Page 2 of Too Little Too Soon
Their other sister, Holly, had just gotten married this past spring to a guy who had been her best friend when they were in college. Ava recalled meeting him at her grandmother’s funeral; even to her untrained eye, it was obvious that Sam had been head over heels in love with Holly.
Ava should have gone to their wedding.
She wasn’t interested in getting married—ugh, no, thank you. The idea of sharing living space with another person? Yuck.
However, she wouldn’t mind loving life. Even just liking it would be nice.
Oh, and hanging out with her sisters for the first time since they were kids would be cool too.
She made herself a Manhattan with practiced hands. She’d started drinking them in college because of the name—yes, cue the eye roll—and continued drinking them because they were delicious and she made a killer one, and this morning, she needed a stiff drink. The fact that it was barely 9:00 a.m. be damned.
Cocktail in hand, she cut through the living room to the bedroom and shed her severe suit, leaving it in a pile on the floor. It wasn’t like she was going to need it again anytime soon.
After changing into the single pair of yoga pants she owned and a fitted pullover with Holly’s band’s logo scrawled across the front, Ava returned to the living room and wandered over to stand in front of the two tall, narrow windows that overlooked an alley and a sliver of the city. If she stood here long enough, she’d likely see something exciting occur, despite how limited the view. This was New York, after all.
Demetri’s dismissal this morning had come as a shock, yes, because she was the highest producing designer in the firm. Until a year and a half ago, she’d lived and breathed her job.
Going home to Washington for the funeral had rattled her. She rarely returned to the nest. Each time she did, nothing at all had changed, which reminded her anew why she’d moved all the way across the country in the first place.
This time, however, her sisters had both broken from the mold, had not allowed their mother to mentally browbeat them into submission. Even Maria had rebelled. She was the one who had always been a rules follower, and as far as it looked from the outside, had formed herself into a carbon copy of their matriarch.
Now she was dating a guitar player.
That sister was even more shocking than Holly, who had run away to LA at eighteen, changed her name, and formed her own rock band, which was hugely successful and only getting hotter. Not a single fan had a clue she was tied to the powerful and influential Hearsys until Grandmother’s funeral, and even then, nobody had cared.
Because outside of their own circle, the Hearsy name really meant a whole lot of nothing.
Probably why their mother never left her little kingdom up there, just outside of Seattle. She couldn’t act like the queen of the freaking world if nobody knew who she was.
Ava glanced down at the cluster of half-melted ice cubes in her glass. Time for another.
Since she hadn’t eaten breakfast, she was already feeling a slight buzz, and damn it, she was perfectly okay with that. Had she ever gotten well and truly drunk in her life? No, no she had not.
She’d never been fired before, either.
Today was a day of firsts. Maybe this was a wake-up call.
Maybe it was time to seek that happiness she was finally ready to admit had been eluding her for the last thirteen years. For thirty-five years, in truth.
God, what a depressing thought.
The second drink went down easier than the first. By the third, she was curled up on the couch, cybershopping. Given her recent jobless situation, it probably wasn’t the wisest use of her time, except she had been a partner in the firm, so they were going to have to buy her out. Once the ink was dry and the money transferred, she’d be sitting pretty, for a while at least.
Long enough to take a vacation before she started a new job search.
She had never taken a vacation in her entire adult life.
How sad was that?
She made a fourth drink and switched to travel websites instead. Where would she go? What had she always wanted to do?
Holy crap, she had no clue. She’d never allowed herself the opportunity to think about doing anything other than working. Working had kept the demons from her upbringing at bay.
If she laid on a beach somewhere, would she just think and think and think and drive herself mad?
That didn’t sound fun.
She needed a vacation that would stimulate her mind, keep her busy.
