Catching Avery

by M. E. Clayton

  I knew I wasn’t being fair. Avery made it clear what she wanted from me and I made it clear that she wasn’t going to get it. She was doing what any normal person would do. She was giving someone else a chance to give it to her. I guess it was too much to ask that she spend the rest of her life pining after me. Because, if the way I was feeling right now was any indication, odds were I’d be spending the rest of my life pining after her.

  “What the fuck is he doing?” Chase’s voice sounded a little incredulous. “Is he going to sing to her?”

  Clearly, because the dance wasn’t enough to tease the edges of my sanity, I now had to stand here while that sonofabitch sang to her.

  And she was laughing.

  He had her full attention and she was laughing. Avery was actually happy.

  She was standing there with her best friends, being serenaded by some asshole, having a fanfuckingtastic time.

  “Nick, man, it’s not too late. Go talk to her,” Julian insisted.

  “Fuck that shit, Sav. Go kick his fucking ass and don’t give her a choice.” I had to admit, Chase’s idea sounded more appealing.

  Every molecule in my body that made me male wanted to go snatch her up and drag her off away from every other penis around her. The only thing that kept me from doing it was how I clearly recalled telling her that I hoped things could remain professional between us at work.

  God, I’m such a fucking idiot.

  I painfully took in the scene of him jumping off the stage and throwing his arm around her shoulders. And I stood there like a chump, doing nothing, as he led her out of the room. I noticed Quinn and Isabella following behind them, but that did nothing to calm the inferno blazing in my blood.

  I hadn’t felt this helpless since I was ten.

  “What do you want to do, Nick?”

  I tore my gaze away from the door and regarded Julian. “What do you mean?”

  He shrugged one shoulder. “Carson’s a ruthless enough lawyer. He can plead you down to misdemeanors if you want to go kick his ass. We can also shut this party down so you can cripple him without witnesses.” Julian tilted his head and raised his eyebrows. “I’m down with whatever you need to do to make this right.”

  We’ve always teased about Carson getting us out of jams, but the truth was, he was a corporate attorney. I didn’t think there was much he could really do for us if we ever did actually get into legal trouble. But if the past few weeks were any indication, I was thinking we should probably start retaining an actual criminal attorney from his firm.

  These females were driving us bat shit crazy.

  Most people think it’s only women who need those sacred confidants, but men needed them too. Not a lot of people could say this, but I knew without a doubt whatsoever in my soul, that if I ever called Julian and Chase in the middle of the night, confessing to murdering someone, they would show up wherever I was with tarps and shovels.

  I shook my head. “Nah, I’m good, Julez. I told her I hoped for a professional relationship while we were at work. It wouldn’t be a good look if I went after them and acted a fool now.”

  Chase ran his hands through his hair. You would have thought it was Quinn with someone else. “I don’t know how you’re doing it, Sav. I’d be embarrassing all of us right now, had it been Quinn.” So the flipside to that tarp and shovel friendship coin is that you get friends who support your madness unwaveringly. Things got sketchy when no one was the voice of reason anymore.

  Julian huffed, “Embarrassing us? Fuck, this place would look like the prom scene from Carrie if it was Isabella.”

  These motherfuckers.

  “You guys are not helping. I’m doing everything I can to keep myself and this company from becoming a disastrous YouTube video and you guys are both basically calling me a fucking pussy. Fuck my life and fuck you two.”

  Chase let out a breath. “Okay, let’s look on the bright side. You obviously aren’t in love with her or else that dude would be having to drink his food through a straw for the rest of his life. So, you just need to give it a couple of more weeks and I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

  Julian seemed to agree. “Look, Nick, I hate to say it, but Chase is right. If you really cared about Avery, I can’t see you letting shit go down like this.”

  Love.

  Fuck, how would I even know if I was in love? The only people I’ve ever loved in my life I can count on one hand, Chase, Julian, Teresa and Kane. So, what the fuck did I know about love?

