Exhausted&Lost

Chapter Twenty Three

Once Ava's brain remembered how to send signals to her legs, she walked over to the tea kettle that she had brought to Dave's from home to teach him how to make a proper cup of tea and offered a cup to the older woman in front of her.

"I'd love one," Virginia smiled, "Now dear, tell me your name and what part of Ireland gifted you with that beautiful accent."

Ava felt a deep blush creep over her cheeks, a mixture of the compliment, the realization that she had completely forgotten to introduce herself, and the very fact that she was standing in her boyfriend's kitchen meeting his mother for the first time with her hair scraped back into a ponytail and one of Dave's Backbeat BBQ hoodies thrown over her pajama shorts, which she was eternally grateful she had decided to wear.

"I'm so sorry," she said, mentally chastising herself, "I'm Ava, and the accent is a product of many places!"

"Well come and sit, tell me all about it."

The women sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen and discussed Ava's childhood, she explained that she was born in Dublin and grew up between there and the North at her Grandparents house near Belfast, and eventually settled in Tralee in Kerry, while Virginia spoke about her near move to the North and gushed about her love for Kerry, falling in love with Killarney and Dingle when David had first taken her in the '90s.

She was surprised at how quickly she relaxed around Virginia, she was just one of those people who instantly made you feel at ease, and it was clear where Dave had inherited his storytelling ability because Ava found herself hanging on her every word.

*

Dave had woken with a start when he had rolled over to throw an arm around Ava and instead found cold sheets. He reached out to check the time on his phone and was surprised to see that it was only 8 pm.

He stretched his weary limbs and pulled on a pair of sweats to combat the chill that seemed to be in the air this evening. He could hear the whistle of her tea kettle on the stove and smiled to himself, thinking about how happy he was that Ava was comfortable enough to make her way around the house even when he was asleep.

As he moved toward the kitchen, he heard her voice, though he couldn't quite hear what she was saying and he wondered who she was speaking to on the phone. He wondered if it was her dad, he admired their bond, and couldn't wait to meet him.

Or maybe it was Izzy, her friend from work. He thought about how much of her time he had been taking up lately, and that she probably hadn't had much of a chance to catch up with her. Feeling a little bad, he made a mental note to invite her over for beers and BBQ some evening soon.

"Hey, baby..." he groaned sleepily, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands, "I woke up starving, wanna get take out?"

"I would love to, David, once you tell me why you've been hiding this wonderful woman from me," came a voice he certainly wasn't expecting.

Ava bit down on her lip to stop the giggle when she watched every muscle in his body tense as he froze to the spot he was standing in, much like she had done just an hour before.

His eyes finally found hers and darted between her and his mother, alarm clear on his face and she felt the need to give him an easy smile to let him know she was okay, and not totally freaked out and ambushed as he feared.

"Mom... I wasn't expecting you, I'm sorry. This is Ava," he tried to keep his voice steady, despite the blood pounding in his ears. The last thing he wanted was for his mother and Ava to get off on the wrong foot, but judging by the way she was leaning back on his counter with a slight smile tugging at his lips, things seemed to have gone okay.