"You honestly expect me to believe you spent the night at his place and didn't sleep with him?" Ava side-eyes me hard from her spot on the sofa in my living room, like I've breached the ex-boyfriend code somehow and she can't accept this possibility exists.
"Correct," I confirm. "Do you want something to drink?"
"I only want tea, and you'd better spill all of it to make up for the cagey texts and dodging my calls."
"There is no tea, literally or figuratively. I have coffee, sparkling water, regular water, vitamin water, and some of those fruit soda things."
"Like hell there isn't figurative tea," she scoffs. "You're all glowy and shit."
"I'm not glowy," I protest. "I wrote by the pool today. It's a rare sighting of what I look like when my skin sees sunlight."
"I love you, but remember who you're talking to." She steeples her fingers in front of her and peers at me overtop of them. "If I can pull the truth out of my A-list clients who live in delusional alternate realities where they think they can do no wrong, you don't stand a chance. What happened?"
I pinch the bridge of my nose. Ava's dog-with-a-bone mode is relentless, and I'm well aware of this fact. I truly don't stand a chance.
"Fine, you win. We kissed on Sunday morning, nothing scandalous. Are you satisfied now?"
She blinks a couple of times, then drops her hands to her lap and groans. "It's worse than I thought."
"How is it worse? You walked in here assuming we'd done much more than that."
"I didn't expect him to dust off the gentleman act again, or that you'd be floating on air from it."
"I'm not--"
She holds up her hand and cuts me off. "Don't say you aren't, because I know you. This is how you were after your first couple of dates with him, when you were falling head over heels. That's how it's worse."
Sometimes it's comforting that Ava knows me so well. Other times, like now, it's more of a curse than a blessing, because she won't let anything slide. My ability to deflect is no match for her interrogation skills.
I try anyway. "Didn't you encourage me to see him when we drove back from Vegas?"
"I did. I also had a karma-fueled daydream you would get answers to everything you've ever wondered about, have hot sex, decide there's nothing left between you but physical attraction, and never talk to him again."
"Then you'll probably hate that he's taking me out on my birthday." I get up from the sofa, hoping her best friend telepathy is tuned into me enough to recognize I'd like to change the subject. I don't want to argue with her about Phoenix, or what I may or may not feel. "I need water. Do you want something to drink for real this time?"
She doesn't answer right away, so I turn on my heel and head for the kitchen. I'm already at the fridge when she calls out to me.
"I'm sorry. That sounded awful. I'm not trying to be a lousy friend, just the voice of sober second thought. You seem like you're happy, though, so I'll shut up."
I grab two cans of lime-flavored sparkling water from the fridge and return to the living room. "You're never a lousy friend. I get it. I'm sure I'd also have mixed feelings if a guy who broke your heart sashayed back into your life out of nowhere."
She takes the water I hand to her and watches me sit down. "You must have talked about a lot and gotten the answers you wanted if you're seeing him again."
"Yes and no. It got a little heavy for me after I learned things I didn't expect to, so we stopped talking about some topics at my request. To be continued, I guess."
Ava is quiet for a moment. She keeps her gaze focused on the top of the coffee table, and this, along with the crease between her eyebrows and the set of her jaw, tells me she has something on her mind.
"It's none of my business, but I'm going to ask anyway," she finally says. "Did any of what you found out involve a ring?"
Phoenix mentioning a ring stunned me. Ava knowing about it has me dumbstruck. How was I the last one to find out?
"You knew."
"Yeah. I knew."
She picks at the aluminum tab on her water can. The clinking becomes a metronome of sorts. I focus on the rhythm while I digest this news, until Ava stops and sets the can on the table.
"You never told me."
She folds her arms across her chest and rests the back of her head against the sofa cushions. The angle lets her look up at the ceiling, rather than at me.
"I was convinced it was just another fight at first, and he would come back and ask you to marry him after things settled down. I couldn't see him spending all that time planning how he was going to propose, to then throw your entire relationship away like that. After it was clear you two were done, I thought telling you would hurt you more. You didn't need that then."
She's probably right about the last part, but my mind zeroes in on what she said before it. Phoenix only told me about his intent to go ring shopping, and not that he'd already planned how he would propose.
"How do you know how much time he spent planning it?"
"Because he asked for my help." She continues to study the ceiling, but uncrosses her arms. "He wanted it to be perfect for you, so he asked if you'd ever mentioned how you wanted to be proposed to in all the years we've been friends. And he wanted my opinion on a few different styles of rings. I thought he'd realized how much of an asshole he'd been with the drinking and everything else, and that he was trying to get it together again for your sake."
"Did he tell you how he was going to propose?"
Ava presses her lips together, then shakes her head. "That's something you should hear from him if you really want to go there. It isn't my place. Shocking I think something isn't, I know." She offers me a weak smile. "Want to talk about something else now, like how your book is going?"
I'm still grappling with how she kept this a secret for six years, and what else she may be aware of that I'm not, but I bob my head in silent agreement.
