19. Ava

Chapter 19

Ava

" Y ou're psychotic. You know that, right?"

The bitter wind whipped at my back as I crossed at Essex and Delancey with the phone to my ear. I quickened my step and narrowly avoided getting clipped by a taxi, but I could see her from here, could see her looking around anxiously as she waited. "I'm not," I snapped. "I just want to see how this goes."

"You're…what, at least thirty minutes from home? If you don't want him to do this, just call him," Emily groaned, the tinniness of her voice through the line hitting something angry in my skull.

"She's here," I said. "And I don't want to make that decision for him, Em."

Heather's chestnut hair blew in the breeze, and she pulled a few strands away from her lips. I glanced down Delancey Street, double-checking for any sign of him, before tucking into the southern side of Essex in case he got out of a passing car.

"You're just going to upset yourself. What's your plan, Aves? Stay out there all night? Buy a balaclava and follow them inside?"

I crossed over Essex and positioned myself at a right angle to Heather—just around a corner. I leaned against the edge of the wall and kept my sights set on her. "I don't know. Probably not."

" Probably not?" Em laughed. "A normal answer would be ‘no, definitely not'."

"Where is he?"

"Are you even listening to me? Should I just let you go so you can stake out your crush in peace?"

"Yes, I'm listening," I sighed. "What time is it?"

"Seven thirty-one."

"He's late."

"Ava. There's probably traffic. You know damn well no one gets anywhere on time here." The unmistakable sound of a nail file scraping filtered down the line.

The crosswalk's light turned green across the street not ten feet up from me, and as the crowd moved and shifted, a head of gray and black hair came into view. "Shit, shit, shit, he's here."

I tucked myself further back around the corner, giving myself just enough space to be able to see him if I leaned out from the wall. Adrian seemed to suck the air from everything around him, and the closer he got, the less I felt like I could breathe. He looked nice in his black slacks and sweater. He wore the same jacket he'd taken to the beach.

"Ooh, what's he doing?"

"Walking toward the exhibit, obviously," I hissed.

I watched as he stepped up onto the sidewalk, my chest fucking cracking as he spotted her.

"He found her."

He crossed the steady flow of foot traffic, and I moved further up the wall so I could poke my head fully around the corner.

"Great! You can go home now," Em said.

His brows furrowed, but he grinned at her, his lips moving around words I couldn't quite make out except for one: Heather .

"Shh," I said.

He held out a hand to her. From where I stood, I couldn't make out her face anymore, and as she shook his hand and her body pitched forward with a laugh, I focused in on Adrian instead. He was speaking again, his brows curving up at the center, and two words were easily readable: thank you.

She took a step back and turned, and a second later, she moved around him and started walking down Delaney away from either of us.

"What the fuck?" I breathed.

Adrian waited where he stood, watching her for a fraction of a second, before taking a step back toward the crosswalk.

This didn't make fucking sense.

"What? What's happening?—"

I hit the button on the side of my phone that would end the call and shoved it into my pocket. Fuck hiding, fuck watching him from the corner, fuck all of this—I'd spent an entire day's work finding potential matches for him, spent my time and my energy on something that emotionally hurt me, and he was just going to send her away?

I stepped out from the corner that hugged Essex Street, putting myself fully in view of him. "Adrian!"

His head whipped in my direction, and for a second, it felt like time slowed—like the people around me were walking at half speed, like sounds of the cars were filtering in through cotton wool, like I couldn't breathe .

Bright blue eyes met mine, and he froze.

"Ava?"

I didn't want to imagine how jarring it must have been for him for me to pop out of nowhere. Not when I couldn't fucking wrap my head around this. But he moved toward me, and I didn't know what to do, didn't know how to react . I watched him, watched as he grew larger in my vision, watched as he took up parts of me I didn't want to give up. Two steps before he reached me, his eyes glanced down to my mouth, and I finally got words out. "What the fuck was that…"

Warm hands cupped either side of my face, and before I could finish what I wanted to say, his lips met mine.

He kissed me, and everything just…stopped.