Life-moving moments

Chapter 21

Matt is persistent. Over the next week he hounds me until eventually my mom, completely fed up with the constant phone calls, says: "Please sort this shit out."

She hands me the handset and I can guess that the person on the other side is Matt. My mom has clearly reached new levels of pissed because she never swears. I take the phone into my room since Olivia is not home.

"Hello ..."

"Ava, please will you just give me a chance to explain. I'm sorry. Okay, I'm really, really sorry."

"Matt, I don't think I can forgive you for this."

"It was just a kiss. It meant nothing and I was very drunk too."

"That's just the tip of the iceberg, Matt. I was already pissed at you when you told me about that. How could you take advantage of me like that?"

"Take advantage! How did I take advantage of you? What are you talking about?"

"I told you I didn't want to sleep together anymore. I told you I wanted to sort out the emotional shit in our relationship first. Yet, you drove me to your empty house where you seduced me when I was too drunk to think clearly."

"We were both drunk, Ava. I had more to drink than you."

"And yet you drove my car a whole extra 20 kilometers when you could have just taken me home."

"I wasn't thinking straight and what do you think your mother would have said if we both came in there drunk?"

He has a point.

"Look, it wasn't my plan to seduce you. I took you to my house because there wouldn't be anyone home to see the state we were in and the rest just happened, okay. I'm sorry. Neither of us were really thinking straight."

I hadn't realised how much Matt had been drinking because I hadn't been paying attention. I'd been too focused on James. We were actually really lucky to have made it to his house alive.

"Are you really more angry about the sex than the cheating?" Matt sounds wounded and I find myself feeling sorry for him again. How does he always manage to flip this around on me?

"No, I'm not," I lie. I'll figure out my lack of emotion about the cheating later. "I'm upset about all of it but you seemed to only be focusing on that."

"I'm really sorry, Ava. I suppose the lesson in this is that alcohol and us shouldn't mix. I did a stupid, stupid thing and I regret it. I feel like I've been carrying a rock in my chest for the last two weeks."

I melt again. How does he always do this? How does he get under my skin so well?

"It's okay. I forgive you. Let's just forget about it and go back to taking things slowly again, okay?"

He's silent and I know that means he's not okay with going slow but eventually he says: "Anything for you, Ava."