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Chapter 25
As the weeksof November pushed through, Xander became unsure if he should go to New York for Thanksgiving. He wanted to see his family and friends, but he knew that he would also encounter Ava. Almost three months later and he still felt the devastation that her email had caused him. He knew that she was right. He didn’t deserve her love but to see her again would cause him more pain.
Xander sat in his office looking out the window that overlooked the city of Los Angeles. He hated doing this type of legal work. Yes, the salary was great and so were the benefits, but it was boring, nothing like the work he did in Manhattan. He didn’t know what Lidia saw in the West Coast. The weather was wonderful, but he could do without the wildfires and who knew when you would have an earthquake.
Kaycee had taught him to surf, and he was enjoying that immensely. He was athletic and had great balance. She was terrific at it and even won several surfing contests when she was younger. She was a child of privilege, much the way he had been. She spent vacations in Europe and skiing in Switzerland. She was well traveled and talked to him about taking a vacation cruise to Alaska. He had always wanted to go to Alaska, but he wasn’t sure of anything these days — including Kaycee.
Kaycee was excited to go with him to meet his parents and see the city during the holidays. This was one time of year she had not been there. He didn’t want to disappoint her, and she would question why he changed his mind. She was like a shark in chummed waters and would interrogate him until she got the truth. Since he hadn’t revealed much about his relationship with Ava, she would be shocked by his deception. His best choice would be to suck up his pride, put a smile on his face and go.
When Lidia found out he was going to the engagement party, she questioned his motives. He had told her that it had nothing to do with Ava. He had been friends with Robert Keene for his entire life and how would it look if he said no? She called him on his bullshit. She liked Kaycee as an attorney, but as a girlfriend for her brother, she was all wrong. Xander often acquiesced to her requests rather than argue. He wasn’t the same brother she knew when they were little. His break up with Ava had taken something from him — his will to fight.
He frequently talked about New York and wondered what the seasons were like there now. He loved autumn, and there was none of that weather in Los Angeles. He loved to ski and play football in the crisp air. He loved to walk around the city when the snow fell. Christmas was going to be hard on him this year since he enjoyed going ice skating at Rockefeller Center and viewing the decorated windows on Fifth Avenue.
Lidia wanted to call Rachel to ask if she would give Ava’s number to her but her brother was a big boy. If he were going to reconcile with Ava Keene he would need to do it on his own. He could be so stubborn sometimes. But even though he was dating Kaycee she could see he still carried pain. One afternoon, she finished the laundry and was loading his boxers in his dresser drawer. The drawer was a bit of a mess, and she removed everything to straighten it out. She found the little velvet box and opened it to reveal the engagement ring. This ring was not something he bought for Kaycee; it was for Ava. She also found the ring on the chain he had worn before Ava broke up with him.
She found the notebooks he was keeping on the top shelf of his closet. She hadn’t meant to snoop, but she was looking for some new sheets she had stored on that shelf. She reached up, and her hand grasped the notebooks. She took them down and was torn by what she read. The oldest dates were from when he still lived in Saratoga. They must have come in the boxes Janelle had shipped him. The newest dates were in another notebook, and they were sad. He wrote an entry every day to Ava. It made her angry because she wanted to shake the both of them. They belonged together.
She placed them back where she found them. Xander would be upset with her if she knew that she snooped in his room. She could only hope that his visit to New York would quiet the demons that he carried with him. It was possible they could make them worse.
The civil case against the trucking company was moving along well. They had already made an offer that Kaycee rejected because it was too low. Brett and Lidia had lost a lot when they were injured, and Kaycee planned on getting them the best settlement she could. Lidia hoped that if she and Xander broke up that it wouldn’t cause a conflict of interest.
* * *
The days startedto pass by quickly before the Thanksgiving holiday. On either coast, Xander and Ava both felt the weight of their unavoidable meeting. Ava had no choice in the matter because she was Sam’s maid of honor. How would it look if she didn’t attend the engagement party? As each night got closer to the holiday, she wanted to take a drink to remove the edge off her anxiety, but she was worried she would go overboard.
