The Cunningham's and the Montgomery's have since long been feuding with one another. Dating decades back, the two families separate advertising companies in New York City have been competing to win over the most clients and become the most acclaimed...
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WAITING for Ava outside of the business school proved to be a longer period than I'd anticipated. Thursday meant she had a political science class from 4 to 4:50 and I planned on surprising her after class to take her to dinner at Gio's. I knew Gio would want an update on how things were between us, not to mention he made the best food ever, and I guess I just wanted to spend some more time with Ava. It dawned on me that I'd never taken her on a real date. All of our "friend" dates like the picnic or the night at The Met didn't exactly count. Because then, we were trying to pretend we could just be friends.
But now we knew that was bullshit. And we loved each other. Jesus, how crazy is that?
It surprised me that it had been so smooth to get Ava back. It surprised me even more that she told me she loved me without waiting super long to tell me. I knew that the fact I admitted I loved her was huge, but not nearly huge enough. It was helping me grow up and evolve a bit more, settling down in a legit relationship with Ava and all, but I was still kind of a kid. I knew that I was still in a gray area when it came to my future and what I wanted out of life, and Ava was way more mature than I was despite her being younger. I guess it was just how I grew up; with the notion that I'd be the next in line for the family business and didn't have to work for it or worry about it or my reputation or anything crazy like that.
Even my reputation hadn't been ruined by the paper in the Wallstreet Journal. Hardly anyone talked about it and most dismissed it. Nic said I was lucky, but I think he was saying it to mock me. I don't know, he sounded vaguely bitter over the phone and when Ava and I talked about the fact that Nic and I weren't super close, she assured me that we would figure things out. If anything, her relationship with Will gave me hope that maybe someday, Nic and I could be that close, too. Because I did love him. We just didn't talk as much as we should have.
Anyway, I showed up outside of the building on campus at 4:50 on the dot, expecting that Ava would be out within minutes. But she actually ended up coming out of the building at 5:05, 15 minutes later. She walked out alone with her backpack on and caught sight of me from the top of the steps before she descended them.
"Theo," she said with a smile. I met her at the bottom of the steps and leaned down to kiss her. "Why are you stalking me?"
"Ha-ha," I said. "I'm taking you to dinner."
"Can I take you to dinner Ava?" she mocked me and grabbed my hand as we started to walk slowly down the path. "I'm totally down for dinner. I need dessert, actually, to celebrate the grade I got on my latest poly-sci paper."
"And what grade did you get on said paper?"
"One-hundred percent," she said, grinning up at me.
"I'm dating a genius," I said. "Oh, how you make me feel so stupid..."
Ava squeezed my hand. "Oh shut up. You're far from stupid, Mr. History. So what's for dinner? And I hope you know that we're splitting the check."
"Uh, uh, uh," I said, shaking my head. "I'm all for you being independent and paying for your own meal, Ava Cunningham, however, I learned from a little birdie that it's gentlemanly to pay for the girl's meal on the first date. You can get yours next time." I winked.
