Ava hauled the bags of Italian food she carried up 3 flights of stairs to the apartment she shared with her friend, Janet. When she opened the door it was eerily quiet besides the slight squeaking noise coming from Janet's room. Ava shook her head and placed the bags in the kitchen and headed towards her bedroom. She figured Mike was in there using the bathroom since the living room TV was stationed on ESPN. She excitedly entered her room to greet him and to her surprise, it was empty.
She could tell that he wasn't in the bathroom as her eyes traveled to the darkness under the door. Ava opened the bathroom door and checked anyway, hoping the thought that was surfacing to her mind was untrue. Her heart sank as she stood in the dark, empty bathroom. She took a deep breath and walked out of her room and down the hall to Janet's room. Janet's room door was slightly ajar and as Ava peered inside, she recognized the obnoxious tattoo of a large lion on Mike's back. She lost her breath for those 20 seconds she stood there and watched as Mike's body moved in an up and down motion with Janet's legs wrapped tightly around his waist. Despite the faint noise of Janet's bed squeaking, Ava heard her say in a raspy moan, "Yesss, you always fuck me right." With that being said, Ava turned around and grabbed her keys off the kitchen counter and walked out the door and never went back.
The next day, without any sleep or food, Ava was at the office at 6 am sharp just as Charles stated. She had blocked both Janet and Mike's number and had it on her to do list during lunch to change her number, along with hiring movers to pack and move her things out of that hell hole. She knew after their rendezvous they would notice she had been there since she left the food on the counter and she refused to hear any excuses of why they were fucking nor did she want to know how long it had been going on because last night clearly wasn't the first time. Janet's voice replayed in Ava's head like a broken record. "Always...always.." All she could do was shake her head to try and rid her thoughts.
Just as she did with her father's death, she buried herself with work so that she wouldn't feel anything. She loved Mike, yes but if it was one thing her father ever taught her, it was to never take any shit from any man.
Out of the 20 years he had been with her mother, he had never cheated on her, not once. Not when they went to college, not when he went to the league, not when he traveled. NOT EVER. He had found what he wanted at the age of 14 and never looked back on what he may have been missing out on. His mother had been there for him when he had nothing and together they built everything and he NEVER cheated.
Fuck Janet and fuck Mike with his cheating ass!
The next couple of months went by super fast. Thanks to Ava's broken heart and it sending her into overdrive, she graduated with honors once again, and she even earned a position as an attorney at one of the most reputable law firms in New York City, Morrison & Co. Thank God for her close friend and receptionist, Chanel West who had let Ava stay at her apartment for the past few months. Chanel and Steffanie, Ava's younger sister, were the only people who knew what happened between Ava and Mike. Ava didn't want anyone's sympathy and she damn sure didn't want to relive that moment by talking about it.
The night of Ava's graduation and new job celebration was one to remember. The attorneys at Morrison & Co., including Charles, had took it upon themselves to rent out Dolce Vita, the nicest Italian restaurant on the east coast and have a celebration dinner for Ava. By Ava's surprise, her entire family attended the dinner as well. Cousins, aunts, and uncles from both Puerto Rico and California had traveled to New York, all to celebrate her accomplishments. Although she could feel the love, she felt so empty at the same time. She wished her father was here, she knew he would be beyond proud. He had always told her she could be whoever she wanted and that he knew she would take over the world. Her mother had attempted to comfort her and asked why Mike hadn't attended the celebration but Steffanie intervened and insisted they talk about it another time.
After the dinner was over and she said her goodbyes to her family for the night, Ava headed back to the office to decompress and sulk in peace. She didn't want to be bothered with anyone and thought the office would be the only place she could be alone. Little did she know, Charles was also at the office late that night. She saw the light from his office shining from underneath the door. So much for being unbothered, she thought. Ava tried to sneak behind Chanel's desk as quiet as she could but she obviously didn't do a great job because Charles opened his office door with a shocked look on his face.
"What are you doing here?" He asked. Ava really didn't know how to answer that question. What was she doing there?
"Uhh..I don't know. I wanted to get a head start on my legal briefs before Monday?" She asked rather than stated. Charles laughed.
"Yea right. Come with me, I want to show you something," he said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her from behind the receptionist's desk. Ava silently groaned. She just wanted to be left alone. She followed Charles despite her desire to sit in the dark and think. As they walked down the hall, hand in hand, Ava drifted her attention to how soft Charles' hands were. Her senses were overly stimulated due to the more than a few glasses of wine and shots she had at dinner. At this very moment, her sense of smell was on ten. She could smell Charles' YSL cologne as if he was right under her nose.
She was too lost in her thoughts to realize they had stopped at a closed door until he said, "I was going to wait to show you this on Monday, but since you're here now..."
He opened the door to what Ava thought was an empty office. The office was far from empty. It had a huge mahogany desk catty-cornered against the forest green and vanilla walls. Adjacent to the warm colored walls was a large window that stretched from the ceiling to the floor and took up the entire right side of the office. The window overlooked all the tall buildings in lower Manhattan. Across from her oversized desk, adjacent to the window, was a huge brown leather sectional. There were numerous paintings and photographs of wildlife hung neatly on the wall. She was taken aback about how beautiful the office was. Last week when she saw it, it was flooded with boxes and had mental institution like white walls. Ava gasped, "It's beautiful!"
"It's all yours, beautiful." Ava turned around to face Charles and saw something in his eyes that she had never seen before. Compassion, warmth, and...desire. Most of all, desire.
"Thank you so much, Charles!" She leaned in to hug him.
The hug lingered and Charles nestled his nose into Ava's neck. "I've been waiting so long to get this close to you. Working with you everyday and sometimes long nights for the past 3 years have been such a tease, Miss. Santiago. I need you. I fucking want you!"
He dragged his head from her neck until he reached her lips. They both stood still as if frozen in time until Charles made the first move and kissed her. The kiss was slow and heart-stopping. His tongue searched for the opening of her mouth and once he found it, he explored every inch of her mouth with it. Ava begin to return the favor as she kissed Charles back. The kiss began to speed up as Charles picked Ava up off of the floor and gently placed her on the huge leather couch. He carefully took off each article of her clothing and dropped it on the floor beneath them. He placed warm, soft kisses all over her body, from her lips to her toes. He used his tongue to make sure she was moist enough in all the right places. When she was wet enough to his liking, he put on a condom and inserted his erect penis inside of her. His strokes varied from long and slow to fast and short. This variation continued all night and all over her new office as they both lost count of how many times they reached their climax.
This became their routine for the next 2 years. Sex in her office, sex in his office, sex in her new apartment, sex anywhere his wife wouldn't find out. It was fun at first but now, at 27 years old, Ava was tired of the bullshit. She was getting too damn old to be playing these games and that is exactly what she was thinking about on her balcony, over looking Central Park before Charles interrupted her. Shit was about to hit the fan.