On the Tuesday before the party, she went out to buy herself a dress. She normally would have asked for Rachel’s advice, but this time, she had a very specific dress in mind. It would have all the revealing elements that Xander loved. The color was something that was important, and she dealt with the cold weather as she went in and out of the shops on Fifth Avenue. She located the perfect dress and color at Saks. He more than likely wouldn’t be able to keep his eyes off of her and that was the result she wanted.
She wanted him to regret the email that he had sent to her. Only Sam and David knew the true nature of their break up, and they would never reveal those details to anyone. She still had her doubts about David and if he had been the one to put the tracking software on her phone. It was just something else that she had anxiety about, confronting him. He was coming with her father and stepmother to New York for Thanksgiving. He wanted to stay with her, but she told him it was better he stayed with her aunt and uncle. She was vulnerable and didn’t want a repeat of the sex that they had a few weeks ago.
They still texted each other daily, but she was cool to him because she was angry. She knew she was getting ahead of herself and should wait for his explanation. They were flying into JFK on Wednesday afternoon, and David was going to come over to see her that evening. She could have gone to her aunt and uncle’s house, but she was afraid that she would have a screaming match with him in front of everyone. She convinced herself that it was him.
Wednesday dragged for her. She had awakened at 4:00 AM and had not been able to go back to sleep. Instead, she got dressed and went to the gym. Robert was not there since he was moving around to each location daily. She had jogged to the gym, and by the time she got there, her nose was running from the cold. She did over an hour of cardio on the treadmill doing interval training. On the run home, the sun was just starting to peek in the morning sky.
She got to the office early before most of the legal staff and some of the attorneys. Ava had nothing to do until Jacob arrived and she sat at her desk organizing it. She noted that at least one aspect of her life was neat. She was hoping that by the end of the weekend everything would be worked out in all aspects and she could move on.
Sam had confirmed the day before that Xander was bringing Kaycee and in her haste to find a date, she asked Tim. She knew it was a mistake right after she asked. He was much too eager to escort her and began prattling on about meeting her father. She knew she only wanted to be friends with him, but he never got the message. There were too many strange things about him that baffled her. He was very secretive about some things and lately, he had been anxious to come up to her apartment, asking her over and over for reasons to stop by.
She realized that it was time to tell him that he could only be her friend and even that was a stretch. Tim had been very jittery the last few times they had gone out, reacting to loud noises as if they were gunshots. Ava had asked him if he was alright, but he brushed it off saying he was fine. She didn’t think he was fine. She also noticed the distinct smell of marijuana on him more than once. He didn’t seem like the type to smoke it, but she didn’t know everything about his personal life.
That night she waited for David to text her to let him know he was on his way over to her apartment. This was the time she could have used a drink, but she had dumped everything down the sink after her overindulgences got her in trouble. He arrived shortly before 7:00 PM. She was happy to see him and sat him down on the couch right after he removed his coat.
“I need to ask you something, and I don’t want you to get upset.”
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “It obviously is bad if you’re saying that. What did I do?”
She took a deep breath and blurted it out. “Did you put anything on my phone when I was in the pool house? Please don’t lie to me.”
“I can’t believe you would even ask me something like that. I would never… what happened?”
“I’m so sorry. I would never accuse you of anything. I just thought, you know, you had access to my phone and Roger found software on it that I didn’t put on the phone myself.”
“Ava, it’s insulting that you think I would do that to you. I love you and would never do such a devious and deceitful thing. What software did he find?”
She told him the entire story of how her phone was running slow and Roger found hidden applications.
“I don’t even know how to work an iPhone, I have an Android phone, and you know that.” He rose from the couch and grabbed his coat. As he slipped it on she begged him not to leave.
“Please, David, don’t leave me when you’re so angry. I’m sorry. I just didn’t know who would do something like this to me.”
