Chapter 8: 5 | fingers crossed

"Avery? I'm so sorry but could I ask you to do a coffee run?"

Avery gets up from her chair as she glances over at Anna where she's stood by one of the bookshelves in the office, browsing through the folders with an apologetic look on her face.

Instead of pointing out that fetching coffee is basically expected as part of her job Avery simply nods with a smile, "Yes of course."

"Good," Anna takes one of the folders into her hand, meeting her halfway and hands her a slip of paper and a debit card. "There you have it – get yourself something as well if you want. The pin is the same as the one you use to get into the offices. Oh and I was thinking you can sit in on the meeting too?"

"Okay. Yeah I'd love to," She nods. "I'll be right back."

She's made her way down two of the three flight of stairs, rounding the railing to the third just as someone comes running the other way and she has to jump to the side as not to collide with them.

He looks as startled as her, rubbing one of his hands through his hair as his eyes flickers over her where she's stood at the top of the landing, "Oh, hey."

"You're back."

"I am," He says, lips tilting into the smallest smile. "Where are you going?"

She waves the slip of paper in the air between them, running her free hand down the fabric of her dress. "Beans & Bagels. Coffee run."

Ethan turns on his heel, beginning to descend the stairs he just ran up. "Okay, let's go."

Avery's brows etches together, the corners of her mouth twitching in amusement. "You're coming with?"

"I want a latte. And you'll probably need help carrying the stuff anyways."

She catches up to him, slipping out of the door as he holds it open – the sun immediately hitting her in the face where it's high on the bright blue sky.

"I'm more than capable to get some beverages from one place to another."

Ethan shoots her a sideway glance, pushing his hands into his dark shorts as they walk down the street. "Don't doubt that. But speaking as someone who usually gets to do the coffee runs, those editors are quite heavy on their orders."

She eyes the slip in her hand, frowning. "All these things for five people?"

"Told you."

She flickers her eyes between him and the scribbles on the paper slip. "Yeah, okay you can help."

"What a nice way of saying 'thank you Ethan for being such a great friend and helping me out'."

Suppressing the faintest smile she shoots him a pointed look. "You're forgetting something."

"What?"

She makes a gesture by pointing her finger between them. "We're not friends."

"Ah, right," They take a turn, swiftly glancing to their right and left before crossing the street and Ethan spins on his heel where he's half a step in front of her, walking backwards. "Aren't we though?"

"I don't even like you."

"Well, I'm not exactly your biggest fan either."

Avery's eyes narrow, hand coming out to rest on the handle of the glass door spelling out Beans & Bagels in orange bold letters. "What have I ever done to you?"

He scoffs. "Don't act like you haven't been a total mean girl at times," Rolling his lips in, his cheeks tighten as he holds back a smile. "If I recall correctly there was this one night last year, we were down by the beach actually now that I think of it, when–"

She holds her free hand up to stop him. "Okay, I get it. I haven't been the nicest to you."

"No."

She regards him for a beat, knowing she shouldn't say the words lingering on the tip of her tongue but then she opens her mouth, letting them escape her lips anyway. "It's all about principle, you know. Me not liking you."

"Hey, I totally get it," Ethan's lips crack into the smile he held back before and Avery can't help the smile creeping onto her own lips at the sight of his eyes creasing, the brown depth of them seeming even darker in this light. "You know what they say about Montagues and Capulets."

Her lips pull into the faintest smile as she slowly shakes her head at the words she's heard so many times before, offering a recital of a popular Acebridge slogan of her own. "Ace Easters and Acebridge Westers should not – and do not – mix."

"Except we do, all the time," He laughs. "But I get it. It's the very core of why I don't like you either."

"Well, you were the one who had Luke breaking his arm."

Ethan throws his head back with a groan and her smile widens. "Oh for the last fucking time–"

"You had nothing to do with it," She finishes his sentence as her eyes narrow. "I'm not sure I'll be taking your word on that," Pulling the door open she supports it with her foot as she extends her hand to him. "Let's agree on our mutual dislike for one another, shall we?"

He quirks his brow, taking her hand with a small laugh. "Sure Waters. We're officially still not friends."

♡♡♡

They all go silent at the sound of a door closing and then Callie's eyes light up with a smile, taking her gaze off of the screen for a short beat. "You're home!"

"I'm home!" Avery hears Lea's chipper voice in the background. "What are you–"

"LEA!"

"Is that Lea?"

The girl runs into view, wrapping her arms around Callie's shoulders as she beams into the camera of the laptop. "Hi guys!"

Avery waves, beaming too. "Hi! How'd it go?"

Lea cocks her head to the side dismissively as Callie scoots to the side of the bed she's sat upon, patting the spot next to her and the girl sits down.

"It was okay," She says, beginning to undo the braid her dark hair is in. She combs her fingers through the shades of charcoal brown. "I had fun."

