making my grand exit and going the wrong way.
I threw him a look that should have made him spontaneously combust (of course, it did not) and stomped the other way, Luke beside me the whole time. His vibe had morphed from pissed off to amused and I didn’t like it one bit.
He opened the door to the reception area for me and I hightailed it across the room, focused on the outer door and escape and not looking at anyone.
“Later,” I said to the room at large because I didn’t want to appear rude.
For some reason, this was met with Shirleen saying, “I’ll put money down that she’s livin’ with him in four days.”
My confused gaze swung to Shirleen but she was looking at the movie star glamour girl who was looking at me.
“Three days,” Glamour girl said, smiling at me and I thought, in other circumstances, I would have liked to meet her.
“A week, she’s got spirit,” the other black lady said. She was smiling at me too, not like I was the butt of some joke, but in a kind way.
I shook my head, I needed to focus, leave these nutsos behind and go, go, go.
I opened the outer door.
Before it closed behind me, I heard Luke say strangely, “Tonight.”
Then everyone laughed.
Chapter Two
A Little Bit of Trouble
I was standing in my dinky little kitchen, taking my post-Luke episode attitude out on an innocent cucumber.
That didn’t go very well, Good Ava said on a sigh, resting the side of her head in her hand and her elbow on her thigh.
I thought it went great! Bad Ava yelled enthusiastically, jumping up and down.
I tried to ignore them both and pounded the big cleaver into the cucumber, chopping it in a cucumber-decimating frenzy, trying to get the confrontation with Luke and everyone in his office out of my head.
*
I lived in a row house in the Highlands area of Denver. I called it The Best Little Row House in Denver.
See? I’m a dork.