I just laugh. “Yeah, I know about Becca’s secret keeping abilities, but she has that wrong. Ava never told me she loved me.”
Doug narrows his eyes at me. “I’m pretty sure she did.”
I just throw up my hands and stomp back out to the living room. “Ava! Did you tell Becca you told me you were in love with me that night in the kitchen?”
Ava’s eyes bug out, and Becca looks surprised too. Ava’s eyes look over to Doug who is just smiling at the whole situation. I look back at Ava. “Relax. He already knows. Miss gossip over hasn’t kept a single secret from her hubby since day one.”
Becca just laughs and is not offended. “True.”
Ava looks over to her. “Becca!” She just shrugs. “What? He’s my husband. What’d you expect?”
I interrupt them both. “Let’s get back to the question here. Did you tell her that? Because Doug over here seems to think you confessed your love to me, and then I broke your heart by just up and leaving.”
Ava opens her mouth to say something, but then closes it and looks to the ground. Oh shit.
I shake my head a few times. “No. That’s not what happened.”
Becca glares over at me like I’m the bad guy here. I shake my head again. “No. You never said that.” It comes out more as a whisper.
Ava looks back up at me. “I thought it was pretty clear.”
“No!” My voice gets loud again. “No. You were drunk. You were drunk, and you tried to kiss me. That's all!”
Ava laughs. “Yeah, key word being 'tried'. You pushed me away!”
I yell back. “Yeah, I was trying to be a gentleman! I wasn't trying to take advantage of a drunk nineteen year old!”
Ava scoffs. “Yeah, well you sure weren’t a gentleman when you just up and left without even saying goodbye. Not to mention you never came to see me when you were visiting. Pretty sure the message was coming through loud and clear how you felt.”
I groan and clench my fists in front of me. “I was scared, okay?”
Ava looks up at me. “Scared of what?”
I look down at the ground again. “That you wouldn’t wait for me.”
Ava steps closer to me. “Wait for you? I don’t understand.”
I shake my head at the ground one more time and take a deep breath. “Because I was in love with you Ava! I always was in love with you. Hell, I’m still in love with you. You were too young. You were just going off to college. I couldn’t ask you to date me while you were away. You barely had experienced anything in life yet. What if you didn’t feel the same way about me as I did about you? What if you met someone closer to your age in school? I had to leave. I couldn’t be around you anymore. Not after you kissed me. It was all I could think about. I had to leave.”
I look into Ava’s eyes, and I hear Becca let out a little happy squeal in the background. My heart is beating so hard in my chest. This is the moment of truth. We are both just staring at each other, and all I can hear is my harsh breaths as my chest rises and falls.
Then Ava is rushing toward me. Her arms fly around my neck, and her lips crash to mine. I immediately wrap my arms around her waist and pick her up. I press my tongue into her mouth and she reciprocates. I hear Becca in the background. “Awww.”
Ava pulls back and looks me in the eyes. “I love you too.”
If I thought yesterday was the best days of my life, it couldn’t even come close to matching this moment. I feel like my heart is soaring. Ava saying those words means everything to me. She means everything to me.
I pull her back to me, and slam my mouth back against hers. I pull away for a second and look over to Doug and Becca who are just grinning at us. I clear my throat. “Uh thanks for having us over. Bye.” I grab Ava’s hand and start heading toward the door. She giggles on the way.
“The game’s not even over yet.”
I wave at Doug and Becca as we walk out the door. They both just laugh. I shut the front door and slam my mouth to Ava’s again. I pull back slightly. “I don’t care. I just want you. I just need you.”
We get in the car, but I can’t stand not touching Ava, so I grab her hand. She giggles again and then looks over to me. “You know we still have to tell my dad.”
I look over to her. “Fuck. Do you think he’ll let me stay in the apartment after he fires me?”
Ava laughs. “I mean it’s my guest apartment, so he can’t really say you have to leave if you are my guest.”