Luke disappears out of view on his part of the screen. "I'll be right back," He says, leaving them to stare at the beige wall of the room he's in. "I just need to crush this level for Benjamin."

"Don't tell them that." They hear Luke's younger brother say somewhere off screen and Avery catches Lea's lips pulling into yet another smile resembling the one of her own.

"So," Nic leans back, propping himself up with a pillow. "How did what go? What've you been up to miss Vaz Cabral?"

"She's been on a date." Callie muses before Lea has a chance to respond and Avery's lips tip upwards at the semi-annoyed look Lea shoots her way.

"Mhm, interesting," Nic stretches his arms over his head, lips pulling into a grin. "So have I."

Avery straightens up where she's sat in the corner of the couch in her living room, balancing her laptop on her left leg as she pulls the right to her chest. "Wait. What?"

His grin grows even wider. "Jealous?"

She exhales a chortled breath with a roll of her eye. "Very."

"Okay but you can't just say that and nothing else!" Callie exclaims and Lea puts her finger to her ear in a show of just how loud their friend is, pressing one of her eyes shut in a grimace.

Luke dips into view again, a bowl of cereal in his hands. "Say nothing else about what?"

"Nic's been on a date!"

"Oh, yeah. I knew that already."

Callie clasps her hand to her chest in mock offense. "And here I thought you valued us equally much Nic," She says, lips curling into a sweet smile. "But me the most, of course."

Nic laughs. "It's not even that big of a deal," He says. "We all went out one night and then when we had a day off last week, the two of us spent it together."

Lea reaches for something out of view and Avery's lips fall into a small pout at the sight of the bag of M&Ms. How rude that you cannot share candy through a screen.

They spend another fifteen minutes or so rehashing the details of Lea and Nic's separate dates – Nic much more enthusiastically so in sharing, and then they fall into a small silence.

Luke's the first one to break it, shifting in his seat. "Should we all watch a movie?"

Avery flickers her eyes to the time on the top of the screen – she had planned to go out running before it's too late. Then on the other hand it won't get dark until much later either.

"I'm game," She says and as the other three shrugs with agreement too she gets to her feet, setting the laptop down on the coffee table in front of her. "Just getting some snacks."

"Good idea!" She hears Luke call. "I'll be right back."

Nic sighs. "I don't have any snack to fetch."

"What about Mateo?" Callie teases and Avery can't help the laugh escaping her lips as she hears Nic swear under his breath.

She yanks the freezer open, a breath of relief leaving her lips at the sight of the salted caramel ice cream in there. She grabs the box and returns to the video call just as Luke does too, a matching box of ice cream in one hand and a bag of chips in the other. Her phone buzzes under the pillow on the cushion and her lips curl into a smile, already knowing it's him pointing out their fabulous taste in sweets.

"Okay then," Lea says, leaning forward to type something onto the keyboard of the laptop in front of her and Callie. "What are we watching?"

♡♡♡

"So," Avery shifts in her seat on the carpeted floor of the office, folding her legs to the side as she reaches for the hardcover book on top of the pile next to her, gently setting it down into the tote in her hand. "Any scouts breathing down your back over in Atlanta?"

Ethan takes the tote as she holds it out, dropping the cellophane bag of candy into it before setting it aside with the rest, repeating the move with the next she holds out. "Yes, some, actually."

"Do you want to play professionally?"

He shrugs. "I think so, yeah," Getting to his feet, he carefully steps between the goodie bags spread out all over the floor. "Where's the candy?"

"Second cupboard to the left," She nods towards the kitchenette and then flickers her eyes to the basket of cellophane bags next to the spot where he just sat. "Why? Are we running out?"

"No," Ethan locates the stash, ripping a bag of gummy bears open as he turns around, already making his way back. He sits down in his previous seat, dropping another cellophane bag into a tote before scooting it to the side, offering her the open bag in his hand. "Want some?"

She eyes the bag, knowing her eyes are giving away the smile she's trying to hold back. She reaches her palm out for him to pour some into it, pursing her lips together. "I don't think we're supposed to eat these."

"I say we need the sugar kick if we're going to get all these goodie bags done today."

She eyes the candies in her palm, the corners of her mouth quirking up as she grabs one. "Well, your name is on the letterhead."

They sit in silence for a beat and she finishes off the candies. She glances out at the empty main office – Anna's away at some sort of meeting to negotiate a book deal and Violet's sat in one of the conference rooms, working on a book cover, leaving the two of them and the one hundred and four goodie bags by themselves on the floor. They're barely halfway through of getting the totes ready for the book launch and though they've quite gotten into a routine, Avery can already sense the exhaustion of the task creep over her. The fact that she's barely slept doesn't exactly help.

