The little kids were all kind of… staring at me.
It was a little scary. No wonder people were genuinely afraid of them.
I had, however, swiftly enacted my revenge in the form of a double hit. I was no longer paying for cable, and I’d not only deleted Ethan’s profile from my Netflix account, but I’d changed the password, too.
And logged out.
Everywhere.
Ev. Er. Ee. Where.
I chuckled to myself as I shoveled a handful of marshmallows into my mouth.
“You know,” Halley said, buttoning up her jacket as she approached me. “It’s really weird that you’re just sitting there eating those from the box. Are you okay? Do you need an intervention?”
“Nope.” I threw a few more into my mouth, then explained the events of the morning and how I’d retaliated.
She nodded her head as she pushed open the door to the library. “Seems fair. I think what he did was basically treason.”
“Agreed.” I hugged the box tight to my chest. “Anyway, that’s today’s update. It’s getting brutal.”
“What else did Angelica tell you? Surely there’s something you can do to really piss him off.”
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.”