A Beautiful Fate (25 page)

I had been firmly avoiding the fact that I was being hunted. I resisted facing reality while my actual life was so happy. I had been dealt a couple of really bad cards -- the passing of my mother, the loss of my best friend, and the fact that I felt solely responsible for my grandfather’s death – and I had never believed I could be as content as I was. Ari made me happy; I just wanted to revel in that happiness a little while longer. I had considered Julia’s warning seriously, but then had relegated it to an obscure part of my mind. Eventually it was nothing more than an afterthought.

I took my time getting ready for the day, then headed down to the kitchen; I was still the only one up so I made a pot of coffee and started on the paper. I got through the Chicago Tribune and half way through the
New York Times
before anyone else woke up.

Aggie and I made a breakfast large enough to feed an army. Ari popped his head in through the doorway and saw me sitting at the island, frosting cinnamon rolls. He gave me an award-winning smile, then came in and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“Merry Christmas, Baby.”

Aggie smiled, “Merry Christmas to you, too, honey; you’re so sweet.”

He smiled playfully at her, “I didn’t mean you, Mom, but Merry Christmas to you, too.” I had frosting on my fingers and to my surprise, Ari popped one of my fingers in his mouth and sucked the white, sugary topping off, licking his lips. Ari then grabbed a roll, and headed to the shower.

My cheeks were red hot when I looked up at Aggie.

She giggled at me and batted her eyes.

“What’s going on with him on the couch, Ava; is everything all right?”

I smiled at her.

“If you don’t tell me, he will,” she said and returned my smile, putting a wicked twist on it.

“Not if I tell him not to,” I said and she didn’t like that response at all.

She hit me playfully with her dishtowel. “You’re no fun, Ava. You never give anything away.”

In the living room, I found Andy and told him about my most recent dream, trying to be as nonchalant about it as possible. He told me that he had friends back in Greece who were trying to track the Kakos, but no one had been successful yet. Panic began to rise in my chest.

“What if they aren’t after me? What if they’re after one of you guys? I mean, who was that screaming in my dream?” The idea that the Kakos would hurt someone in Ari’s family made me stick to my stomach; I would rather be the target than to have anyone in my new “family” hurt.

Andy could see I was starting to freak out.

“Don’t worry about it, Ava. Your father believed in you and so do I.”

“Believed in me to do what? Kill people? I don’t want to do that!”

Andy looked at me from the corner of his eye and then pointedly scanned the rest of the room. His look said that I had not chosen a good time for this discussion.

Ari came in shortly after and his presence alone calmed my nerves. He sat right next to me on the couch and held my hand tightly in his. He brought my fingers up to his mouth and kissed each one slowly, then filled my palm with little kisses. The rest of his family gathered in around us and around the tree, talking excitedly.

Thais played Santa of sorts and passed out presents. There were so many wrapped boxes that Aggie’s living room tree was completely hidden. She had holiday music on in the background and looked at the happy faces with delight as everyone began to open gifts. Lauren squealed with glee each time she opened a different box and Andy thanked me for helping him get started on his collection again. Rory plunked a box on my lap with a sheepish smile, a very rare look for him. I tossed a small box at him and we opened our gifts from each other at the same time. His eyes lit up when he saw the
Tiffany’s
watch he had been drooling over a couple of weeks ago and then threw his head back and laughed. I didn’t get the joke until I opened my gift and saw that he had gotten me the running shoes I had wanted for myself when he and I were shopping.

Even Julia had gotten me a gift, which made me feel bad because I had not gotten her anything. When I opened the box, I found an incredibly tiny, barely there string bikini. I snapped the box shut; but not before Ari snuck a peek.

“Ah, Julia, I knew you were good for something,” he said, wrapping an arm around my waist.

I elbowed him in the ribs, hard, and then turned to Julia. “You shouldn’t have, really,” I said, and she smiled, completely unaware of my sarcasm.

Luckily for me, Ari had been on top of things and handed her a box, saying, “This is from Ava and me.” I looked at him and he winked. I watched as she opened the gift with curiosity and Ari whispered in my ear, “don’t be mad, please.”

I didn’t have time to respond to him. I was too taken aback by Julia’s reaction. She swallowed hard and tears poured down her face. She got up, hugged me first, and then hesitated, not sure if it was ok to hug Ari or not. He stood up, grabbed her hard, and held her tight as she cried. The whole room, myself included, waited for an explanation.

She passed around the box and Ari whispered in my ear, “Airline tickets to England. She never got to pay her respects to her parents.”

I was speechless “Ari that’s…”

“Are you mad?”

“No, of course not, that’s so kind of you.”

He handed me a small box and I found the little box I had wrapped Ari’s tickets in and handed it to him. I took the Christmas paper from my present and then popped the top off. Inside I found concert tickets and was instantly confused. Thinking these were the tickets I had gotten him. I checked the wrapping to be sure I had not opened the wrong gift by mistake. Ari opened up his box and held up two more tickets to the same show. All I could do was laugh. He was the person who had bought the other two tickets from the guy in the restaurant.

Rory had seen what had happened and was ecstatic, “Sweet, looks like I’m spending New Year’s Eve with you guys!”

Ari rolled his eyes at Rory then turned his attention back to me.

“Good thing that’s not the only thing I got for you.” He reached in his pocket, pulled out a tiny silver ring, and handed it to me. Inscribed all around it over and over again was
Ava, Je t’aime, Ava, Je t’aime, Ava, I love you.

I gasped, “Ari, it’s beautiful.”

He pulled me to him and whispered in my ear, “Ava, I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I whispered back. “
Je t’aime aussi
.” We kissed sweetly, not caring that we now held the attention of the entire room.

