Page 29 of Building Romance
“Are you OK?” he asks.
I rip my arm from his grasp. “Of course, I am.” I pause as I head to my bedroom. “How’d you get in here?”
“Al let me in. I saw him in the hallway and said I was picking you up for the competition. I knocked but you didn’t answer.” Great. I probably couldn’t hear it over my sobbing. Fuck. I am such a mess. “He had the master key on him. So he let me in to make sure you were alright. I’ll let him know you are.” He pulls out his phone and types a message, presumably to Al.
“I’ll just be a minute,” I state as I practically run into my room and finish packing in record time.
I hear a knock at my window and I look out to see…a donkey on a stick? The donkey is tapping at my window. I rub my eyes. Clearly, I’ve reached the state where I am just hallucinating. Yep, that’s it.
What the hell is happening?
I walk to my window and open it, looking forward at the donkey and then down.
“Oh, good. It reached your window,” Ava says.
I frown. “Ava, what the hell are you doing?”
“Sending you Mr. Pickles,” she says as she pushes the…long pole further out of her window, or should I say her mother’s window.
“Ava,” I hiss. “You are going to fall. Stop. And what is happening here?”
“Bray won’t let me leave to give you Mr. Pickles, so I borrowed this lightbulb changer thing that Mr. Troy left in the hallway. It’s how he changes the lightbulbs in the ceiling,” she explains.
I slap my forehead. For the love of God.
“Ava! Will you stop hanging out of windows? It’s dangerous,” I state, my sadness of several minutes ago quickly evaporating as fears for this child’s safety take center stage in my brain.
“Why does everyone always say that?” she asks, her face twisted up in true puzzlement.
“And this is why I don’t have kids,” I mutter to myself.
“Huh?” she asks.
“Nothing. I think you should keep Mr. Pickles,” I announce.
“Oh come on. You can put him on TV and he’ll be famous!” she says excitedly.
“Won’t you miss him? I’ll be gone for three weeks,” I explain and I feel a presence in my room. I turn to see Fletcher standing in the doorway. His gaze darts between me and the stuffed donkey hanging in front of me. Great. My room is in its normal messy state. I’m sure discarded underwear lies somewhere around here. But I don’t have time to process my mortification as Ava speaks again.
“Nope. I’m a big kid now. I don’t need stuffed animals,” she explains proudly.
“Fine. But if you get upset about him being gone for so long, I don’t want to hear about it,” I grumble.
“I won’t,” she assures me with a big grin.
I reach out to grab the donkey and my foot slips on a T-shirt I may have left on my floor. I grip the window ledge but start to double over and I feel my feet leave the ground.
Suddenly, strong arms wrap around my middle.
“Whoa,” Fletcher says into my ear. He tightens his grip on me as he sets me back down. Then he reaches past me and un-tapes the donkey from the stick, and hands it to me. His front is flush with my back, his hands are on either side of me and I feel his breath against my hair.
“Who are you?” Ava asks.
“I’m going to be your worst nightmare if you don’t stick yourself back into your apartment,” he growls.
I lean over a little and see Ava’s eyes widen. “Ava, we got Mr. Pickles. Mr. Fletcher here is my…uh…work colleague. We have to go. I’ll see you in a few weeks. Please, behave.”
Ava giggles. “I always behave, silly goose.” I hear Bray’s voice and Ava quickly pulls the long pole down. “Gotta go. Bye,” she says quickly and disappears.