"I'm working out some gaps in the plot, but I'll get there. There's actually something related to it I meant to ask you."
She shoots me a bewildered glance. "You're asking me about your book? My writing skills are limited to press releases, texts, and emails."
"It's not a writing question. I need to know how much you told Torin about it."
"I told Torin about your book?" Her forehead crinkles, and then her eyes widen. "Oh! I guess I did in passing when I talked to him about us going to his show. It was mostly in the context of being glad to tear you away from it for a night, because I missed you."
"Did you tell him what it's based on?"
She scrunches up her nose, as if she's trying to recall. "Not really? I made a joke about how you've been obsessed with a local woman's disappearance and what happened as part of your research for it, like you're Keith Morrison investigating a case for your own episode of Dateline."
"Did you mention Elenna Paseo's name at all?"
"I don't think so, but maybe?" She looks and sounds more serious now. "Wait. Did Torin say something? I was kidding about you being obsessed, and I thought he knew that, but there I go sounding horrible again. I was just ecstatic you'd agreed to go to Vegas."
"He didn't say anything. Phoenix brought up my book this weekend, and what he knew about it caught me off guard since nothing has been announced yet. He said he was at the house with Nash and heard your call with Torin."
"Oh no." Ava's hand flies up to her mouth. "I'm sorry. I had no idea anyone but Torin and Nash were there and could hear us talking, and Nash was in and out of the room, carrying mic stands and amplifiers somewhere. He didn't seem like he was listening."
"Torin didn't know Phoenix was there."
"Hang on. If Phoenix heard what I said, then he knew you'd be at the show." She snorts, and something resembling mirth lights up her eyes. "It would be sort of hilarious if what I said about getting you and Nash together is what made him show up and talk to you. Typical territorial ex-boyfriend bullshit he has no claim to."
"Back up. You were already trying to make something happen with Nash and me then?"
"Nash walked by while Torin and I were talking, so I said hi and told him I was bringing you to the show for him. We have a running joke about setting each other up, but as you saw, he can pull perfectly fine on his own. So can you, by the way, so keep that in mind. You can drop Phoenix in a second if he mishandles you again."
"Do you expect him to mishandle me?"
She doesn't have to answer. Her doubt about Phoenix is written all over her face.
"I have a healthy dose of suspicion when it comes to exes." She shrugs, as though this should be obvious. "He has to prove he's worth another chance, and don't go by one night. Grill him about anything you didn't get answers for yet, and make sure nothing is off with what he says. If things check out, and if he genuinely makes you happy, then I promise I'll be happy for you. I'll even try to like him again, although I may need to hire a hypnotist to make it happen."
"Listen to you, the dating guru." My voice has a teasing lilt to it, but I'm starting to feel like the human version of a flat tire. So much for the glow Ava insisted I had when she got here.
"Hardly. I'm a cynic with walls and no patience. Why do you think I barely date these days?" She raises her water to me in a mock cheers, then takes a sip.
"We should fix that. You seem to think Nash is fun, and you get along with him. I'd love to hear why you're his wingwoman and haven't gone for him yet."
She nearly chokes as she swallows. "Nash is the male version of me," she replies, once she recovers. "The world isn't ready for that kind of chaos."
"Maybe I'll suggest it to Torin. Stranger things have happened."
Ava tosses a throw pillow at my head. I duck and lean to the side, laughing as it narrowly misses me.
"You'll do no such thing," she informs me. "Torin is enough mischief on his own without you giving him ideas. Besides, Nash moved to Vegas when Torin did, and I don't do long distance. I've also seen him in action. He's a one-night fling for someone, and that's it. End of discussion."
"We'll see." I toss the pillow back at her. "You're protesting too much, which makes me think I'm on to something. We could go on another Vegas trip and double date."
"Not a chance, and you're brave for thinking I wouldn't spend the entire time cross-examining Phoenix about his intentions and sudden change of heart."
I was kidding, but Ava isn't. While I didn't expect her to be this skeptical about my decision to see Phoenix again after our time together on the weekend, I understand why she is. Ava was there for me when Phoenix wasn't. She knows what it took for me to heal, remember my dreams, and get to where I am now. She's my best friend in the world, and even more protective of me than Torin is.
I also agree with her on one important thing:There's more I need to uncover and ask Phoenix about. Finding out if Len is Elenna only scratches the surface. Even if Len was a different person, I want to know why losing her was Phoenix's big wake-up call, and what else has happened over the last few years of his life.
༺â༻ ༺â༻ ༺â༻
Well, this complicates things a bit. I guess Del won't want to have Ava and Phoenix together in same room for a while.ð
Do you think Ava is being too harsh? Should she cut Phoenix some slack? Or is she exactly the best friend Del needs to keep her grounded?
And what about Ava knowing Phoenix wanted to propose?ð¬ Did she make the right choice by keeping it a secret?
More Del and Phoenix is coming up! Where do you think he'll take her for her birthday?