Our Little Secret

Chapter 5

"You can get that if you need to," Isabel said, nodding towards the phone that I had just put in my pocket.

"Oh, no it's fine, it wasn't important I'll call her back later," I said.

"So it was Ava, huh?" Isabel asked with a slight smile.

I narrowed my eyes at her briefly before I nodded.

"Yeah, it was," I said.

"You still could've answered it," Isabel responded.

"I think it's probably better that she doesn't know about this little hangout session," I said, "at least for now."

"Oh..." Isabel said, looking down at her lap.

"Sorry, I didn't mean for that to sound bitchy," I quickly said, "I'm just not really sure how she'll feel about it."

"Yeah, I get it, it's not a big deal...but I don't want to upset anyone if you need to - " she started.

"Nope," I cut in, "I'll worry about Ava later, I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Alright, if you're sure," Isabel said.

"Positive," I assured her, "you know Ava, she's not going to think anything of it."

I hoped she wouldn't at least.

"Enough about that though," I continued, "I want to know about the fucking model that you were with last night."

Isabel laughed and I noticed her cheeks start to turn red.

"He's not a model," she said.

"He sure looks like he could be one," I responded.

"He is pretty attractive," she admitted.

"That might be the understatement of the year," I said.

"Oh whatever," Isabel laughed.

"Well what's the story with you two?" I asked.

"I met him through a friend at work," she said with a shrug, "we've only hung out a few times so it's pretty casual right now, not like we're officially dating or anything."

I nodded as I continued to sip on my cup of coffee.

We sat there and talked for a while longer, and when I looked down at my phone I realized that over an hour had passed.

"Shit, I should probably get going," I said to Isabel.

"Yeah, me too," she agreed.

"Hey where's your new place by the way? Didn't you say you just moved somewhere around here," I asked her.

"Oh yeah, it's not too far from here. It's an apartment just a few blocks away," she said, "you'll have to come see it sometime."

"Yeah I definitely will," I said, "you still have my number, right?"

Isabel nodded as we both stood up from the couch.

"Perfect, well I'm sure I'll see you sometime soon now that you've taken over my coffee shop," I grinned.

Isabel rolled her eyes at me but she smiled, "sure did, talk to you later Skylar."

"Later," I said with a wave.

I got out to my car and called Ava back.

"Hey, what are you doing?" She asked.

"I was at the coffee shop, just heading out now," I responded.

"Oh nice," she said, "who did you go there with?"

Fuck, what was I supposed to tell her now?

"No one," I quickly blurted out, "just me, just hung out for a while."

That wasn't that far from the truth, I had gone there alone originally.

"Uh okay," she said, sensing my hesitation, "do you want to stop over here if you're not doing anything?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in like ten minutes," I told her.

Well I had to get my shit together now. I really didn't think Ava would care that much if she knew that I ran into Isabel, but I wasn't one hundred percent sure. Just that small bit of uncertainty made me not want to say anything yet.

Besides, it wasn't like I was trying to let Isabel take Ava's spot as my best friend, I had just ran into her a couple of times. I'd tell her eventually, but it didn't seem worth it yet.

I pulled up to the house and got out of my car. I walked in without knocking, it was my usual habit.

"I'm here bitch," I called out to Ava.

"Thanks for that," she said with a grin as she poked her head out of the hallway.

I shrugged as I sat down on the couch.

"What are you doing today?" I asked her.

"I'm not really sure yet, probably just being lazy honestly. Feels like a good day to do that," she said.

"Yeah I second that," I said in agreement.

"Did you guys do anything fun last night?" She asked as she came and sat down next to me.

"Greyson and I went for dinner and drinks, but that's about it," I responded.

"Sounds fun though," she said.

"It wasn't bad," I started, "oh yeah, and then we fucked when we got home."

"Jesus Skylar, I did not need to know that," Ava said with a laugh.

I gave her a mischievous grin, but I spared her of any of the details. I was clearly pretty open about my sex life, but Ava was kind of the opposite. I enjoyed seeing her squirm when I talked about it, and she knew it. It was always good for a laugh.

"Okay but speaking of Greyson," I said hesitantly, "I did actually want to ask for your advice on something."

"If it involves anything that you two did last night, you can count me out," Ava grinned.

"No, I won't be that mean to you today," I said.

"Okay good," she quickly responded.

"So I'm not really sure how I feel about him any more," I admitted to her, "it feels like we've kind of gotten bored with each other or something, I don't know."

"Oh, yeah that's not great," Ava said.

"Yes thank you, I know," I said sarcastically, "I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I don't really know what to do."

"Have you talked to him about this at all yet?" She asked me.

"No, of course not," I said, "you know I don't like to do things the easy way."

"Yes I'm well aware," Ava teased, "but you know that's probably a logical first step."

"Yeah I do know that," I sighed, "it's not really a conversation I'm looking forward to."

"You never know though, maybe talking through things will get you out of whatever this slump is that you're in," Ava said.

"I guess it could," I responded, "but it could also make things worse."

"Guess you won't know until you try," Ava said with a smile as she got up from the couch.

She always had to be so smart and level-headed about everything. Damn her and her logical solutions.

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