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The man’s eyes widened at the sight of the money. He glanced towards me for an instant, before returning his attention to Dyson.
“Well, sir,” he said, gesturing in my direction. “Can we put a price on a beauty like hers?”
I rolled my eyes at his cheesiness.
Dyson chuckled. “You’re good, man. That’s not bad. Seriously though, how much?”
The man straightened his posture a bit. “Five dollars per flower.”
I glanced at Dyson once again. As I watched him, he leaned away from the man a bit and began to point at the basket.
“Whatdya got there? A hundred?”
The man cleared his throat and repositioned the basket in his hand.
“Sir, I… I-I’m not sure exactly how many flowers there are.”
Dyson raised his thumb to his mouth and gave it a quick lick. Soon after, he reached for the bills in his hand and began to fold them back, one after another.
“I’ll give you five hundred bucks for all of them. Sound good?”
I leaned forward, pressing my palms flat against the table. “Dyson! Are you crazy?”
The flower man, sensing he had an easy mark, turned his back to me and addressed Dyson directly.
“Excellent decision, sir. Absolutely!”
The man then began to remove a handful of roses when Dyson spoke up once again.
“No, no,” he said, causing the man to freeze in place. “For five hundred, I get the basket too.”
An awkward cross between a giggle and a chuckle sputtered from the man’s lips.
“Yes, of course sir. Please forgive me.”
Dyson waved him off. “Don’t mention it.”
In less than a minute, the two men completed their transaction. I leaned back in the chair, shaking my head in disbelief.
“Why?” I began, pointing at the absurd number of flowers on the table. “Why would you buy all of those flowers?”
Dyson leaned back in his chair as well. He nodded towards the roses and said, “Well, I guess this is a date after all, isn’t it?”
Smiling, I just shook my head.
DYSON
Ava shook her head and reached for the flower basket. After removing one of the roses from it, she brought it to her nose, closed her eyes and inhaled.
“Well?” I began, gesturing towards the basket. “Does this qualify me as date material now?”
Ava lowered the flower away from her face and shifted her jaw. “You’re totally ridiculous. You realize that, don’t you?”
“Hey, if I knew how much you liked it, I would’ve bought you flowers a long time ago.”
With that, Ava placed the flower back on top of the stack. Afterward, she turned her focus on me again. I looked at her. It was nice to see her in a place like this. It’s where a woman like her belonged. Not only was she beautiful, but tough, and brave.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
I shrugged. “No reason. Just trying to imagine you naked and covered in rose petals.”
Ava’s skin flushed. She looked away from me. “Dyson.”
“Ava.”
After another second or two, she looked at me again. “I think we need to change the subject.”
“Well, for the record, I disagree. I think the subject of you being naked is an awesome one.”
She placed her palms flat on the table and pretended to be upset.
“Can you please be serious? For just one second?”
I shrugged and leaned back in my chair. “I’m dead serious. I can’t wait to get you naked.”
She groaned and waved me off.
After making her suffer for a few seconds longer, I leaned forward and winked at her. “We’ll, um, discuss that later.”
“Thank you,” she deadpanned.
Not long after, the waiter came by and delivered the cocktails we’d ordered. After he walked away, I raised my glass.
“To Gene.”
Ava frowned at me. “Why would you be toasting that asshole?”
“It’s simple really. He’s the one that brought us together. Cheers.”
Before she raised her glass to meet mine, Ava stifled a swallow and tugged a strand of hair behind her ear.
This was going well.
After we drank, I decided to change subjects a bit.
“So, leaving the nonsense with Gene aside for a second,” I began. “Are you feeling better about being on the road with the team now?”
Ava placed her drink down on the table and then looked at me.
“Yes, I’ll admit it was a rough beginning for me. You know, being away from home, my friends, Simon. But I, I think… No, I know I’m going to miss it when it’s all over.”
“Even Anastasia and Svetlana?” I said, smiling at her.
Ava’s lips curled upward. She took another sip of her drink, but didn’t respond. While she did, I drank as well. Afterward, I placed it back on the table and wiped the moisture from the condensation off my hands.
