Page 89 of Heartache Duet

I close the door between us while I allow Ava to turn into me, her hands pressed to my chest. “Hi,” I say.

She bites down on her bottom lip. “Hi, boyfriend.”

I exhale, her words giving me the courage to say the words I’d been planning all night. “I need to tell you something, and I need you to listen to me, okay?”

She nods, eyes on mine.

I take one more deep breath before saying, “You told me before that it wasn’t possible for me to look at you the same. And you’re right. I don’t. And I can’t.”

Her gaze drops.

“Because when I look at you now, I see these curls,” I say, tugging on a loose strand, “and I picture you when you were little, and I imagine your mom getting frustrated with you because you won’t sit still so she can brush it. I bet you were stubborn, even back then.”

She exhales a staggered breath, her gaze lifting to mine again.

“And your hands…” I link my fingers with hers. “I used to look at them and just want to hold them, but now… now I see them, I touch them, and I realize how much weight these small hands can hold.” I grasp her face, swipe my thumb along her lips. “And these lips… I mean, yeah, sometimes I used to kiss them just to shut you up, but now… now I’ll kiss them and wonder what it’ll be like to kiss them ten, twenty years from now… And your eyes, I used to look at them, and they’d remind me of the hardwood of the courts, but now… now I look at them, and I see your strength and your courage and your fight to keep them clear. To keep them dry.” Liquid hope pools in her eyes, her chest rising with her intake of breath. And when she blinks, I catch the tears with my thumbs and kiss each of her cheeks. “But you never have to hide who you are with me. Because I’m here. And I’ll wear your pain as if it were mine. I promise.”

“Connor,” she whispers. Her entire body envelopes mine, her arms tight around my waist, ear pressed to my chest. Listening to the magic she creates within me.

“But, Ava,” I start. “I think what’s changed the most is the way I see your heart. I used to just feel lucky that you’ve given me a piece of it. But now… now I know what that heart is capable of. I know the strength and the perseverance and love it carries because I see it in the way you care about your family, the way you protect them. And I’m not just lucky, Ava. I’m…” I pause, take a breath. “I moved here with one thing on my mind. Work hard enough to get noticed so I move one step closer toward the end game. But… but maybe fate had other plans for me. Bigger ones. Because you’re here, with me, and you noticed me, Ava, so maybe… maybe the end game was never about basketball. Maybe my end game is you.”

THIRTY-EIGHT

ava

Ava: Good game, #3.

Connor: Thanks, #1 goat.

Ava: #1 goat?

Connor: #1 Girlfriend of All Time.

Ava: I… *rolls eyes* Dammit, that made me all gooey inside.

Connor: he shoots, he scooooores.

Ava: Hey… I’ve been wondering. Why #3?

Connor: I don’t know. It was the first number given to me. I’ve just kept it ever since.

Ava: Did you know that in every story, act three is the most important chapter?

Connor: How so?

Ava: Well, it delivers the story’s lowest point (me today) and then how the characters cope with that (you today) and then the climax and resolutions.

Ava: I think maybe you’re my resolution, Connor.

Ava: So #3 suits you.

Connor: *Unzips*

Ava: what??

Connor: Sorry, I read climax and then… what? Let me go back and read the rest.

Ava: OMG! I hate you.

---