Page 79 of Heart to Heart
It made sense. Most of Bianca’s observations made sense. She was a strategic mastermind, and I was happy she was on my side now. I pulled a black sheath dress from the rack and held it up. It was one of the few outfits I had left that I hadn’t worn on television.
“You aren’t going to a funeral, Avery. Put that one back and grab the green one. It brings out the color in your eyes.” I looked over my shoulder as she turned the page, peeling back the folds of a perfume ad to smell its fragrance. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not hitting on you. If it can’t be me with Tristan at the end of this thing, I want it to be you over Jessica. But it won’t be if you look like you’re attending a wake.”
Green it is.
A knock on our door startled us both. “Sorry.” Carter, a junior assistant who I’d seen grabbing coffee for producers on set, stood in our doorway. Bianca and I glanced at each other, knowing that one of us was going next, and Carter wasted no time delivering the news. “Bianca, they’re ready for you.”
“I’ll be right down,” she answered, trying not to sound deflated. When he turned to leave, she let her head fall onto the magazine as she let out a sigh.
After Bianca left, Jessica and I were the remaining women in the house, and it gave me a sort of sick satisfaction when she was called to get ready before I was. She passed by me sitting on a settee in the parlor, wearing another form-fitting dress that was likely far too formal for whatever Tristan had planned for the day. I looked up as she walked past me, her eyes scanning over me as though making some sort of silent appraisal, which, if the smug look on her face were any kind of a giveaway, I failed.
“Good luck,” I said, mainly because I felt I should say something to her since no words had been exchanged between us since her arrival.
“Thanks,” she replied, glancing over her shoulder as the driver came to the room to fetch her, “but I won’t need it.”
As much as I wanted to believe she was kidding herself into believing Tristan had forgiven her, a small part of me was afraid she was right.
It was evening by the time a van showed up to shuttle me to Tristan. On the ride to the mystery destination, I mulled over what I was going to say to him. We’d parted on not-so-great terms and then he approved his ex-girlfriend to join the competition. The chemistry we’d had when I’d thought there was a small chance he may have actual feelings for me, had been lost. Surely, our rift would be obvious. People could tell when conversations were forced.
“Here we are,” the driver, neither Jay nor Jim, announced.
“Thank you,” I said, though I really wanted to ask him to drive me to the airport so that I could avoid this night altogether.
I looked out the window, noticing that we were parked behind Francelli’s, a high-end Italian restaurant that had been featured on the show before. At least there would be food, making the awkward silence a little more forgiving. The back door slid open, and I stepped out of the van, greeted by a restaurant employee. She wore a uniform of black trousers, awhite button-down shirt, and a black tie. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a tight bun. A pin on her shirt revealed her name as Tonya.
“Good evening, Avery,” she greeted me, smiling as she held the door open.
I nodded, thanking her as I walked inside. It was a back entrance to keep the other restaurant patrons from finding out who was dining with them. I imagine these entrances were commonplace in downtown L.A., though I never imagined I would need to be whisked inside one.
Tonya led me down a hall, where we turned down another corridor housing multiple private dining rooms. About a third of the way down, she stopped in front of a closed door, motioning for me to enter.
“Your waiter will be in shortly,” she said with one last smile before disappearing down the hall.
I nodded, taking a breath before opening the door and letting out a gasp.
CHAPTER 45
TRISTAN
“Look! It’stheAvery Martin!”Avery’s friend Kiki squealed as she leaped from the table and ran over to Avery, knocking her back into the door.
Stunned, Avery flung her arms around her friend who’d just spent the last ten minutes quizzing me over everything from what members of BTS I knew to whether I wanted to see the facial mashup she’d put together of what she thought Avery’s and my future child would look like, which she’d pulled out of her purse, along with a handful of condoms that she promptly stuffed inside the pocket of my pants.
“Oh my gosh, he has your eyes,” Rachel had said, admiring Kiki’s handiwork.
I’d shot her a sideways glance as if to ask her whose side she was on, all while trying not to let the pain reflect on my face. I hadn’t thought about having kids of my own, per se, but the concept art Kiki came up with was so realistic, I was kind of sad it wasn’t going to happen. Avery had made that perfectly clear.
Avery peered up, her watering eyes exploding when she saw her parents stand up from the table with her brother, Josh. Josh had done nothing but gave me the stink eye the entire time, asany good brother should. I motioned to Rachel to stand up with me as we watched Avery greet her family with a hug and Claire wipe tears from her eyes. To Avery’s surprise, even Josh brought her in for an embrace, and she lost it even more in his arms.
“I bet they say good night to each other every night like the Waltons,” Rachel quipped. “That would be a great family to marry into.”
I caught her eyeing me from my peripheral. She knew why I was here. What she didn’t realize was that I’d been willing to give it up for Avery, and that was probably for the best.
With Rachel in tow, I made my way over to Avery as she dabbed her eyes with a Kleenex Claire had pulled from her purse. Her focus shifted to me as I approached.
“Did you arrange all of this?” she asked, and goddamn it, I wish I could tell her I had.
“Didn’t you read my handbook?” Kiki admonished her, her hands firmly on her hips.