Her father called again yesterday, keeping her with him on the phone until past 11 and once they hung up she was too restless to sleep for another two or three hours. She blinks, trying to reenergize herself and lifts her hands to her face as she watches Ethan lazily throw gummy bears into his mouth. Dragging her lip between her teeth she suppresses a smile, eyes widening as she cups her palms around the warm skin of her cheeks.

"Oh my –," She folds her knees beneath her in a seat as she scoots closer to him, grabbing onto his forearm with both her hands. "Feel how cold my hands are!"

His brows raises, eyes flickering between her hands on his slightly tanned bare arm and her face, corners of his mouth twitching in amusement as he straightens up. "Are you even alive right now?"

A soft laugh escapes her lips. "Apparently not."

His smile widens but his brows etch together as his gaze is cast back down to her hands on his arm. He uses his finger tip to nudge the small brown scar on her left middle finger. "What'd you do?"

"Oh," She feels the warmth of her cheeks as a blush creeps onto them, a foolish smile appearing on her lips. She looks away as his eyes meet her own. "Burned myself on the oven. Left a mark."

"You live dangerously Waters."

"As dangerously as making cookies at one a.m is," She looks back up to see his cheeks tighten with his smile before he scoots down, leaning back on his elbows, throwing another piece of candy up into the air and catching it with his mouth. Avery shakes her head, a silent chortle escaping her lips. "Show off."

As he doesn't make a move to shift out of his relaxed position propped up by his elbows – seemingly having taken a break from the task at hand as he continues to pop the candies into his mouth she too scoots back, leaning her head against the wall. She eyes the group of goodie bags they've packed and all the ones they have left. They do deserve a breather.

"So," She wrenches her hands together in front of her in a stretch, a small involuntarily yawn escaping her lips. "Atlanta. You've had schools reach out to you?"

She sees him pausing, eyes flickering towards her momentarily before he returns his gaze to the ceiling. "Are you making friendly conversation?"

"Of course not," She feigns offense. "It's simply a question from one non-friend to another."

"Yeah, there's been some interest, but nothing's set in stone."

She regards him for a beat, straightening up in her seat as she senses her posture has gone to hell, and narrows her eyes. "I feel like you're downplaying it."

"I just don't want to jump the gun," He shrugs, sliding the bag of candies over the floor towards her and she smiles, taking it into her hands. "Talks doesn't mean it'll happen."

"Oh come on," Avery pops a candy into her mouth. "Who wouldn't want you? You made Varsity your first year of high school, you've barely had a bad game all these three years – well, apart from when we beat you last year," She can't help the smirk on her lips as he shoots her a tired glance. "It's like you're some goddamn prodigy. The Montagues has been better off ever since you came along."

His brows raise as he rolls his eyes but she can see his lips tip into a tightlipped smile. "That's not true."

She shrugs, grabbing another gummy bear. "But you do want to play professionally?"

"If the opportunity arises, yeah."

"I think it will," She sets the near to empty bag to the side, reaching for one of the fabric totes, and gets back to work. Dropping the book on top of the stack into the tote, she shoots him a sideways glance as she hands it to him. "What made you go into playing in the first place?"

"My dad used to play," He says, dropping one of the cellophane bags of select candies into the tote. "I guess that's why."

She doesn't mean to pause with her hand around the handle of the next tote but she catches herself frozen mid-movement.

Oh. Of course.

She manages to snap out of it long enough to drop a book into the bag before handing it to him, pressing her lips together as she nods once. "Right."

It doesn't seem like the right thing to say but she's not entirely sure how to broach the subject – it doesn't feel like it's her place to touch upon it. They aren't friends after all.

As he takes the tote from her their fingers graze against one another and she automatically flickers her eyes in his direction, realizing he's already watching her. One second holding his gaze has her sensing he can tell she knows and he doesn't seem too fazed – or surprised for that matter.

They both know – he probably even more so – that one doesn't spend their entire life in the town of Acebridge without coming across the tale of the tragedy that struck the young promising football star all those years ago.

She presses her lips together, not sure how to continue. The last thing she wants to do is ruin the somewhat amicable atmosphere. Not when they still have several hours of work in front of them. Not to speak of the greater fear building inside of her of saying – or doing – the wrong thing. The fear of accidentally ending up hurting him.

What can she say? What does one say? Does he even want to talk about it?

It dawns on her that she doesn't know Ethan Taylor well enough to navigate her way through this situation. She just doesn't. She doesn't know him. Not in that sense. So, instead, she offers a smile and grabs another one of the totes.

"Well, I think you could do it – if that's what you want," She says. "You're good enough."

"You're not just saying that?" As she shakes her head, the left corner of his mouth lifts and he makes a show of crossing his middle over his index finger. "Here's to hoping."

She mimics his motion, smile widening at the sight of the skin creasing around his eyes as his smile reaches them. "As long as you let it be our secret – I'll keep mine crossed too."