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“Great, I’ll take these up to Patricia then and be on my way,” Avery answers.
I know Patricia is happy to have someone like Avery on the team who’s putting her all into this gala. More than she ever needed to.
I know she wants to be around me just as much as I want to be near her, but Avery’s talent is really starting to shine brightly.
She packs her bag and takes the menu options as she leaves.
Another day God is testing me—another day I almost fail.
A few weeks go by, and Avery and I haven’t put each other in that position again. As much as I think my Goldie girl is beautiful, I’ve come to realize how smart and capable she is as well. A total package that, in a different life, I would be wondering how I could get a woman like her to fall in love with me.
Avery and I have fallen into a pattern. She visits the same days each week, and now we order lunch or dinner together, usually a take-out place she recommends that I have to try because it’s a local favorite, or we order from our place, a nearby deli called Papa’s Deli that makes the most fucking delicious ordinary sandwich combinations.
“What do you want to do for lunch?” Avery asks as she stretches out against my back wall, scrolling on her phone for a place. On days we know Patricia has extra-long lists coming our way, she’s taken to wearing athleisure wear so she can stretch out.
Dressed-up Avery is fucking gorgeous, but dressed-down Avery makes me want to feast on her all day and night.
She looks up at me and smiles. One of her breathtaking smiles I lock away as a core memory when she gives them to me.
Getting up from where she’s sitting, Avery rounds my desk approaching me with what I know will be Papa’s Deli.
I laugh lightly when I see it on her phone.
“Do you mind ordering today? Here’s my card. I’ll do the turkey sub,” I grin up at her before giving her a wink.
I slide the card in front of where she stands. Avery laughs and swats my shoulder playfully before taking the credit card.
“Big surprise, Lachlan,” she responds with her sweet laugh continuing to float around us.
“What can I say? I know what I like, and I stick with it,” I say.
Avery’s laugh turns into a knowing smile.
“I can appreciate that.”
The unspoken lingers between us. Avery laughs again before placing our order.
After a full afternoon, the sun is about to set, and we find ourselves being one of the last people in the parish office, outside of Patricia and Greg.
Being a fucking glutton for punishment, I decide to test taking the next step in our friendship. A friendship is all this will ever be, so I figure let’s embrace it. I’m all fucking in on this friendship situation.
“I think I may head to Jackson’s, interested in a drink?”
The place we locked eyes after Mass that first day, what I’m assuming to be a favorite bar that Avery goes to.
Trying to play this as nonchalantly as fucking possible, I pick up papers that I don’t need and place them in my bag. Like a coward, not wanting to play my cards.
“Now?”
Finally needing to make this a real conversation, I look up to find Avery looking at me with big wide eyes shocked at my request. I can’t place whether she thinks this is a terrible or great idea.
“Yeah, I mean, no pressure, it’s just been a long day,” I come back with.
I’d really kill to be twenty-three-year-old Lachlan right now; he was ten times smoother than this pathetic version I’m portraying.
Avery smiles, and I can’t help but mimic it. Thank fucking God. This girl makes me fucking weak for her because of a simple gesture.
“I’d really love that,” she answers with a confirming nod.
