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“Yeah. Pretty much. So, what are we eating?”
***
“We need to talk.” Ethan slammed his hands down on the bar.
I looked over at him. “I’m sorry, sir, you’ll have to wait until I’ve served these customers. They were here first.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “Ava.”
“What can I get you, sir?” I asked a balding, portly man who already had his wallet out. He gave me his order of two beers, and I took my sweet-ass time pouring them from the tap and serving them to him.
I repeated this four times, making one of the women laugh when she realized what I was doing. I winked at her as I set the last gin and tonic down on the tray. After taking her money, I rang up the order on the register.
Slowly.
She laughed as I handed her the change. She shook her head and whispered, “Ex-boyfriend?”
“No,” I whispered happily. “My roommate, who just found out I canceled my cable.”
Her laugh carried her over to the table. I put the tip in my jar, and after making a big show of wiping down the bar and taking so long someone else came up for a drink, I finally gave Ethan my attention.
“Would you like your usual, sir?” I asked brightly, giving him my best customer service smile.
He licked his lips. “What happened to the TV?”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. “It was fine when I left.”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked, would I?”
He tightened his jaw. “Cable, Ava. There’s no fucking cable, and I can’t get into Netflix.”
“Ohhhhhh.” I dragged the word out as long as I could. Slowly, I nodded my head. “That.”
“Yes. Why isn’t there any cable?”
“That will be because I canceled it.”
He stilled. His entire body went rigid, and the muscles in his arms visibly tightened under his thin, gray sweater. “Why would you do that?”
“It’s quite simple, really. I didn’t watch cable, so I canceled it.” I shrugged and moved along the bar to the guy who was waiting. “Yes, sir, can I help you?”
Ethan’s eyes followed me as I served the guy, narrowing when I rejoined him. “I watch cable.”
“Then, by all means, call the cable company,” I replied simply.
He took a deep breath. “And Netflix?”
“I changed my password and logged out.” I grinned. “Whoopsie.”
“Whoopsie? What kind of—fuck. This is your revenge, isn’t it? For this morning?”
“Wow. You had to come all the way down here to figure it out.” I shook my head and tutted. “How have you survived this long?”
He glared at me. “You’re a fucking nightmare.”
“I never claimed to be anything but.” I wasn’t bothered at all. In fact, this was great. Exactly what I’d hoped for.
“Fine. I’ll call the cable company and pay for it myself. Did my sister put you up to this?”
“Why? Did she change her Netflix password, too?”
His lips twitched.
“Seriously. It’s like ten bucks a month, you cheap bastard.”
He rubbed his hand down his face. “Don’t you think this is getting out of hand?”
“No. I’m just getting started.” I reached up and retied my ponytail. “You’re the one who started this, Ethan. You nudged my candles after I’d already told you it bugs me. Anything that happens to you is solely your responsibility.”
“All right. I see how this is.” He tapped both hands on the bar and straightened up. “You really want to see how far this can go, don’t you?”
“I have a list.” I smiled.
“So do I. Sleep with one eye open, sunshine. Be afraid.”
“Yes,” I deadpanned. “You look terrifying.”
Ethan’s dark blue eyes flared with something that told me that maybe a little fear wouldn’t be a little bad thing. “Yeah? I’m going home. You’re here until midnight. That’s…” He glanced at the watch on his wrist. “Six hours for me to do something, and you’re going to be standing here the whole time wondering what I’m doing. Or maybe I won’t do anything, but you won’t know that either.”
“You’re childish.”
“You’re petty,” he shot back.
“Says the one being petty.”
“Your TV move was petty.”
“This whole thing is petty,” I said, grabbing my cloth. “It’s kind of the point.”
Ethan sighed. “It’s hard to argue with that.”
I nodded. “That’s because I’m right.”
“Mm.” He pushed off the bar and hit me with a dark look. “I’ll see you at home. Maybe.”
I folded my arms across my chest and gave him my best, ‘I don’t care’ stare.
I did care.
A lot, actually.
We were quickly moving into a real savagery stage of this passive-aggressive living arrangement. Maybe Halley was right at lunch—maybe I did have to use myself as a way to get at him.
The problem was, I was one hundred percent sure that Angelica was wrong. I didn’t think for a second that Ethan was attracted to me. He’d never done anything to make me think that could be true—or if he had, I simply hadn’t noticed.
