“How long are you going to be here for me?”
I turned my head towards him and saw his eyes settle onto mine. He was such a beautiful man, with his long hair and his thick beard and his translucent amber eyes. He had these high cheekbones I could cut glass on and this jawline I could sharpen a sword with. There wasn't a thing about him that wasn't breathtaking, and it only served to make this conversation harder.
“I don’t know,” Travis said.
“At least your answer was honest,” I said flatly.
“I don’t know what you want me to say. Where is this coming from?” he asked.
“Is this just a fling? Or is this something more?” I asked.
My eyes connected with his, but he didn't give me an answer. All he did was rake his eyes up and down my body like he had last night. I pulled the covers up over myself and sat on the edge of his bed, my mind is swirling with all sorts of thoughts. This was just a fling
for him. I could see it in his eyes. Maybe it had been a new experience, taking someone's virginity. But this was serious for me, and he needed to know that.
I felt a connection with him. A connection I’d never had with anyone else in my life. I felt free with him. Happy with him. I didn't feel leashed or controlled or relegated to a particular belief or train of thought. He asked me about things. He wanted to know what I thought about things. He wanted me to voice what was going on in my life.
He seemed like he genuinely wanted to know.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Travis said.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell you what you should say. I’ve done that my entire life. It isn’t fun.”
I slid from the edge of the bed, taking the comforter with me. I could hear Travis calling after me as I stepped into the hallway. I needed to get my clothes back on. I needed to put up some sort of barrier between Travis and I again. I had become too vulnerable to quickly and it was going to break my heart if I had to lay there and listen to anymore of his non-committal answers.
I dropped the comforter in the middle of the floor and started putting my clothes on as my purse began to vibrate.
“Can we talk about this?” Travis asked.
I draped my dress over my body as I walked towards my stuff.
“We just did,” I said.
“No, we didn’t. You asked me a question I didn’t expect before I’d even woken up. That isn’t a conversation,” he said.
“Hold on,” I said. “Hello?”
“Ava, it’s Hunter. Where are you?”
“I’m out and about. What’s wrong? You sound frantic,” I said.
“It’s been interesting since you left. You apparently told Dad you went on a date?” he asked.
“So what if I did?” I asked.
“I don’t care, you are your own person. But you need to get home. Dad’s calling a family meeting and he’s expecting you to be there.”
“And if I don’t show up?” I asked.
I saw Travis look back at me from the coffee pot as he started to prepare it. Part of me wanted to stay and have coffee with him. Talk about this once the two of us had woken up. But I was filled with emotions I didn't understand and I had books in my car I knew could help me decipher them. Psychological books and sociological books. Books on human interaction and books on sex. I had to get back to them in order to help figure out what in the world I was feeling.
So we could have this conversation intelligently. Like two adults.
“If you’re going to show Dad you can make your own decisions as an adult, then you need to start making decisions with an adult mind. You don’t have to listen to what he has to say, but an adult would show up,” Hunter said.
“You’re right,” I said with a sigh. “Let me clean myself up a bit and I’ll come home.”
“I’m not going to even ask, but if you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about-”