  Love means something different to different people. Chase’s dad’s definition of love was to beat and cheat on his wife, but his mom’s definition of love was to forgive her husband and stand by him. Well, at least, until Chase didn’t give her a choice. Even Avery’s family; her father’s definition of love was to cheat and leave his wife, but her mother’s definition was to forgive and take him back.

  What the fuck was love? I didn’t even know if Julian was in love with Isabella or just unstably obsessed with her. Obsession didn’t equate love. Chemistry didn’t mean love. Attraction, humor, compatibility, none of those things meant love.

  Maybe what I was feeling was just disappointment over something that felt so seemingly right and carefree turning out to be fucked up and complicated.

  There was only one way to find out. “I’m going to take off.”

  “Dude, what, how?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I’m feeling for Avery. I’m not going to hang around here and subject myself to this bullshit. She’s downstairs getting drunk and having a good time with some dude. I’m not going to remain up here and wait for them to grace me with another slow dance.” I clapped Chase on the back. “I’m going to Xavier’s or to The Box Top or to the first fucking bar I see, pick up a hot piece of ass and fuck Avery out of my system.” I jutted my chin towards the door. “I’m not going to be sleeping alone tonight, if she’s not.”

  I strode out of the room before either of them could talk me out of it or cheer me on. Fuck this shit. I may not have been willing to give Avery my past, but I was giving her what I had now. It wasn’t my fault she wasn’t satisfied with that.

  I hailed a cab and told the driver to take me to the nearest bar he knew of. I didn’t care if it cost a thousand dollars to get through the door or if it was a broken down drive that served shit drinks. My only purpose was to get shit faced drunk and sink my dick into some nameless, faceless female that would result in no complications.

  The cab pulled over in front of a placed called Cy’s Skye. I paid the fare and made my way through the bar’s front doors. The place looked like a drinks-after-work hangout. It was decorated in dark hues and there was a circular bar in the center of the room. Random booths and table occupied the outline of the room and there was no stage or dance floor to speak of. This place was strictly for drinking and bullshitting.

  Exactly what I needed.

  Scanning the room, I went over to sit at the bar. I decided I needed a few drink under my belt before I started looking for some pussy.

  The bartender made his way over. “What can I get you?”

  “Johnny Walker Blue with a side shot of whatever top shelf tequila you have.” I was already hanging my suit jacket over the back of the bar stool and getting comfortable.

  “Coming right up.” He went off to make my drinks.

  I downed the shot as soon as he put the drinks in front of me. Looking up at the bartender I instructed him to keep them coming. I was still pissed and reeling from the images in my head of Avery dancing with David and the self-imposed conclusion that she was probably going to go home with him tonight when a sexy, hot blonde sat down in the empty bar stool next to me.

  “I haven’t seen you in here before.” Her introduction was cliché bar talk and I tried not to be annoyed, because her type was the reason I was here, but I was. Having spent the past few weeks in the company of Avery, Quinn and Isabella, I was used to women with unique personalities, not mass produced airheads.

  But, because I
needed to fuck Avery out of my system, I played along. “My first time in here and it looks like a good place to come and have a drink.”

  She sent me a hook-line-and-sinker smirk. “I’m Natalie.”

  I nodded. “Nicholas.”

  She called out to the bartender. “Hey Jake, can I get a Sex On The Beach?”

  As he nodded at her request, I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Of course she would order a Sex On The Beach…what else would she order?

  She leaned in closer to me, rubbing her surgically enhanced breasts against my forearm. “So, Nick, why don’t we just cut to the chase like the adults we are?”

  I leaned to the side to get a better look at her, and I raise a brow. “What chase would that be?”

  “Well, there isn’t a ring on my finger and I see there isn’t one on yours, so what do you say to getting out of here once we finish up our drinks?”

  She may have been your typical bar fly, but she was confident, sexy and her face was done up to perfection. But she wasn’t Avery and no one else would ever be Avery.

