May we always meet again

Chapter 20

Ravens POV

What Happened (Flashback):

"Come on Anya, don't be like that." I looked at her with big pleading eyes as we sat across from each other at a table. We were driving up the sales of our favorite coffee shop considerably.

"No way!" She gave me one of her famous death stares. Apparently, my stare wasn't having enough of an effect on her. Damn! Sometimes she was just a block of ice.

Still, I wondered how she managed to say no. No to ME? How was that possible? But I would not give up. Oooooh no, we would definitely not set a precedent today. She could forget about that. After all, I had a reputation to lose. So I changed tactics and tried an eye roll. "Tus for me..."

"For you? Why the hell would I do that?" Her voice sounded energetic and a little too determined for my taste. Bummer.

"Because you like me." Anya snorted. "Fine, because you find me irresistibly sexy." I batted my eyelashes exaggeratedly.

"You're massively overestimating yourself, as usual Reyes. Whatever you imagine, your charm doesn't work on me."

"Pleeeease. I don't want to go there alone while all around me are old geezers with their young and stupid wives." I could really do without that. Over my dead body would I show up there without an escort.

"Then don't go." The way she pronounced it made it sound like the easiest thing in the world, which it wasn't. Not at all. "You can't. I have to go there."

"And why is that?" She raised her eyebrows questioningly, glaring at me suspiciously.

"Because they're throwing the party for me..." I shrugged and she raised her eyebrows questioningly. Hah! I knew it, she was interested! "I've created a new privacy software that not only detects viruses and adjusts firewalls, but hacks into someone else's computer at the same time."

"I thought you were still in college?" I shrugged. "If you can, you can. So pleeease. I don't want to show up alone as the guest of honor."

"Then take Clarke with you." As desperate as I was to convince her to come along, she put everything in motion that she could to escape it. "As a date?" Now I was the one raising my eyebrows.

"Not as a date, as a supportive friend." She said it casually, but a little TOO casually for my taste.

"You don't want me to date, right?" I winked at her, my grin growing at the thought of a jealous Anya.

"I can gladly give you my black book with a list of all my exes, and it's long, trust me. You'll have plenty of material there to pick from. I don't mind."

My grin disappeared instantly and I looked into those eyes that I just couldn't really read. But what I saw was an indifference that hurt me, so I conceded defeat and nodded. "You want the book?"

"No, I'll just take mine." Sadly, I looked at her. "I'll go paint." With that, I left her standing there. She didn't want to and I really should stop getting my hopes up. After all, she had shown me often enough that there was none for it. Crap heart.

Anya called after me, but I pretended not to hear her. I didn't want her to come along just out of pity or guilt. It was my way of asking her out, but I gave it up. She had rejected me so many times now, my ego couldn't take any more rejection.

My cell phone rang and I saw that the woman with the high cheekbones was calling me. I let it go to voicemail and then turned off my cell phone. On foot, I made my way home. I didn't care how long I would be on the road, maybe the exercise would help a little.