AVA
Where the hell was Britney? Ava thought for the dozenth time, clutching her paintbrush tightly.
She sat in front of a canvas, painting her latest piece. In a second, Ava forgot about Britney and studied her project.
A simple, generic landscape.
At least, that's what Ava had intended the painting to be when she'd started working on it. But the longer she worked on it, the more it turned into something moodier and darker, almost without her realizing it.
A navy-blue sky covered most of the canvas, fading into violet near the horizon. Below it was a dark lake reflecting the faint glow of a moon that Ava still hadn't decided whether she liked.
She'd added a few trees along the shoreline that looked more like dark silhouettes. Overall, the landscape was dark and extremely subdued, with very little warmth left in its colors.
Ava stared at the painting for a moment.
Somehow, along the way, it had become something else entirely.
Ava frowned at the painting, wondering how it had become this way. Was it maybe because of her troubled state of mind?
At the same time, she couldn't help thinking that something important was missing from the landscape. However, Ava didn't know exactly what, which frustrated her to no end.
Ava sighed and lowered the brush, unable to figure this out no matter how much thought she put into it.
The only genius conclusion her brain manages to conjure up was that some of its brain cells had taken a vacation without her knowledge.
After all, along with the painting, Ava still couldn't figure out how to keep herself from falling into Maxim's clutches.
With a disappointed expression, Ava placed her paintbrush into the glass jar of water beside her before leaning back slightly and looking at the painting from a distance.
It wasn't terrible, she decided.
But it wasn't particularly good either.
Although, Ava thought, it was distracting her from her Maxim problem a bit. Ava supposed that was enough for now.
Ava turned her thoughts from the subject and toward Britney again.
She looked at the door intensely, as if trying to will her friend to come through it with just her mind.
Britney had insisted on coming to Ava's apartment instead of Ava going to her house. She explained that this was because she wanted to stop at the café first to grab her beloved headphones.
Ava hadn't had a problem with this. After all, Maxim had said he was coming on Monday, so she felt relatively safe in her own apartment until then.
Anyway, twenty minutes later, Britney still hadn't arrived at Ava's.
AVA glanced at the clock.
Britney was about a half-hour's drive away. She had called her twenty minutes ago, so her old Toyota Yaris should be pulling up in the parking lot shortly.
Having reached this conclusion, Ava picked up another brush and considered adding something to the lake when—
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Ava startled so badly that the brush slipped from her fingers.
It landed on the edge of the palette, sending a small smear of blue paint across it.
"Oh, come on," she muttered before pursing her lips.
Telling herself she'd fix the mistake later, Ava quickly stood and looked toward the door.
Britney had arrived, she guessed.
Finally.
Ava wiped her fingers on an old cloth she'd kept beside her painting supplies.
Another knock sounded.
"Coming," Ava said immediately as she started making her way toward the door.
She came to a stop halfway across the room, a thought suddenly occurring to her.
What if the person on the other side of her door wasn't Britney?
What if it was Maxim?
Ava's stomach tightened.
No.
He'd said he wouldn't visit again until the day after tomorrow. Not even a phone call.
But after everything that had happened last night, Ava reasoned that she couldn't afford to assume every unexpected visitor was harmless.
She stared at the door, swallowing hard.
"Britney!" she called, louder this time. "Is that you?"
"Yes, it's me. Unless someone has stolen my voice without you learning about it."
At her sarcastic response, Ava sighed with relief.
She strode to the door and pulled it open without a second thought.
Britney stood in front of her in a multicolored summer dress that almost reached her knees and a pair of sandals showing off her freshly pedicured toes. She wore a slightly impatient expression on her face.
"Honestly, Ava, why do you always take so long to let me in?"
Ava didn't answer her.
Instead, she threw her arms around her friend, breathing in her sweet, sharp, candy-scented perfume.
Britney was mildly taken aback by this reaction.
"Wow," she said as Ava pulled away from her. "Usually, you wouldn't be so thrilled about someone intruding on your precious weekends. This must be a really big emergency."
"You have no idea," Ava said, gently ushering Britney into the apartment.
---
Ten minutes later, Ava had settled her onto the sofa, which she'd stopped barricading the door with and had put back in its proper place.
After making sure Britney was comfortable, Ava said she'd prepare tea for both of them.
She had insisted on doing this, even though Britney had told her she didn't need to bother.
The reason was that Ava was nervous about talking to Britney about Maxim.
