Betrayal - A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Chapter 39

"Ava, you've come!" April shouted joyfully after Ava had made her way through the crowd to the usual seating area of her colleagues at Jim's.

„Couldn't miss out on the fun, obviously", Ava replied with a smile.

Immediately April stood up and gave Ava a tight hug, which Ava happily returned. Only now did she realise how much she had missed physical contact with other people. Her eyes fell on the small group sitting in the corner. Peter was looking at her with wide eyes, next to him sat a man who had to be the same age as Peter and a woman, with short black hair and thick eyeliner that made her grey eyes sparkle.

"Come sit with us," April said after she released the hug and pulled Ava next to her on the cushioned bench.

"This is my fiancée Jacky," April explained, pointing to the black-haired woman. "And this is Peter's friend, Harry," April explained further, pointing to the blonde next to Peter. Politely, Ava introduced herself and felt a little silly. She felt the unspoken question of what had been going on with her over the past week hanging in the air, but the last thing she wanted to do right now was talk about James.

"I'm really glad you came after all," Peter said, looking urgently at Ava.

"Me too," Ava said. "So, what have I missed so far?" she then asked, trying to steer the topic into safer waters. April immediately jumped at the question, telling her that there had almost been a huge brawl here half an hour ago between two cops who disagreed about some case.

"I'll get you a beer," Peter interjected and Ava smiled at him in thanks before turning her attention back to April. With some effort, Ava managed to throw a few words into the conversation as well before April started blabbering again.

"And you're Peter's friend?", Ava managed to ask Harry after she had already had her third beer in front of her.

"We grew up together," he replied and Ava immediately thought of Natasha. She took a big gulp of her beer to push the thought of her former best friend away.

"And now he's conquering the whole world with his knowledge," Peter added with a laugh before adding sarcastically, "It was a miracle that the Lord himself had time at all today!"

Ava finished the rest of her beer and announced, "Next round is on me, I owe you that!" Her eyes fell on Peter, who looked at her pityingly. He had no way of knowing that she had been used for information by her boyfriend, but Ava was sure that Peter at least suspected that something was amiss in her love life. That's the kind of thing you radiate, Ava thought, you can literally smell it, the smell that tells everyone I have a depressing love life.

Ava got up and staggered her way to the bar to order five beers. Three times she had to repeat the order because the bartender couldn't understand her over the babble of voices and her slight slurring of words. A little unnerved, she was waiting to get the beers when she was approached from the side.

"Ava." Startled, Ava turned, sure that she must have misheard, that she didn't recognise that deep and menacingly authoritative voice, that that voice didn't belong to-.

"James," Ava slurred, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"This is a cop bar. I should ask you what you're doing here instead" he said sternly and Ava looked at him, puzzled. But then she remembered again what he had done to her, how he had taken advantage of her, and like a dam a wave of insults burst out of her.

"It's none of your fucking business what I do here. Especially not after what you did to me, you goddamn asshole. You are really unbelievable. I can't believe you could do something so degrading to someone else, that you could do it to me. You treated me like a stupid, naive kid. Did you ever stop to think that I could have helped you on that case? That we could have been a team?"