Page 25 of She Used to Be Nice
Thunderous barking sounds suddenly roared from behind a barbed wire fence. Avery sprinted up the stoop that she hoped led to Pete’s front door and rang the doorbell in distress. Seconds later, Pete opened the door wearing a blue waffle knit shirt that made his eyes sparkle in a way Avery had never seen. Her heart fluttered at the sight of them, how the reflection from his clothes made them look bigger and brighter than she remembered.
Then the Rottweiler barked again. She let out a shriek.
“I hope that isn’t your dog,” she breathed in a panic.
“Nah, that’s Milo. He’s my neighbors’ dog. He can be scary.” Pete opened his door a little more and put his hand out, gesturing inside his apartment. “Come on in. I’ll keep you safe,” he added with a wink.
Avery gave a playful eyeroll, blushing earnestly. “Such a gentleman.”
“I try.”
When Avery stepped inside, her eyes widened in awe. In the foyer, where she stood, a massive chandelier hung from the ceiling, and a glass coffee table topped with a photography book of famous bands took center stage in the living room a few feet away. Pressed against the back wall of the living room was a champagne couch covered in rust-colored throw pillows arranged artfully and purposefully.
“Wow,” Avery marveled. “Your place is stunning.”
Pete smiled. “Thank you. Can I get you a drink? I have soda, seltzer, beer, wine …”
Avery waved her hand and sat on the couch. “Whatever you’re having,” she said distractedly, unable to take her eyes off her surroundings: the high tin ceilings, the massive flat screen televisionmounted on the wall, the floor that was so shiny you could eat off it. Pete could probably get a lot more space for his money in Staten Island than he could anywhere else in the city, too, so it was smart to live here. In Avery’s next life, she was working in finance.
Pete pulled two beer bottles from his fridge and set them on the coffee table. “Hope the trip here wasn’t too bad.”
Avery swallowed a mouthful of beer. “It was fine.” She was uninterested in small talk. She scooted closer to Pete on the couch and kissed him, pressing her body urgently against his. But then he pulled away and smiled strangely, like he was holding something back that was making him laugh.
“What?” Avery asked.
Pete shrugged innocently. “I don’t know. You just got here. Why don’t we just chill for a second?”
Avery stared at him. She didn’t transfer two subway lines, endure a bout of seasickness, and pay twenty bucks for an Uber to have aconversation. She tried to jog his memory. “But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the other day …” She pulled down the neckline of her V-neck sweater. “Don’t you wanna do it again?”
“Of course I do.” Pete didn’t even glance at her newly exposed cleavage. “But I’d also like to get to know you. Is that wrong?”
Get to know her? What was there to know? That her friends thought she’d cheated on her college boyfriend and now she was a shell of a human being, everything good about her gutted out like a fish? The real her would only repel Pete like it had repelled everyone else. This, right here on the couch moments from hooking up, was much better, for everyone involved.
“I feel like we all do this stuff so backward,” Pete added with a chuckle. “I know what your naked body looks like but I don’t know your last name.”
“Russo,” Avery deadpanned.
Pete flashed her a boyish grin. “Well, now I know everything, don’t I?”
Avery set her beer down on the coffee table. Pete was lucky he was so good at oral and looked so good in that blue shirt. Andmaybe a small part of Avery liked that he wanted to get to know her. Nobody had wanted to in a while, or at least she hadn’t given anyone a chance to decide if they wanted to in a while. Her walls were industrial strength thick. But Pete always managed to crack her.
“Fine.” She needed to tread carefully. “What do you wanna know?”
Pete thought it over for a moment. Then he said, “What’s your favorite color?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? Why does that matter?”
“Oh, come on. I’m starting easy.”
She sighed. “Purple.”
“Very nice. I’m a blue guy myself. Favorite food?”
“Spaghetti and meatballs.” The corners of her mouth raised slightly.
“Hold on.” Pete squinted dramatically, focusing hard on her face. “Is that a smile I see?”
Avery covered her mouth with her hand. But she’d been caught. It was too easy to give in to Pete’s effortless charm. She wondered how good it would feel to just relinquish herself to him. How freeing.