And since she couldn't paint with a guest around, Ava needed something else to do with her hands to distract herself from her thoughts. Hence, her tea preparation.
Ava placed the teapot filled with tea onto a tray before carrying it over to the sitting area, where Britney was on the phone. She didn't know who her friend was talking to, but from what Ava could hear, it sounded serious.
"I know what I said, but I can't right now," Britney said to whoever was on the other end of the call while Ava placed the tray on the table.
"Look, I have to go. Yeah. Whatever."
With that, Britney hung up quickly with a very irritated expression.
She then let out a long, frustrated groan while staring at the ceiling and clutching her phone tightly.
Ava looked at her friend with growing concern.
"Everything okay, Brit?" she asked, sitting down on the sofa across from her.
Britney seemed to notice her presence for the first time, looking at her with mild surprise.
"Yeah, it's all good. I was just resolving a misunderstanding with one of the café's suppliers," she said dismissively.
Ava wasn't sure why, but she didn't entirely believe Britney.
But since Britney clearly didn't want to talk about it, Ava decided not to press her.
"Okay," she said with a shrug. "Let me pour you some tea."
Looking relieved that they were moving on from the topic, Britney nodded eagerly at Ava's suggestion.
"Don't mind if I do," she said.
Ava poured them both a cup, quietly grateful that her hands weren't shaking like they had been the previous night when Maxim had been in her apartment.
Ava handed Britney her cup, which the other woman took gently. She'd added milk to it but not sugar, since Britney was forever fussing about calories.
"Thank you," Britney said.
"You're welcome."
For a moment, neither of them spoke, Ava feeling too nervous to say anything.
"So," Britney said, taking a little sip of her tea, "what exactly is it that you need my help with, Aves?"
Ava held her tea between both hands, peering down into the cup for a moment. She saw her own reflection and stared at it like she was seeing her face for the first time.
Even though she'd decided to involve Britney, Ava still wasn't sure how to explain the complicated mess that had suddenly become her life.
"Before I tell you, I have to warn you," she finally said. "What I have to say... it's kind of a lot."
Britney studied her for a moment with a curious expression before taking another sip.
"Ava, your skin is glowing, your hair is shiny, and your figure is still tea. With how well you're holding up, how bad can what you have to tell me really be?"
Ava almost smiled at her joke, finding it a bit funny and thinking about how shocked Britney was going to be when she learnt how bad her news really was.
She stared at the other woman for a long, nervous moment.
"Blake wants to marry me," she finally blurted out, unable to keep it inside for another moment.
Britney, who had just taken another sip of her tea, choked on the liquid instead.
The next moment, she pulled the ceramic cup away from her lips while she coughed continuously.
"Britney, are you okay?" Ava asked her, looking concerned.
She had expected Britney to be shocked, but not so much that it threatened to very well kill her.
Britney nodded in response to her question, clearing her throat repeatedly before finally focusing on Ava's face with an expression of utter shock.
Ava nervously waited for the other woman to say something, literally anything.
She clutched her cup tighter.
The truth was, Ava had intended to tell Britney about the Maxim situation first, but she'd chickened out at the last moment. She had gone with the still-complicated but considerably less terrifying news about Blake.
Christ, I'm such a huge coward, Ava thought.
"Goddamn," Britney finally exclaimed, surprise clear in her voice. "So Blakey McAwkward, AKA His Royal Shyness, actually proposed to you?"
"Not exactly," Ava said, shaking her head with a pained look. "He accidentally dropped the ring he intended to propose with while we were at my parents' party last night."
"In front of everyone?" Britney asked, her eyes widening.
Ava nodded slowly. "Yep."
"Goddamn," Britney exclaimed again, clutching her teacup. She shook her head for a moment before focusing her attention on Ava again.
"And what happened next? Did he actually propose to you? And did you say yes?"
"Blake's mom, Imogen, passed out before that could happen. Drunk. Or maybe she was pretending. I'm not exactly sure."
At this, Britney looked even more confused.
"Wait. Why would Blake's mom pretend to pass out in front of everyone?"
"So I wouldn't break her son's heart by rejecting him," Ava suggested uncertainly.
Britney opened her mouth in shock.
"Whoa, hold up for a sec, Aves. Does that mean you weren't going to accept Blake's proposal?" she asked tentatively.
At the question, Ava stiffly raised her teacup to her lips for the first time. The tea had cooled considerably, but she barely noticed.
