Page 34 of The Flirtation
Chapter 12
Avery
Imanagedto avoid Luke and everyone else for most of the day on Saturday, the day of Bucket and Ingrid’s sunset beach wedding. Saturdays are the day when I usually catch up on my magazine reading—The Economist, Forbes, Wired, Entrepreneur, Fortune, Inc, Fast Company and The New Yorker. I also go online to browse Bustle, Instagram and the BBC World News—I am nothing if not well-rounded. As it was the weekend, nobody could tell me not to read. Of course, when I say “read,” I mean that I stared at the same sentence for half an hour while thinking about Luke and wondering if he found our little beach/seashell interlude as wonderful as I did. So wonderful that I had to tell him I would take dinner in my room that night, claiming that I needed to catch up on work. It wasn’t a lie. It was a lot of work keeping myself from ripping his clothes off and gathering up the courage to tell him I had been lying to him about my relationship status for months, simply because I didn’t want him to think I spent hours home alone thinking about him on weekends while he was off gallivanting with glamorous European women in Milan orwhatever.
I was on my second tiny bottle of wine (I had swiped four of them from the kitchen when the chef was out shopping), I had my no make-up make-up on, I had on my fuchsia-colored maxi dress, and it was a half an hour before sunset when I’d realized it was my niece’s birthday and I hadn’t called heryet.
I clicked the FaceTime icon on my laptop and fully expected my sister to text me the words “YOU ARE DEAD TO US,” but the video call started connecting rightaway.
“I’m the worst aunt in the world I’m sosorry!”
All I could see was the blur of the floor as Jackie ran towards her “office” while yelling out “It’s Aunt Avery she says ‘happy birthday’ but she has an emergency I’ll be right back!” After hearing the sound of the bathroom door closing, Jackie took a moment to catch her breath before holding up her phone and looking at me. “The party started forty minutes ago and I want everyone to gohome.”
“That’s how I’ve felt at literally every party I’ve ever been to. I’m so sorry I haven’t calledyet.”
“It’s fine, she’s still so in love with Mr. Bunny you could disappear until Christmas and she wouldn’tnotice.”
“Thanks!”
“Soooo? Did you spoon again last night? What’s going on over there? Tell meeverything.”
“Oh um, you know, we had a nice little walk on the beach yesterday evening and just kind of chatted and got a long really well, and, I don’t know, I’ve been busy so I guess I’ll see him in a little bit at the wedding or whatever. What kind of cake did you get forFranny?”
“You are killingme.”
I opened up a third tiny bottle of wine. “What?! What do you want from me? I basically took him hostage two nights ago while under the influence of a controlled substance, I’m trying to play itcool.”
“So you haven’t told him that you’re singleyet.”
I shrugged. “It’s never the rightmoment.”
“And you haven’t been straightforward with him about yourattraction.”
“I mean, it’s not really my style, you know. How would I even dothat?”
“Here’s what you do,” she said. “You walk right up to him, all pretty-like, you look him in the eyes and you say: Oy. Fancy afuck?”
I spat out my wine. “What is wrong withyou?”
“I’m not in the Bahamas, that’s what’s wrong with me. What’s wrong withyou?” She held up her phone so she could look directly into the camera. “Seriously, Ave. What is wrong withyou?”
I didn’t laugh or have a funny comeback, because my sister wasn’t laughing or smiling. She was completely serious. And I didn’t know how to answer that question at themoment.
She looked away, took a deep breath, and then held the camera closer to her face. “Hey,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re just scared. And you don’t have to be. Just tell him how you feel, kid. People all over the world do it all the time, and it doesn’t kill them.Usually.”
My eyes were watery. It was ridiculous. Now my mascara was running. Fantastic.Thanks,Sis!
“I love you,” she said. “Go.” She ended thecall.
I picked up my phone, and wrote Luke atext.
Luke
Iwas aboutto knock on Avery’s door when I received a text fromher.
Avery Davis: Hey sailor. Wanna walk down to the beach together? If you aren’t alreadythere?
I knocked on the door. “It’s me. You ready to head ondown?”
