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“Nah. It’s all good, Andy. I know where I stand with you. No hard feelings. Just, you know, go fuck yourself.”
* * *
50
ETHAN
“Guys,maybe we did make a mistake. You know, getting involved with her,” I say.
As shitty as Andy was to me on the phone, I do still feel a little bad for knocking the wind out of him the way we did. While he’s Jasper’s long-time college buddy, I never wanted to push him over the deep end and elicit the kind of response we did.
Even if he does think we’re losers.
Leo shrugs, speaking up for once. “You don’t know how things will turn out when you start. You were going on emotion. We all were. We all fell for her.”
Whoa. Leo expressed a feeling.
And he’s right. We did fall for her. The feeling just wasn’t mutual.
It doesn’t matter, though. She doesn’t want anything to do with any of us. Maybe Andy had a point. Maybe we’re not what she’s looking for. When I ran into her in the lobby of our building the other day, she cordially said hello, waved, and kept on walking. I’m sure that won’t be the first time she does that.
She did, however, make good on her promise to help me. She put the whole story of Pia snooping in DMs, finding out things she never should have, and discovering our trysts, in a long email to her boss and mine, who pretty much immediately figured out what was going on and roped in HR. Everything was solved and wrapped up in a neat package. I was exonerated and the company apologized. Ava saved my ass.
But so did something else, something Pia hadn’t counted on.
The elevator’s security cameras. When the date and time of her accusation was looked up in the building’s tapes, it was immediately obvious she was full of shit.
Needless to say, she’s no longer employed atGlisten.
I guess Ava’s happy about that. I don’t know though, because she won’t speak to me.
* * *
51
AVA
The movingvan arrives at nine a.m.
I actually don’t need a full-on van since I’m taking only what I absolutely need, but I can’t live without my green chair, the thing no one loves except me. Problem is, I can’t squeeze that into an Uber. Besides, the van is free—Cami’s husband Steve is the finance guy for some big moving company, so I got it on the house.
Of course, that means it came without a crew, thus why Steve is yelling up at my window from the middle of the street.
“Yo, Ava. You up?” he hollers.
Thank goodness I took a day off work. If I were doing this on a weekend, Steve would be waking everyone on the block, thus taking his life in his hands. Instead, most everyone is at work already, or if they work remotely, are probably wearing headphones for their Zoom calls.
I lean out the window and like always, wonder why Cami bitches endlessly about this man. He’s adorable with his slight paunch and balding head, made all the cuter by his dimples. But the best thing about him is his generous heart. And that fact that he puts up with Cami. For some reason that is beyond me, he adores her.
She recently ranted to me about how he implied that she’s vertically challenged—which she is. Seems his sin was buying her the sexy pair of high heels she’s been eyeing.
Poor man.
“Hey, Steve,” I say, waving.
His bright smile makes the arduous task at hand seem like it won’t be so bad.
I am moving out. No more awesome apartment. No more roommate Jasper. And certainly, no more of the three guys, whether together or individually.