"Yes, I probably wouldn't have accepted," she told Britney, looking at the floor.
"I'm just not ready for marriage, Brit," she said. "I mean, I love Blake and I care for him, but my life, while not exactly a mess, isn't where I want it to be yet. I'm not who I want to be."
"You want to build your career as a painter first," Britney said understandingly.
Ava nodded, even though this wasn't the whole truth.
She was also afraid.
Afraid of having her heart broken again, just as it had been all those years ago with Maxim.
Although she now knew that Maxim hadn't willingly left her, that didn't erase the pain caused by believing he had. Nor did it erase the fear it had created—the fear of giving all her love to a man only to find out that he didn't actually reciprocate her feelings.
Ava swallowed these thoughts.
"I don't know how to tell Blake because it's going to break his heart," Ava admitted honestly, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I don't want to do that to him."
Britney gazed at her sympathetically.
"I understand that it's hard, Ava, but you know you have to tell him how you really feel, right?"
Listening to Britney's advice, Ava wasn't surprised by it. It was classic Britney. The woman never hesitated to tell people how she really felt, even when it hurt them. Even now, while speaking to her closest friend who was clearly hurting, Britney wasn't sugarcoating anything.
"I know, Brit. You're right. It's just..." Ava swallowed. "I feel like a jerk. He's been the perfect boyfriend for a year. He does all these nice things for me... He doesn't deserve to get rejected."
Britney gave a conciliatory nod.
"You're right about that—he doesn't deserve it. And he'll probably get hurt when you tell him, but he'll get over it if he loves you, which I'm pretty sure he does," Britney assured her. "Then you two can continue being the most lovey-dovey couple in history until you're ready to marry him."
Ava bowed her head when the other woman said this, thinking about how impossible her words were.
"Britney, I'm going to break up with Blake," she informed her quietly.
At this, the other woman became completely silent, looking shocked again.
"I'm sorry, Ava, but what?"
"I have to break up with him, Britney. It's clear we don't want the same things from this relationship. I don't want to string him along when I don't even know if I'll ever be ready to marry him.And..."
Ava opened her mouth again, then closed it when she almost mentioned that she also couldn't risk staying with him because Maxim was threatening him. Somehow, she managed to keep that to herself.
At least for a little while longer.
Britney gingerly placed her teacup back on the tray while regarding Ava with a serious expression.
"Ava, you can't seriously be considering breaking up with Blake over something like this," she said. "I mean, it's not like either of you did anything wrong. Your priorities might not match right now, but that could change over time."
For a moment, Ava was stunned that Britney was defending Blake. After all, the girl had always told Ava that she could do better. She shook off these thoughts quickly.
"I doubt that anything will change, Britney."
Her friend cocked her head after Ava said this.
"Ava, you do love Blake, right?"
Ava blinked, surprised by the question.
She stared into her tea, thinking about it anyway.
She did love Blake, she thought, although maybe not as much as she'd once loved Maxim—or as much as Blake probably loved her.
It wasn't fair to him, she thought. She tried to convey this to Britney.
"Of course I love him, but—"
"No buts, Ava. As long as you love the guy and he loves you, then your relationship still has a chance. You shouldn't give up on it just yet."
Ava shook her head in shock again.
"Wow," Ava said, staring at Britney. "I never thought I'd hear you defending my relationship with Blake like this."
"I know, right?" Britney said, looking genuinely perplexed herself. "It's a surprise to me too. But what I like about the guy is that he treats you well and you always seem happy with him. And I think it would be a mistake for you to separate from him simply because he wants to spend the rest of his life with you."
After Ava stopped gaping at Britney, who seemed to have suddenly joined the Blake fan club, she closed her eyes for a moment, preparing herself for her next words.
"There are other things you need to know before you come to a conclusion about me and Blake," Ava finally told Britney hesitantly.
Britney's expression immediately changed.
"What is it? Don't tell me the guy messed up somehow. The bastard didn't cheat on you, did he?"
"Of course not." Ava shook her head. "Blake would never do such a thing, Britney."
"I don't get it, then. What's the problem?" Britney asked.
Ava took a deep breath.
She stared down at her teacup for a moment before finally looking at her friend.
"The problem is my ex-boyfriend... Maxim Holloway," she said. "After five whole years, he came to my apartment last night. And to make matters worse, he says he wants me back."
After a long moment, Britney let out a low whistle while simultaneously crossing her legs.
"Okay, I'll admit it now," she finally said. "This is bad."