23. Ava

Chapter 23

Ava

W hy the fuck didn't he text me?

Dad's phone had gone off thirty seconds before Adrian's tall, overwhelming form had stepped through the doors of my father's penthouse. I sat on the sofa opposite Dad's recliner, the lighting low and the curtains drawn, in my leggings and paint-stained band shirt from last night. I wasn't dumb enough to turn up in one of Adrian's shirts, even if there was a chance Dad had never seen it before.

But I knew what the heat that filled my skin meant, and it had crept across my cheeks and neck the moment Adrian's eyes had locked with mine.

Before they turned to my father.

I just had to hope that the unexpected arrival was enough to keep Dad's attention off me while I got myself under control.

"David," Adrian said, his eyes wide and chest heaving as if he'd run up the sixty flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. "I'm sorry. I need to talk to you, now ."

What?

"Yeah, I figured as much."

What does he need…

Bile crept up my esophagus as the immediate, horrifying worry hit me: Is he going to tell him?

Adrian's name crossed my lips, slightly cracked, slightly hoarse, and sharp blue eyes cut across to me. He shook his head, just a quick, little action that was nearly imperceivable, and he turned back to my Dad as he pushed himself up from his recliner.

"Office, then."

Dad padded across the floor in his full suit without socks or shoes, the fabric clinging unnaturally to his small beer gut. He beckoned Adrian to follow, and both of them slipped away, leaving me alone on the couch with a glass of wine that I could only imagine Adrian would gush about. But I felt too nauseous to drink it now.

What the fuck was going on? Why was he here, now, when he knew I'd be here? How did he expect me to act calmly when he and my father were alone in the same room?

Seconds after they disappeared, my phone screen lit up.

Adrian: Not about us.

Adrian: Try not to worry.

Trying not to worry about that was like trying not to breathe.

I knew I needed to be okay with things. Whatever the hell we were doing wasn't going to magically vanish from memory, and Adrian was close friends with my dad. They would have to be alone together sometimes. But with whatever the hell was going on that had brought him here with almost no announcement, two hours after he'd last had his hands on me before basically rushing us both out of his apartment, I couldn't help but feel nauseous and panicked and fucking worried .

Sinking my fingers into the warm, plush fabric of the throw blanket, I pulled it from its neatly folded spot on the back of the couch and draped it over myself. I wanted to hide beneath it like a child, but I was old enough to recognize how insane that would look to my father if he stepped out of his office with his friend to his twenty-five-year-old daughter lying on the couch with a dark blue blanket over her head.

I had to wait this out. I could wait this out.

————

"Stay for a bit. Have a drink with us."

Two sets of footsteps padded down the hall along with my father's voice, and it took everything in me to not whip around to look at both of them. Whatever they were discussing wasn't meant to concern me, and if I tried to insert myself…

"David…"

"Don't try an' get outta it. You need it."

For fucks sake.

I waited until they'd both entered my line of sight to lift my head from my phone. "Everything okay?" I asked, the warble in my voice almost entirely gone.

Adrian stood at the far end of the sofa, his gaze flicking back and forth between me and my dad. "It's fine," he said. A muscle in his jaw twitched, and G od , the lines on his forehead looked so much deeper. "Nothing you need to worry about, Ava. Just having some issues with Stone & Co. It shouldn't affect David too much."

Dad's hand pressed down on my shoulder as he passed me, and it should have been a comforting touch—it was something he'd done hundreds, if not thousands of times before. But with everything hanging over me, it felt heavy.

"I'll get you a glass, Adrian," Dad called over his shoulder.

He disappeared around the corner a second later.

"I'm so sorry," Adrian whispered. "I should have warned you I was coming."

"What the fuck is happening?" I asked, keeping my voice low enough that Dad wouldn't hear two rooms over. The muffled sounds of clinking glass didn't help with my anxiety.

"I'll explain later. Please, Ava, don't worry about it."

"I'm already worried about it."

His gaze flicked to the entrance of the hallway and back to me. "I know. I'll get out of here as quickly as I can."

"That's not…"

Dad's footsteps echoed heavily as he walked back toward the room, and all I could do was shut my mouth. I pulled up my texts with Adrian instead.

Me: I'm not worried because you're around my dad.