“I wanted to say that, in all seriousness, we think you’re doing a great job for the team. I mean—I won’t lie—you’re way better looking than Dr. Luca.”
Ava giggled at me. “Gee, thanks. I’m glad to know that I’m better looking than a middle-aged, Italian doctor.”
I pointed my finger at her. “Don’t underestimate Dr. Luca. He’s smooth around the ladies.”
“That’s… more information than I needed, Dyson.”
I chuckled a bit. Afterward, I leaned forward, making sure she knew I was serious. Ava looked away from me. While her attention was elsewhere, I reached across the table towards her hand. Before she could react, I wrapped my fingers around hers.
Startled, Ava looked at me.
I stared at her for a moment and then lifted her hand from the table. I brought it towards me, raising it in the direction of my lips. My eyes never left hers, and she followed the line of my hand. I was within an inch of pressing my lips against it when a voice distracted me.
“Dyson!”
I released Ava’s hand from mine and turned in the direction of it. Approaching me was my team manager, Darren.
Talk about killing the mood.
Completely oblivious, he walked right up to the table. I leaned back and exhaled, looking up at him in disgust. Before I could speak, he glanced first at the oversized basket full of roses and then at Ava.
“Ava, nice to see you,” he said, smiling at her.
I had no time for any of this. I looked up at Darren. “What do you want?”
“Well,” he began, reaching around the back of his head and scratching his neck. “I was on my way out after eating and saw you sitting here. We need to talk about the set up first thing in the morning.”
I shook my head. I couldn’t believe he was this dense.
“Yeah, okay, that’s fine.”
The truth was, we’d been butting heads recently over not only the car set up, but how I’d been driving. In a lot of ways, I felt like he was more concerned about the car than winning. The cars are expensive, there’s no question about it, but I was getting fed up with it. He knew full well that I could go a lot faster in qualifying, but for whatever reason, he was preventing it. It wouldn’t be long before he and I had words about it, yet now was not the time.
Just then, Darren turned to walk away. “Good, so I’ll see you first thing, Dyson?”
“Yep.”
After he walked off, I happened to glance up and see Ava looking at me.
“Is everything okay between you two?”
I nodded. “Yeah, no problem at all. Now, where were we?”
AVA
Everything Dyson did for me at dinner the night before caught me completely by surprise. He made his desires clear. And the truth was, it was becoming almost impossible to ignore the growing feelings I had for him.
Even so, a part of me resisted.
Forgetting about his reputation, I hadn’t exactly been with anyone for a while. Whether I was uncertain about him or myself, I couldn’t say for sure. Luckily, with the race coming up at the end of the week, there was enough distraction to go around for both of us. And so, for the time being, I decided to see how things unfolded.
It was midmorning the next day when I made my way to the pits. I had to get signatures from the drivers and Darren for some insurance forms the City of Los Angeles required.
After arriving, I saw Darren hunched over his laptop computer, presumably working on the cars, since both Dyson and Marco were already on the track. Normally I would have waited until there was a break in the action, but I had to deliver the forms downtown before the office closed that day. I’d never been to downtown Los Angeles, and I wasn’t crazy about the idea of sitting in crazy traffic all day.
I approached him. “Excuse me, Darren? Do you have a second?”
His focus never wavered from the laptop screen. Instead, he lifted his index finger in my direction. “One sec, Ava.”
“Right. Sorry about that.”
I folded my arms across my chest, holding the paperwork in the middle of it. Just then, Dyson came down the straightaway. I winced, cursing myself for not having any ear protection on. On race day, it was a must, but when there were only a handful of cars on the track, no one else ever wore them. I assumed I’d get used to it with time, but I hadn’t just yet.
After Dyson went by, I glanced at Darren again. His posture changed. He’d placed both palms flat on the table in front of him. He dropped his head, shaking it and muttering to himself.
I had no idea what the problem could be, I just assumed they were having issues with the car. If things weren’t running exactly like he wanted, Darren had a tendency to get a little angry. I worried if he got too distracted I’d never get the signatures I needed. Soon, the sound of Dyson’s engine faded, and once again I tried to get Darren’s attention.