  Remembering the night I met Avery at Xavier’s and she asked me why I wasn’t wearing my wedding ring while hers was at the jewelers, I made my intentions clear to my new friend Natalie here. “Well, Natalie, the thing is, I don’t wear a ring because my wife trusts me so implicitly, I don’t need to.”

  Hey eyebrows shot up at the mention of my fake wife. “Wife?”

  “Yeah, wife.” I finished my drink and threw a hundred on the bar to cover her drink as well as mine. I stood, and as I put my jacket back on, I realized something. “See, Natalie, my wife is very aware that my obsession with her borders on the brink of madness, so the ring is irrelevant to her because she knows no other woman on the planet is her. And I’ll only ever want her.”

  I signaled to the bartender that I was leaving and I gave Natalie a wink as I left this stupid ass bar, leaving behind the stupid ass intentions I had earlier.

  I just hoped I wasn’t too late to beg Avery to pick me instead of David.

  Chapter 23

  Virtues: Because love is a motherfucker.

  Avery~

  I was happy as hell I was able to step out of the cab without falling on my face. David wasn’t lying when he said we were getting drunk. I can’t believe how much we all drank. And I can’t believe how much fun I actually had.

  Seeing Nicholas had me stripped raw, but between the girls and David’s dancing, singing and drinking, I was able to manage through the depression.

  When Chase and Julian joined us at the bar, I realized Nicholas had left the party and the thought had started killing my buzz. That’s when I decided to leave as well. Everyone was having such a great time, I assured them a cab was fine and I promised to text the girls when I got home. But the cab ride over was proof that my buzz was still very much alive.

  I shut and locked the front door behind me and pulled out my phone to text Q. Since I was firing off the text that I was home, my head was down and I didn’t see the looming male figure coming from my bedroom until it was too late.

  I looked up and let out a scream worthy of any horror flick. I whirled around to escape back through the front door, but I was hindered by the fact that I had already engaged the lock. I felt a body slam into my back and then felt strong arms clasp my shoulders and drag me farther into the living room.

  “Avery, stop!”

  My struggling came to a halt as I recognized his voice and my fear ebbed enough to allow me to focus on his face. “Eric?” I jerked myself out of his grasp. “What in the hell? What are you doing in my apartment scaring the ever loving fuck out of me?!” I took some deep breaths, trying to calm myself down.

  He scared the shit out of me.

  He remained quiet and it didn’t take long before the hairs on the back on my neck started to stand on end. Whatever he was doing here, it wasn’t good. No longer screaming, I asked, “What are you doing in my apartment, Eric?”

  “Where is it, Avery?”

  “Where’s what?” I had no idea what he was talking about. I had set my purse down on the couch when I had walked in, but I still had my phone in my hand after sending off that text to Quinn. I was trying to discretely dial Q’s number, because I had a feeling this-whatever this was-with Eric wasn’t going to go well.

  “Don’t fucking play with me, Avery. Where’s the box?” He was clenching his teeth and flexing his hands open and closed.

  I needed to be smart about this. “Eric, I don’t know what you’re talking about, I swear.”

  He reached out and snatched me up by my upper arm. “I’m not fucking around here.” He shook me to emphasize his point.

  My heart started to beat frantically. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Eric,” I started shaking my head, “I don’t have-”

  I never saw it coming.

  The blow to my face was backed by so much force; my upper body was propelled over the back rest of the couch, my phone flying across the room.

  Before I could get my bearings, I felt him twist a chunk of my hair in his hand and he yanked me back on my feet. He leaned into my face, rage evident in every line in his face. “Now that I’ve made it clear that I am serious, where is the fucking box?”

  I could feel blood trickling down the corner of my mouth. The right side of my face was already being to throb. “Eric, please. I don’t know what box you’re talking about.”

  He regarded me with fury and desperation warring in his eyes. “Okay, I’ll humor you for now,” he smirked. “The day I packed up all the shit I kept here, I left a shoe sized box hidden inside that broken suitcase you never used.”

