Journey (3)

Chapter 58

question- taylor swift 

CONNOR'S POV:

one week ago:

(please don't feel obligated to read this small part for a second time, it's just what was at the end of the last chapter, you can skip a couple of lines down to the new part)

I hang up the call to Tessa, and slide my phone into my pocket. As I do that, I hear a knock on my door. "Who is it?" I call out, not expecting anyone at this time.

"It's Ava," a voice says. I sigh, loudly enough for her to hear. I hope that she takes the hint and decides to leave.

"Ava? I'm sort of busy at the moment," I say, trying to deter her. "Whatever it is, can't you ask Dr Latham. Isn't he staying on your floor?"

"This is something that I need to talk to you about," Ava says, and she sounds weirdly desperate. Still, I don't want to fall for it.

"What is it?" I ask her. "What's going on?" I don't want to let her in my room, because then she might never leave, and I told Tessa that I was sure Ava wouldn't try anything.

"It's about Adam." The friend of mine that I set her up with a few weeks ago. Now, I'm listening. "Something's going on with him. He's your friend, so I thought I'd ask...you."

I sigh. Adam probably just came to his senses and realised finally that it wasn't meant to be. Still, I can't exactly turn Ava away. "Fine," I say, walking over to my door and opening it. "What do you mean?"

"He's acting differently," Ava says, still standing in the hallway, not stepping inside. "Like, he's acting weirdly. He mentioned that Tessa talked to him at the airport. I think she said something to him."

"You can come in, you know," I say. "You don't just have to stand out there. Come in." Ava walks past me, and I shut the door behind her. "What do you think Tessa could have said?" I ask. "I really don't think she would have said anything. That's not like Tessa, she's not you."

"I don't know," Ava says, and she seems genuinely frustrated by the situation. "But he was a really good guy, and now he's acting strangely after one single conversation with your girlfriend. Obviously I'm going to blame her."

"Okay, okay," I say, sighing. "You don't know that it's because of Tessa, so don't blame her for this. Maybe he just...realised. I don't get what you want me to do about it, or why you're telling me?"

"Who else am I meant to tell?" Ava asks. "I'm thousands of miles away from everyone else, but you and Dr Latham, and I can't exactly talk to him about all of this."

"Alright," I sigh. "So, what's the problem? Why do you think he's acting weirdly?"

Ava turns to me, and starts to explain. I hope that I haven't made the wrong choice by inviting her into my hotel room. 

...

(one week later- last day of the trip) 

Letting Ava come into my room on that first night proved to be a mistake, because for almost the entirety of the trip, she's been trying to start multiple conversations with me, and I've even found her at some of the same surgical workshops that I've been attending, trying to get a seat next to me.

Fortunately, I managed to avoid her efforts mostly, and now she can go back to her boyfriend, and I can go back to Tessa, and nothing will have happened between us.

That's all I'm thinking about, when I get another knock on my door. No one has knocked on my door since Ava did, on that first night, and that proved to be an entire ordeal that I could have done without.