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Chapter 26
Ava wokeup with the sun’s rays bouncing off the floors of the living room and blinding her. She turned away and realized she was not only on the couch but still dressed in her party clothes.
“David?” She called out for him as she remembered he took her home last night. She got no response and rubbed at her eyes. Her clutch was on the table, and she reached for it to retrieve her phone. It was well past ten. She had slept for hours. David had texted her at 8:00 AM to ask if she was alright. He, her father and Felice was going back to Georgia this morning. She had missed the chance to see them off because she had overslept. She texted David letting him know she was fine and to tell her father she was sorry to miss him before they left.
I hadto make an excuse for last night. I told your father you were sick and asked me to take you home.
Is he angry? I hope he doesn’t think Xander had anything to do with it. He hates him enough.
I don’t think so. He made no mention. I can’t text anymore the flight attendant asked everyone to shut off their electronic devices. I will text you when we get home. Love you.
She continuedto lie on the couch until Riley hopped up on her stomach and started to purr. He was hungry, and she was sure that if she didn’t feed him soon, that he and Boomer would start scratching her carpets.
After she had fed them, she went into her room and looked in the mirror. Her dress was a wrinkled mess, and her hair had loosened and was hanging in ringlets around her head. She began to remove the pins in her hair and take off her makeup. Then she went in for a shower after removing her dress, but the look on Xander’s face when he saw her told her that it had been the right choice.
Ava spent the rest of Sunday alone, ignoring all texts and phone calls except from David to say they had safely gotten home. She was feeling sorry for herself and wanted to crawl into bed and be left alone. Instead, she forced herself to study. It was the first day of December, and the bar exam was coming quickly. Her laptop was sitting on the coffee table, and she decided to go online and do some shopping for Christmas, at least it would keep her mind off other things. There were a lot of people to purchase gifts for especially her niece and nephews. She took delight in watching them open up their gifts on Christmas morning.
Usually, everyone would stay at her father’s home and open gifts early that morning. He would purchase a ten to twelve foot Christmas tree for the foyer that you would need a ladder to decorate the top. She loved the holidays and hoped eventually she would have her own family with whom she could celebrate.
Late for work on Monday as she overslept, she was fortunate because Jacob was also late. Nicole had been sneezing, and he and Sandra took the baby to an early morning doctor’s appointment. It turned out to be a slight cold, but it seemed to rattle him.
He wasn’t his usual jovial self, and she decided not to joke with him to pull him out of his worried mood. She took a few folders off his desk and went to her desk to work. She checked her emails and was shocked to see Xander’s email address pop up. It was from him, and she wondered after what she told him why he was contacting her. Her hands started to shake as she opened the email.
Ava,
I don’t knowwhy you hate me so much. I would never hurt you.
Xander
Was he kidding?Maybe she should forward the email he wrote to her to jar something loose in his head. How could he possibly forget what he wrote to her? Did he think she was just going to let that roll off her back? She wasn’t going to be his doormat not matter how much she loved him. She deleted the email and went back to work. But she couldn’t concentrate or focus on anything. She did very little from the time he sent her the email until she went home. Jacob wasn’t in his office, and she used the master key to leave her work on his desk.
The week seemed to speed by, and before Ava knew it, it was almost the weekend. The gifts that she ordered from the internet were piling up in her living room. She had a couple of short coffee outings with Tim, but she still thought he was acting strangely. He seemed to be scared all the time. He asked her to his parents for the holiday, but she said she was going to go to Georgia. He almost seemed like he wanted her to ask him to come with her and that wasn’t going to happen.
The truth was that Tim was getting more worried about the instability of his supplier. Several times he failed to show at the designated spot on Saturday. He also noticed that he scratched at his chest more than once when they were together. Tim needed to keep his supply going since the guy he was using to sell at the colleges had been asking for more and more each week. It was so that Tim didn’t even have to risk getting caught by security by selling at the school anymore. The rest of the supply was sold on Fridays by one of the area clubs, usually Ember.
He had a few close calls the past couple of weeks, and it was making him realize that he needed to move his operation to another place. The police seemed to be patrolling the area lot more steadily than they had during the warmer months. He had amassed many thousands of dollars in cash and was looking to invest in something legitimate. Ava was not receptive to his advances and even the little gifts he bought her didn’t seem to sway her. He needed to do it on his own if he was going to win her.
He still hadn’t gotten any free time to reinstall the applications on her phone. He was flying blind and had no idea if she was dating anyone. She used to open up to him, but after the applications had been removed from her phone, she seemed to become more secretive. It made him wonder if she suspected he had been the one to put them on her phone. If she did, then it was only a matter of time until she figured out that he had sent spoof emails to her and Xander. At least Xander was tucked far away in California with a girlfriend.
* * *
Xander was delightedthat his time in California was finally coming to an end. He would be stuck here for the Christmas holiday but come the first week of January, and he would be able to move back to New York. He would be living in the apartment he lived in when he was last in Manhattan. It was a good omen that the person living in the place his dad owned had decided not to renew the lease and it would be empty by the end of January. His dad offered it to him.
The apartment held a lot of memories for him with Ava, but he hoped to connect with her again and eventually make new ones. He knew he had a long road ahead to get her back. Unfortunately, he would be living with his parents for the first three weeks of his return, and that was going to make him nuts. Even though Peter had softened his approach, he was still hard on Xander at times. But he knew now that his father was pulling for him to get back with Ava.
He spent a quiet Christmas with Lidia and Brett. He missed the snow and all the things around Manhattan that made Christmas special to him. Lidia suggested he go to the beach one last time before he left. He declined saying that he preferred the cold weather to the warm sand. Just about the only thing he would miss about California (besides his sister and Brett) was surfing. He had gotten pretty good at it, but there weren’t too many places to surf in New York.
* * *
Ava couldn’t believeit was finally December twenty-third. It was almost as if the holiday had snuck up behind her. She zipped her suitcase and pulled it off the bed, ready for her flight at 4:00 PM from JFK. There were so many gifts for the children and her family that she had shipped them down last week. She would have needed three suitcases to carry everything. As she was picking out last minute things late last week, she didn’t know why but she bought a set of cuff links that she knew Xander would love.
On the way out of the store, she saw a bottle of his cologne and purchased it so she could smell it all the time. When she came home, she stuck the black velvet box with the cuff links in her panty drawer. It was possible that one day they would be friends and she would give them to him.
The airport was crowded, and the flight was just as bad. She ended up being sandwiched in coach between a woman who continuously cracked her gum and a man who kept elbowing her every time he moved; to top it off, the man smelled like sauerkraut. She couldn’t get out of her seat fast enough when the plane landed. She told herself that next time she flew before a holiday she would spend the extra money for first class. She could afford to treat herself once in awhile.
Upon entering her father’s home, she smelled Natalia’s apple strudel in the air. She looked up at the tree her father had in the foyer. It must have been fourteen feet tall and was so high you could stand at the top of the stairs and to top it with the star. Felice had decorated the home with lights and figurines. The railings were adorned with gold garland and red bows. She couldn’t remember the house looking so festive since her mother had died.
Her father greeted her with a glass of wine, which she politely declined. She had only had a couple of drinks in several months, and she planned to keep it to the minimum. Because the house was going to be full of family, she went to the pool house to stay. Her father put up no objections since this became her normal place to stay when she visited. The pool house was dark and she went to the bedroom near the kitchen. The boxes she had shipped were sitting in the room waiting to be opened. She unpacked her clothing since she would not be leaving until Sunday. A short time later David entered, shuffling and stumbling into her room then falling on the bed.