  I shook my head, still confused and dazed. “Eric, what’s going on? What’s this about?”

  The punch to my abdomen brought my legs out from under me in a pain so paralyzing I would have fallen had Eric not still had a grip on my arm. “Avery, I will walk out this front door and never bother you again. All you have to do is tell me where that fucking box is?”

  I tried to speak, but I found that my mouth was so dry I couldn’t form any words. I didn’t bother to brush away the tears of pain streaming down my face. Pain and fear cemented their places in line before embarrassment and dignity. “Eric,” I croaked.

  He let out a heavy breath. “Fine, maybe if I explain, you’ll finally grasp how serious I am. It wasn’t just random pussy I was partaking in those last few months we were together. Even though it was pussy I was after, it sometimes came with drugs and gambling.” He shrugged a shoulder as if to say, it’s all part of the lifestyle. “Anyways, I took some heavy losses and agreed to do some….uh, side work to come back even. That box is part of that side work, Avery.”

  “It’s been months-”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s been months since we broke up, I know. I hid that box with the plan to pick it up within a week or two, but my...uh, handler found himself in a little trouble, so I had time on my side. That is until a few weeks ago when he got out of jail.”

  The pieces were starting to fall into place. “When you showed up at my work to take me to lunch.”

  “Yeah. I had to find a way back into your apartment and I thought if I played it out like I wanted to get back together with you or that I wanted to be friends, I’d find my way here sooner or later. But that’s not working out fast enough for my friend.”

  I could feel the blood caking on my lip as I asked, “What are you talking about, Eric? What’s in that box?”

  “I crammed two-hundred thousand dollars in that box, Avery.” He grabbed a hold of my chin and squeezed until I thought my jaw was going to pop. “So you can see why I need that box, right, darlin’?”

  Yep. I could totally see why he needed that box, but my only thought was of how he was going to kill me when I told him I didn’t have it. “Er-”

  Using the grip on my chin, he shoved at me with enough force to throw me to the floor. I found purchase with my hands and scrambled my legs to stand, but he was on me before I could make
any progress. He gave me a quick, swift kick to the stomach before hauling me back up by my arms. The pain from the kick had me double over, so I was no match for him as he dragged me to my bedroom.

  Eric yanked open the door to the closet and started brushing off all the stuff stored on the top shelf. Random object fell over me like a waterfall, battering and bruising along the way. I let out a screech as my metal keepsake box rained down my face, cutting my skin open in a path of blood.

  Once the shelf was bare of everything, Eric yelled in my face, “Where’s the fucking suitcase, Avery?!”

  It was time for the truth and with it the decision to fight or flight. Except for the times he was beating on me, he kept his hold on me tight, so I wasn’t sure how realistic my flight option was. That left fight. There was no way I could win against him, but I wasn’t going to go out like a pussy. “It’s gone.”

  Another blow blinded me. “Where the fuck is it?!”

  There was a good chance he was going to kill me. I mean, fuck….this was two-hundred thousand dollars we were talking about. A small part of me understood his insane desperation. “Eric, please listen. Please,” I begged. “The suitcase is gone. About a month after we broke up, Q and Iz came over and we cleaned out the apartment…sort of a new beginnings kind of thing. We threw out that suitcase along with everything else that was clutter or junk. I…I…do… don’t have the suitcase. It’s gone, Eric.”

  I expected rage. I knew he was going to lose it when I revealed the truth. But I didn’t expect blinding madness. He let out a ferocious roar before he wrapped both his hands around my neck.

  Fight, it was going to be.

  I started screaming, hoping it would bring the attention of my neighbors as I started bringing my fists to the sides of his face, using my legs to try to kick him anywhere I could land. Eric must have gotten tired of my fighting, because he let go of my neck with one hand, clenched it into a tight fist and struck me as he would a grown man. My vision blurred and I went limp.

  The next thing I knew, I was pinned to the floor as Eric yelled in my face, spittle flying everywhere. “I need that money, Avery!”