The Assistant | Scavi

Press Statement

About an hour into the movie, Scott thought that Avi was asleep. The man was lying there, breathing calmly and Scott did his best to not disturb him.

Scott was, however, surprised when he heard a soft sniffling noise. "Avi?"

"Hmm?"

"I thought you fell asleep" Scott whispered. 

Avi shook his head. "No... I love the movie..." he whispered back. "It's just a little sad."

"It is" Scott agreed. 

"But a beautiful story nevertheless," Mitch said softly.

Avi hummed. "That it is."

After the movie, Avi sat up slowly and grabbed his glass to take a sip. "That's a really good movie," he said and smiled at Mitch. "Thank you for suggesting it."

Mitch smiled. "Of course." He stretched out his arms. "It's still early, do you want to watch another movie, or..."

"I think I'd like to go to bed," Avi said. "I'm tired. But maybe we can have breakfast tomorrow? I volunteer to cook."

"I would love a good breakfast. You don't have to cook though," Mitch replied. 

Avi shook his head. "That's the least I can do. After all, I am stealing your best friend again."

Mitch shrugged his shoulders. "I don't mind as long as he's happy. And I'll have a lot of stuff on my plate myself, so even if he was here, we wouldn't see one another that often."

"Yeah, Mr Head Designer is always busy" Scott joked and when Mitch rolled his eyes he chuckled. "What? I am still proud of you! You achieved so much!" 

"You were promoted?" Avi asked. "I didn't know!"

Mitch nodded. "Yeah, I was. I got rid of my old, stupid boss and now I am the boss. So far I am really happy. The other designers are, too. It's more work for me, but at least I am enjoying it right now."

Avi smiled. "I am happy for you, Mitch."

"Thank you" Mitch said. He stretched his arms over his head and yawned. "Anyway. I'll head to bed now. Good night, boys and no funny business."

Avi blushed when he heard this, but Scott just chuckled. "No need to be embarrassed. Mitch and I are fairly open when it comes to these things. He says that just to annoy me."

"Oh okay... did you tell him? About last night?" Avi asked.

Scott shook his head. "No, of course not" he replied. "I would never share this with him. This is just for me and you." He pressed a kiss onto his cheek and then got up. He took the wine glasses into the kitchen and grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge. "Let's go to bed, Love, I'm tired and you look as if you'll fall asleep while you're brushing your teeth."

~

When Mitch woke up the next morning, he smelled coffee and breakfast. He looked at his phone and was surprised that it was rather early. That was so not Scott. Scott would never get up that early, even though they had had an early night.

Mitch got up after a while of scrolling through Instagram and he went into the kitchen, surprised to see only Avi there. "Good morning."

Avi turned around and smiled brightly. "Good morning, Mitch. I took the liberty to raid your fridge." 

Mitch smiled. "It smells so good in here. What are you making?"

"Oh just some scrambled eggs with onions and sweet peppers. I also have prepare a fruit salad and the pancake batter is ready, too. I didn't know what you like to have for breakfast, so I made something sweet and something savoury" Avi explained.

Mitch chuckled. "Usually I'll have some yoghurt with fruits or porridge... easy to do for one, but I love scrambled eggs and pancakes, too."

Avi smiled. "Good."

"Mmhm" Mitch hummed. "How are you already up by the way?"

Avi shrugged his shoulders. "Well I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. I think Scott was still reading, but I just slept. And this morning I looked at my phone and saw that they already had sent me the press statement..."

"Oh..." Mitch didn't know what to say. "And? What do you think about it?"

Avi shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know to be honest. They want me to confirm it before they sent it out, though."

"Can I read it? Just if you want a second opinion?" Mitch asked carefully. 

Avi seemed to think for a moment, but then nodded. "Sure, why not" he said. "After all it is supposed to be out in the world." He wiped his hands on a dishtowel and then took his phone out of his pocket. 

Mitch smiled when he saw a sleepy selfie from Scott as Avi's background image, but then furrowed his brows when Avi handed him the phone with the email opened. "Okay..." He read through it twice and then nodded. "I think it's fine. It has all the vital information. That you divorced your ex-wife by mutual agreement and that you are in a new relationship, but want to keep it to yourself for now?"

Avi nodded. "I wasn't sure about the relationship thing, Mitch. This is where I am still struggling. Right now it only says that I am in a relationship, but I don't know if that's enough? Should I state that I am with a man?"

"I get your struggle, Avi, but I don't think that you need to do this. Let the media talk. They will know what's going on anyway. Journalists, especially those who are after you are clever bastards" Mitch explained. 

Avi nodded. "Thank you for your opinion. I don't want to disclose my sexuality in this press statement, but I thought it might be necessary" he said softly. "But I am glad that you're thinking differently. I might ask Scott for his opinion, though."

Mitch smiled. "You should" he agreed. "Anyway. What are you up to today? Going right back into the woods?"

"Yeah, probably. There will be a pit stop to get some real hiking boots for Scott, but then we'll be on our way" Avi explained while he started to fry the pancakes. 

"Hiking boots? Is it that serious?" Mitch asked with a grin on his face.

Avi nodded. "Kind of... we want to do more hiking trips and Scott realised that he can't really walk in his sneakers. They're nice for daily life, but every root you step on hurts your foot in them. So hiking boots it is" he explained. 

Mitch chuckled. "I just never saw him as a nature boy" he explained.

Avi focused on flipping a pancake and then spoke up. "You should've seen him be all excited over a family of rabbits which live next to my cabin" Avi explained. "We spent the whole evening watching them and he was so happy."

"Well you need to add that I also was scared of every single crackling sound that was coming from the woods."

Avi turned around and smiled when he saw his boyfriend. "And he's up at last" he commented.

"Mmhm, the smell of pancakes always pulls me right out of bed, no matter how comfortable it is" Scott replied. He went to Avi and kissed him softly, before turning to Mitch. "Coffee or tea?"

~~~~