Chapter-8,part-1

OPERATION EMOTION : PHASE SADNESS

I came armed for battle.

I applied makeup, brushed my hair, and wore my favorite white

cotton sundress with yellow daisies at the bottom. It was both

pretty and comfortable, and it showed off just enough cleavage to

intrigue. Liam had loved it. Whenever I wore it, we ended up at his

place and my dress ended up on the floor.

I’d considered throwing the outfit away after we broke up

because he’d loved it, but I thought better of it. I refused to let him

ruin the good things for me, whether it was a dress or mint

chocolate ice cream, which he used to buy me whenever I had my

period cravings.

I

figured looking good couldn’t hurt if I was angling for an

unannounced evening moviethon with Alex.

I

couldn’t think of any good ideas to make him sad without

being a total bitch, so I’d chosen the neutral option of sad movies.

They worked on everyone. Yes, even men.

I saw Josh cry once at the end of Titanic, though he claimed it

was allergies and threatened to toss my camera from the top of

the Washington Monument if I told anyone.

Yeah, right. A decade later, and he still couldn’t shut up about

how there’d been room for Jack on the door. I agreed with him,

but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make fun of him.

Since Alex was a teensy bit more reserved than Josh, I

skipped Titanic and brought out the big guns: A Walk to

Remember (sadder than The Notebook ) and Marley and Me.

I

knocked on the door to Alex’s house. To my surprise, it

opened less than two seconds later.

“Hey, I—” I stopped. Stared.

I’d expected to see Alex in a suit from the office or casual

loungewear, though nothing he owned was really casual. Even his

T-shirts cost hundreds of dollars. Instead, he wore a deep gray

shirt tucked into dark denim jeans and a tailored black Hugo Boss

blazer.

Awfully dressy for a Thursday night.

“Did I catch you on your way out?” I tried to peer behind him

and see if he had company, but Alex’s frame blocked most of the

doorway.

“Should I move so you have a clearer view of my living room?”

he asked sardonically.

Heat scorched my cheeks. Busted. “I don’t know what you’re

talking about. Your living room isn’t that interesting,” I fibbed.

“Lack of color. No personal effects.” What am I saying? Someone

stop me. “The painting’s ugly too.” Stop me now. “ Could use a

woman’s touch.” Fuck. Me. Sideways.

I did not just say that.

Alex’s lips pressed together. Had he been anyone else, I

could’ve sworn he was trying not to laugh. “I see. The painting

technically belongs to Josh, you know.”

“Which should’ve been the first red flag.”

This time, a tiny smirk did touch Alex’s mouth. “To answer your

question, I was on the way out. I have a date.”

I blinked. Alex on a date. Did not compute.

Because of course the guy dated. Look at him. But I’d never

heard or seen evidence of activity in his love life, unless you

counted the women throwing themselves at him wherever he

went, so I’d assumed he was one of those workaholics who had

an exclusive relationship with his job.

I

mean, we’d been neighbors for over a month, and I hadn’t

seen him bring a single woman home—though admittedly, I wasn’t

watching his house twenty-four-seven like a total creep.

The thought of Alex dating was…strange.

That was the only word I could use to describe the niggling

feeling in my stomach, the one that made my skin itch and my

pulse beat double time.

“Ah, don’t want to hold you up then.” I stepped back and

tripped over nothing, because of course I did. He reached out to

steady me, and my heart jumped. It wasn’t a big, cheerleading

competition worthy jump. It was just a tiny skip, really. But it was

enough to fluster me further. “I’ll see you later.”

“Since you’re already here, might as well tell me why.” Alex

was still holding my arm, and the heat from his touch seared me

to the bone. “I assume this means the cold shoulder treatment is

over.”

I’d been ignoring him for days since he stormed into Owen’s

house like an overbearing, green-eyed tornado. It was the longest

I’d ever held onto my anger. Being upset was exhausting, and I

had better things to do with my time, but I’d wanted to make a

point, which was that he couldn’t barge in and try to take over my

life without consequences.

“For the most part.” I narrowed my eyes. “Don’t do that again.”

“Don’t parade in front of other men half-naked, and I won’t

have to.”

“I was not parading—” His words clicked into place. “Other

men?”

Alex dropped my arm, his eyes growing even more glacial.

“Tell me why you’re here, Ava. Is someone bothering you?” His

gaze sharpened. “Liam?”

An obvious attempt to change the subject, but my head spun

too much for me to call him out on it. “No. It was nothing. Jules is

on a date and I’m bored, so I thought I’d see if you wanted to hang

out.”

I

realized I should’ve come up with a less pathetic, more

convincing excuse for why I’d shown up to his house

unannounced on a Thursday night, especially since we weren’t

friends per se, but it was too late.

See, this was why I’d never make it as a spy or lawyer. Jules

would be so disappointed in me.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Alex looked unimpressed. “Tell me the

real reason you’re here.”

Crap. I had to come up with another excuse? It wasn’t like I

could let him know about Operation Emotion.

“I figured you could use the company now that Josh isn’t here,”

I said. “I haven’t seen you hang out with anyone else since he left,

so I thought you might be lonely?” The sentence morphed into a

question when I realized how dumb that logic was, because duh,

Alex’s life didn’t revolve around his house. He may not throw

house parties every week like Josh, but he probably ate out with

friends and attended sports games like everyone else. “Which

obviously isn’t the case, since you’re going on a date,” I added

quickly. “So, I’ll hop on back to my place, and you can forget this

ever happened. Enjoy your date!”

“Stop.”

I froze, my heart thundering against my chest as I wondered

how this encounter had gone so off the rails. The funny thing was,

it wasn’t actually off the rails; it just felt like it.

Alex widened the door and stepped aside. “Come in.”

What? “But your date.”

“Let me worry about her. I don’t know what’s going on with you,

but since you broke your silent treatment to come over and ‘hang

out,’ something must be wrong.”

The seed of guilt blossomed into a full-blown tree, trunk and

all, in my stomach. This was supposed to be a harmless

experiment. I didn’t want him to cancel his scheduled plans for

me.

But as I followed Alex into the living room, the thought that he

was no longer going to dinner or whatever he’d had planned with

some beautiful, mysterious woman pleased me more than it

should have.

I stifled a laugh at Alex’s expression when he caught sight of

the movies I’d brought over.

“Not a Mandy Moore fan?” I teased, popping the DVD into the

player and curling up on the couch while the pre-movie credits

played. I still owned DVDs the way I still owned paperback books.

There was just something so magical about holding your favorite

items rather than seeing them onscreen.

“I don’t have anything against Mandy Moore, but I’m not a fan

of maudlin or melodrama.” Alex shrugged off his blazer and

draped it over the back of the couch. His shirt stretched across his

broad shoulders, and the top two buttons were undone, revealing

a sliver of his chest and sexy collarbones.

I hadn’t thought collarbones could be sexy, but here we were.

I

swallowed hard. “It is not maudlin or melodrama. It’s

romantic.”

“Doesn’t she die in the end?”

“Way to spoil it,” I grumbled.

He shot me a disbelieving look. “You’ve already watched it.”

“But have you?”

To be continued

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