The rest of the day passed at a nice slow pace. I helped Lauren carry all of her gifts to her room and get them put away. I took my gift from Julia and shoved the box with the bikini in it deep into the recesses of Ari’s closet.

“Ahhemm,” Ari cleared his throat, startling me. “What do you think you are doing with that?” He was leaning in the doorway to his room with his arms crossed causally over his chest.

I blushed, “hiding it.”

“You are hiding clothes in a closet?” He smiled playfully at me and I giggled.

“Ari I know clothes and nothing about the black scrap of material in that box classifies it as clothing!” Ari sauntered towards me and wrapped an arm around the small of my back. He took his other hand, twirled a tendril of my hair around his finger and kissed it.

“Do you know what I love about you, Ava?” I blinked and Ari continued. “I love your smile, and your laugh. I love that you are so wickedly smart and funny. I love this,” he said pointing to the blush on my cheeks. “I love you, all of you and I have wanted to tell you that for a really long time now.”

I could feel my cheeks turning more and more red. Ari kissed them and smiled.

I looked up at him from under my lashes. “I love you more.”

He slowly shook his head, “impossible.”

****

I tried all day to keep the butterflies in my stomach at bay but every time I glanced down at my finger, my stomach did a little flip. We all sat down to a big Christmas dinner and everyone talked happily about all of their gifts. Rory went on and on about how pumped he was about seeing
Vampire Weekend
with
Ra Ra Riot
on New Year’s Eve.

“Who even said you could go, Rory?” Ari finally asked.

Rory looked like someone had slapped him across the face, “Awe, c’mon you guys gotta let me go.”

“There are two extra tickets, Rory. Who are you going to take, your ma? No offense, Aunt Gianna,” he added.

“Take a look around, Ari. Anyone in this room would want to go. I don’t care who else goes, just please let me be one of them.”

“Fine Rory, you can go with us under one condition -- no more barging in on me in my room. In fact, I want you to stay away completely. Until the concert, if you need to talk to me for any reason, you can text me. If you and Ava are going to run, you wait for her outside. Do you understand?”

“Ouch, I’m hurt cuz.” Rory said, really looking hurt.

“Well, what’s it worth to you?” Ari retorted.

Rory put his napkin on his plate and stood up. “Fine, I’ll do it, but if I keep my side of the deal, and believe me I will, I get both tickets and I get to pick the person I want to bring with me.”

“Fine, deal.” Ari said.

Rory had a horribly mischievous smile on his face, “Good it’s settled then.” He turned to face Julia.

“Julia, would you like to go on a date with me on New Year’s Eve? I have two tickets for
Vampire Weekend
and
Ra Ra Riot
.”

Apparently, Rory had given up on the “hard to get approach” and was going all out! The entire table shifted attention to Julia. You could hear a pin drop. Julia was caught seriously off guard and her cheeks actually turned pink. After a beat, she smiled up at Rory and let out a small “yes.” Rory did a victory dance, grabbed a whole pie and walked out.

Ari put his face in his hands while I shook with laughter along with the rest of the table. Andy slapped Ari on the back, “nothing like taking your cousin and ex-girlfriend out on a four hundred dollar date, huh?”

Ari mumbled something under his breath that sounded like a cuss word and I laughed even harder.

After dinner, Ari and I helped Aggie clean up. She hit Ari playfully on the back. “You shouldn’t have done that to poor Rory, kicking him out like that.”

“If I have to hang out with Rory on New Year’s Eve, then the least he can do is leave me alone for a few days. I swear every time I turn around, there he is.”

“Cut him some slack, Ari. You and Ava are his best friends. What do you expect him to do?”

“Yeah, well it doesn’t matter anyway. He’s going to slip up and come waltzing through that door before you know it.”

“If that’s the case, then you can always take your mother and father along with you to the show,” she said with a wink.

With that, Ari rolled his eyes, took me by the hand, and led me to his room.

Chapter 14

“Mmm,” I said waking up in Ari’s arms, “I love your bed.”

“I love the girl that’s in my bed.”

I tilted my head up and kissed Ari on the lips. “I love you. I love telling you that I love you.”

“Me too.”

The week did pass by more peacefully than usual without Rory walking in uninvited and unannounced. I had no bad dreams. Ari and I woke up later and later each day, tangled in each other’s arms, which caused me to greet Rory outside for our run later and later.

“I’m gonna leave you if you’re late like this again, Ava,” he sighed, as I showed up an hour after our usual time.

“Lighten up, Rory,” I teased. “Just think, you could sleep in, you don’t have to hear Ari call you an idiot all the time, and you get two free tickets to the best show all year. By the way, is Julia really going?”

“Um yeah, I hope that’s cool. We’ve been hanging out together a lot lately.”

“Yeah, sure, that’s great. I’m glad to hear it.”

“Have you regretted not having me around to save you from yourself?”

“Rory, if you’re asking if I am still a virgin, then the answer is yes,” I snapped.

“Hey, I wasn’t trying to intrude on your privacy. Sorry. If it means anything to you, I am one too; a virgin that is.”

I nearly tripped over my own two feet; I had no idea how to respond to Rory’s confession. Topics like sex make me uncomfortable, but the Alexanders talk about sex as though it’s the weather – without an ounce of self-consciousness. I will never get used to it. Their conversations always turn south when I’m around; I think it’s because they enjoy watching me squirm and blush.

“Just please don’t tell anyone,” he begged.

“Rory, it’s nothing to be ashamed of... it’s a good thing.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

We finished the rest of the run in silence, and when we got back to the house, Rory stood on the beach and watched the tide change.

“K,” I said, breaking his concentration, “I’m not running tomorrow, so I’ll just see you tomorrow night, I guess.”