"Grabbed another bottle," Dad announced, setting down a glass in front of the space beside me on the sofa and filling it with freshly opened wine. Adrian hesitated before sinking into the couch a healthy distance from me.

Me: Okay, that's a lie. I am a little worried because of that. But mostly because you look like you just got hit by the metro.

"Thanks, Dave," Adrian sighed. He picked up the glass of wine and leaned back into the cushions. With one hand, he shot me back a reply.

Adrian: I had to shut down an event while it was happening.

Adrian: Your dad's business was one of the sponsors. I had to speak to him.

Adrian: I'm sorry for worrying you.

"Aves and I were chattin' about her matchmaking schtick before you turned up," Dad said, filling the dead silence as Adrian and I stared at our phones. "How's that goin' for ‘ya, Adrian? Heard you were on a date earlier."

I nearly choked on my sip of wine.

Adrian looked across at him, his thumb hovering over his screen. "How did you…?"

"When I got the call earlier about the conference, I asked to speak with ‘ya but Andrew said you were out galavantin' with some girl," Dad laughed. "Figured I'd let ‘em sort it out and speak to you if it got worse."

Me: Adrian.

Me: Adrian what the fuck do we say to that??

"Oh. Andrew was who called you?"

Me: ADRIAN.

"Yeah, seemed real worried ‘bout the whole thing. I told him to do whatever was necessary and I'd worry about the ramifications later," Dad explained.

"Right. Got you," Adrian said.

Adrian: I'm working on it.

"Yeah, it was a second date, actually," he continued, shutting off his screen and shoving his phone into his pocket. My hands went clammy, and all I could do was pretend they weren't and that it wasn't getting increasingly hard to hold a glass of wine in my hand. "All of Ava's choices after we went to the Hamptons have been spot on. That was a great suggestion. But I'm really liking this one."

"Oh, that's fucking great news!" Dad boomed, pitching forward in his chair in excitement as if he'd won the goddamn lottery again. "What'ser name?"

"Heather," I interjected. "Her name's Heather."

Dad's grin only grew. "See? Told ‘ya she'd do ‘ya right."

Do not read into that, Ava, oh my God.

"And I told ‘ya that trip would help," he chuckled. "I could see it all from a mile away. You're goddamn lucky I trust ya, Ade, ‘cause that never woulda happened with anyone else."

My throat closed in.

"Even after today?" Adrian asked, a breathy, barely-there laugh tainting the words.

"Of course."

————

"Are you going?"

The words flew out of my mouth as Dad and Adrian rounded the corner from the kitchen. They'd migrated there ages ago to talk business, leaving me alone and anxious in my boredom for two fucking hours. The clock was ticking toward ten in the evening, and I just wanted to go back with Adrian, wanted to spend the time I had left with him before Lucas came back tomorrow.

"Yeah, I'm heading out," Adrian said, plucking his coat from the closet by the door. "It's getting late. Do you want a ride home?"

The way his eyes glinted as he met my gaze told me everything I needed to know.

"That would be great," I grinned.

"You can just stay the night, Aves," Dad said. "It's cold out there, anyhow."

Shit. I needed to get him off of that idea before he could settle on it and enforce it. "I would, but I've actually got a ton of work to do before I see Em tomorrow."

"I can set ya up upstairs…"

"I haven't backed up all my client files yet to the cloud," I lied. "Sorry, Dad. Maybe tomorrow night?"

Dad sighed and knocked back the rest of his wine. " Fine . Movie night?"

I pulled myself up from the sofa and grinned at him. "You got it."

Dad pulled my coat from the closet and I slipped it on before shoving my feet into my boots. He and Adrian idly talked business while I gathered the handful of things I'd come in with, and with a quick hug and a promise to come back tomorrow night for a screening of The Goonies , Adrian and I slipped quietly out the door and into the private landing that connected us to the elevator.

We didn't dare say a word. We didn't even touch, but the air between us felt thick enough to slice, and as we stared at each other in absolute, horrified silence while we waited for the elevator, I searched for words I wanted to say when we finally could.

But the moment the elevator doors shut behind us, he was on me instead.

He kissed me hard enough to send me back into the mirrored steel wall, his hands cupping my cheeks, his knee between my thighs. And so easily, again, he made me dizzy.