I sighed. “There is, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“She said I’m his Achilles heel.”
“What?”
“Apparently, he has an attraction to me that he keeps secret.”
Halley stopped in the middle of the street. “Well, that works, considering you’re in love with him.”
“I’m not in love with him,” I lied. “But I don’t know what to do with this information.”
“Use it to your advantage, obviously.” She started walking again. “Don’t wear a bra at home. Wear little shorts. Drop something and pick it up in front of him. If he’s really attracted to you that badly, he’ll lose it.”
I frowned, pushing open the door to the diner. “I don’t know. That just seems like the easiest possible way I could make a fool out of myself.”
“Ava, you were just sitting in the library in the middle of the day eating Lucky Charms marshmallows from the box. No offense, but you’re not exactly the epitome of being a lady.” Halley gave me a pointed look as we sat at a table for two people.
Also, it was really annoying that she was right.
“Okay, so you have a point,” I started.
“Naturally.”
“But it seems like a terrible idea.”
“The marshmallows or the sexy thing?”
“The sexy thing. The marshmallows are never a bad idea.” I put the box on the table. “I mean, it’s not like I wear a bra all the time anyway, but I don’t wear little shorts when he’s around, and I certainly don’t snap and bend to pick things up.”
“Bend and snap.”
“What?”
“The move is bend and snap.”
“I… don’t really care,” I said honestly. “I’m not going to do it. I’ll probably fall and break my elbow or something.”
Halley rolled her eyes. “What then? If you have feelings for him and he’s attracted to you, the fact that you’re roommates is seriously problematic.”
I put my elbows on the table and rested my chin in my hands. “It’s already problematic. I had to get hedgehog shit out of my sneakers this morning before I could run.”
“You ran without me? Look at you, getting fit and shit.”
I gave her a withering smile. “That’s what you took from that?”
She sighed and leaned forward. “Look. You and Ethan living together was a terrible idea, Ava. You don’t even need me to tell you that, but I don’t get it. You’ve had feelings for him for years, and now you’ve found out he’s attracted to you.”
I shifted in the chair.
“Why don’t you just mess with him and see if he breaks? If he doesn’t, no harm done. If he does, you don’t know what might happen.”
“We’re not you and Preston,” I argued. “Ethan and I don’t get along for the most part, and I like it like that. Even though we live together now, we’re not really nice to each other. We’re just civil. We don’t see each other half the time because of work.”
“You’re just making a long list of excuses.”
“No.” Yes. “The point is, if I try and be all Jessica Rabbit, something is going to go wrong.”
“Worse than a hedgehog using your shoe as a toilet?”
“Worse than a hedgehog using my shoe as a toilet,” I confirmed. “Honestly, I don’t want him to be attracted to me. Now I’m constantly going to be worrying about what he’s thinking about me.”
“He’s probably terrified of what you’re going to do next.”
“I’ve already done it.”
“He doesn’t know that. I think you should have waited for a few days. Built the suspense.”
“I’m not writing a book, Halley. I’m just trying to piss him off. I’m not even going to be passive about this one. Just aggressive.”
She put her menu down. “Ava. You have the aggressive of a newborn kitten.”
I pursed my lips. “You and Reagan are dreadful at being supportive friends.”
“Yeah. Pretty much. So, what are we eating?”
***
“We need to talk.” Ethan slammed his hands down on the bar.
I looked over at him. “I’m sorry, sir, you’ll have to wait until I’ve served these customers. They were here first.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “Ava.”
“What can I get you, sir?” I asked a balding, portly man who already had his wallet out. He gave me his order of two beers, and I took my sweet-ass time pouring them from the tap and serving them to him.
I repeated this four times, making one of the women laugh when she realized what I was doing. I winked at her as I set the last gin and tonic down on the tray. After taking her money, I rang up the order on the register.
Slowly.
She laughed as I handed her the change. She shook her head and whispered, “Ex-boyfriend?”
“No,” I whispered happily. “My roommate, who just found out I canceled my cable.”
Her laugh carried her over to the table. I put the tip in my jar, and after making a big show of wiping down the bar and taking so long someone else came up for a drink, I finally gave Ethan my attention.
“Would you like your usual, sir?” I asked brightly, giving him my best customer service smile.
He licked his lips. “What happened to the TV?”
“What do you mean?” I frowned. “It was fine when I left.”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked, would I?”
He tightened his jaw. “Cable, Ava. There’s no fucking cable, and I can’t get into Netflix.”
“Ohhhhhh.” I dragged the word out as long as I could. Slowly, I nodded my head. “That.”
“Yes. Why isn’t there any cable?”
“That would be because I canceled it.”
He stilled. His entire body went rigid, and the muscles in his arms visibly tightened under his thin, gray sweater. “Why would you do that?”
“It’s quite simple, really. I didn’t watch cable, so I canceled it.” I shrugged and moved along the bar to the guy who was waiting. “Yes, sir, can I help you?”
Ethan’s eyes followed me as I served the guy, narrowing when I rejoined him. “I watch cable.”
“Then, by all means, call the cable company,” I replied simply.
He took a deep breath. “And Netflix?”
“I changed my password and logged out.” I grinned. “Whoopsie.”
“Whoopsie? What kind of—fuck. This is your revenge, isn’t it? For this morning?”
“Wow. You had to come all the way down here to figure it out.” I shook my head and tutted. “How have you survived this long?”
He glared at me. “You’re a fucking nightmare.”
“I never claimed to be anything but.” I wasn’t bothered at all. In fact, this was great. Exactly what I’d hoped for.
“Fine. I’ll call the cable company and pay for it myself. Did my sister put you up to this?”