Betrayal - A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Chapter 13

"Hey! What are you doing?" Ava shouted, trying to prise her arm loose. She didn't have the nerve to deal with a crazy New Yorker this early in the morning – especially not on an empty stomach and after her morning had started so badly anyway.

"Someone's in a bad mood," James gave her a rude smile after pulling her into an alley. He was still holding her arm, his face inches from hers. Ava felt his breath on her skin and the lovely scent of bergamot – James' scent – rose to her nose again. Her pulse quickened at the sight of him, her thoughts completely clouded, but she tried to remind herself that he had left this morning without leaving a note.

„That could possibly be because a certain gentleman snuck out of my flat, only to drag me into a questionable alley when I have to go to work," Ava returned defiantly, trying hard not to stare at his soft lips.

"He sounds like quite an arse," James returned playfully.

"I haven't quite decided yet."

James couldn't help but laugh. His laugh was infectious and Ava could no longer maintain her serious expression.

"Can the lady forgive this arse if he offers her breakfast?" James let go of her arm and held up a small bag with his other hand.

"Just this once more," Ava said, trying to suppress a smile.

"Good, then you can go on a real date with me." He gave her his crooked smile that made Ava's heart beat faster every time. The term "real date" irritated her though – they had already been out to dinner, had he forgotten about that again? Ava stopped herself from over-analyzing the words.

"Now you're the one who set me up," Ava replied, feigned indignation, thinking of James' words from last night.

James gave her his rude smile again. "I'll pick you up at eight." Ava nodded once, unable to say no at his authoritative manner. There was something erotic about his authority. He held out his hand to her and Ava tucked her filthy thoughts away in a mental drawer. She looked first at his outstretched hand and then at him in confusion. "I'm walking you to work," James shook his head as if that was the most obvious thing in the whole world.

She grabbed his hand and felt the burn on her skin, the tingle in her stomach. Together they walked across the street to the New York Times editorial building. Ava had to smile; it felt nice to walk across the street holding hands with James, even if she had no clue what it all meant to him. She wasn't even sure what it meant to her.

"Thank you," Ava said meekly as James handed her the bag with the breakfast in it.

"See you tonight, Sergeant." James leaned down to her, his hand still wrapped tightly around hers, took her face in his free hand and placed a kiss on her cheek. The spot immediately began to tingle, the butterflies in her stomach started to rebel.

Ava waited until James had turned a corner and put her free hand in her pocket, pausing for a moment to process what had just happened. She felt a small slip of paper and remembered that Bruce had given her a phone number. She still had a few minutes before her shift started and she called the number. It rang for a long time before going to voicemail. Ava decided it was safer to text the number instead of leaving a voicemail:

"Got your number from Bruce, said you could help."

Ava didn't want to give too much of herself away, after all she didn't know who was behind the number and Bruce could ultimately just be a crazy man who suspected a conspiracy behind everything and everyone.

Work was busy again, which at least kept her from thinking too much about the upcoming date with James.

"Hey Ava, can we talk for a second?" Ava startled up from her laptop. Peter had come to her desk without her realising.

"Sure, what's up?", Ava gave him a tense smile.

"I'm sorry I asked you out the other day. I didn't know you had a boyfriend." Peter sounded sincere. Everyone in the office liked him and Ava could understand why. He never meant anyone any harm. "I saw you with that older guy earlier," Peter continued to speak when Ava just looked at him confused. Oh, he thinks James is my boyfriend, Ava thought. She liked the thought a little too much.

"Oh. You don't have to apologise, I thought that was very nice of you. And James isn't my boyfriend."

"You looked so close, so I thought ... Well, anyway," Peter beamed at her and left again.

"Miss Summers, go copy this," Ranner placed a stack of documents on Ava's desk and was already gone. Ava took one deep breath, annoyed with the constant copying, but then put on a smile again and headed for the copy room with the documents.

Copying would take a while, so she quickly checked her messages to see if the mysterious number had answered her yet. Nothing. But instead a new message from Natasha:

"Are you feeling better today? You didn't look so good last night."

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. Let's chat when we see each other again," Ava wrote back. She wanted to tell Natasha all about her night with James in person.

"James asked me out again," Ava texted back, staring at her phone for another moment. Natasha was online.

The status of her message changed from "sent" to "read". No reply.