Page 53 of Maid in Heaven

WILL: Yes, I do.

AVA: The door is unlocked. Come on in when you get here.

WILL: I’m on my way. This braid thing feels very life or death, and I can’t handle that kind of pressure. I’m just a maid!

Ava smiled at her phone and then bit her lip, ignoring the television in front of her. She pet Kuda’s head until his warm chocolate eyes slid open. He did a lazy stretch, got up,and trotted to the kitchen.

Ava lifted her arm and smelled herself. She recoiled. Aquick shower and shave of the armpits were definitelyin order.Darting to the bathroom,she turned on the water and stripped naked. Sprinting to the bedroom, she whipped open her dresser drawers,frantically grabbed a matching bra and underwear set,and scurriedback to the bathroom.She hurledthe clothes on the floorandstepped in, muscles immediately relaxing beneath the downpour of hot water. She latheredher hairwith a liberal amount of sudsy shampoo, sprayed gel on her legs, and started shaving in a flurry of wet movement.

The sound of her front door opening and closing made her smile.

Fuck, that was quick.

She shouted loudly past the shower curtain. “I’ll be out in a minute!”

She grinned wide like a Cheshire cat.

Fuck it.

“That is… unless you feel like joining me.”

“You talked me into it,” a man’s muffled voice said.

She knew the voice. It was familiar.

But it wasn’t Will’s…

Her eyes bulged, and a dollop of shampoo ran into them. She furiously swiped away, smearing eye makeup across her face.

The sound of shoes and jeans hittingthe floor was followed by theshinkof the shower rings as the curtain slidopen.

That was when the source of the voice finally registered in her flustered brain.

Dan, the cheater.

Dan, theliar.

Dan, the piece of human garbage who knocked up his secretary and left the piss-covered stick in the kitchen trash for her to find.

Ava screamed.Dan tumbled back, tripping out of the shower and nearly falling onto the cold tile floor, catching himself on the cluttered counter just in time.

Ava dartedout of the shower,water still running,and snatched atowel from the rackwith a flailing hand. Suds burned her eyes, making her ex-husband difficult to see as sheskiddedthrough the hall on wet feet and boltedfor her bedroom.

Dan rapped on the locked door a moment later. “Ava,honey…we need to talk.”

The pause in his speech was a tell that Ava knew all too well from years of dinner parties, work functions, and cookouts with the man: Dan was drunk.

She scrambled for underwear and a bra from her dresser and hurriedly put them on, shampoo stinging her eyes as she bent down to yank up her panties.“Daaaaaan!You werenakedin myshower! Why are you inmyhouse?!” She stressed the word ’my,’ which was a subtle dig at her getting to keep the place after the split by the judge’s order. “We’re divorced,remember?”

“Please come out…so we can talk.”

Yep, definitely drunk. She could almost smell the pickling of his liver through the wood of the door.

“No,Daniel. Get your clothes and go home! You know, yournewhome, with your fiancee andbaby!” Bitterness was prominent in her indignant tone. She tossed on a baggy t-shirt and pajama shortsfrom the hamper, the first thing she could get her hands on.

“Please, just…come out…and talk to me.”

Ava unlocked the door and yanked it open, eyes smeared with mascara and eyeliner, white, bubbling foam dripping down the sides of her face and onto her chin like a makeshift Santa beard. “What?! What thehelldo you want?”

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