Page 25 of Malice and Surrender
“Okay, then this is a perfect moment to take a few more steps,” he smiled. The look on his face warmed me as I remembered his lips on mine. Either this was the bravest or stupidest thing I’d ever done.
Pulling open the door, I took a moment and looked around as a chill swept up my back. It was still dark, and my eyes searched all the corners and bushes, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I would’ve sworn that someone was staring at me, but then again, I’d spent so much time looking over my shoulder that it was hard to tell anymore.
“What’s going on?” Avro asked as he leaned over and glanced around outside.
“Nothing, I just thought…it’s nothing,” I said, slipping into the car. “Where is your place?” I felt stupid that I didn’t know. What kind of friend didn’t bother to find out where he’d moved?
“Not far, I was leaving it as a surprise, but I managed to get a three-story near the beach. I finally took possession a few months ago. The tips have been great lately, and I put a huge deposit down to buy the place.”
“Avro, that’s amazing,” I said.
He smiled wide, his real smile, not the one he gave to the crowd at the bar. It was sexier than the fake one he presented to the customers. I glanced out the window to the world passing by and watched the glistening water shimmering in the moonlight. Everything was so quiet and peaceful. Not so very long ago, I saw that beach at this time of night in the same light as I saw everything else…a place to be attacked. Avro turned the radio on, and “Old Town Road” played, making us laugh.
“That routine is still my favorite,” he said.
“I have no idea how you talked me into getting up on the bar and pretending you were a horse.” I shook my head and laughed at the memory.
“It was pretty epic. We still get requests for that routine,” Avro said as we pulled into a pretty area.
His place was nestled in a great location where all the homes looked out toward the beach. The parking was at the back of the house, and I was shocked to see Avro had enough room to park six cars with space. That was rare. Getting out, I looked down the long alley. It seemed like a quiet spot.
“Are you kidding me? I’m never getting up on that bar again. It is one of my top three most embarrassing moments. I was so happy when we switched to a different routine. Although, tonight may have topped it,” I said as Avro looked over his shoulder at me.
“Never say never,” Avro teased.
“It’s a really quiet area you found here.” Only two other places had cars or lights.
“Most spots are rented to those coming in for spring break or Christmas. The rest of the time, it’s like I have no neighbors at all.”
I was startled when a loud motorcycle drove by. Why was I so jumpy? It had been months since I felt this way. I guess some shit was harder to shake. Avro opened the door, turning on lights as he went. Stepping up to the threshold, I stopped.
Avro happily talked as he walked through the house. Mentally berating myself, I stepped through the door and closed it behind me. Maybe it wasn’t being alone with Avro or in his space that made me edgy. Perhaps it was because I knew he wanted to be more than friends, and I didn’t know how to handle that. I wasn’t sure how to navigate the feelings that felt like a mass of scrambled wires inside me.
“I mean, look at that view,” Avro said as I entered the large room that was a cross between a living room and a games room. There was an almost ceiling-height speaker in the corner, an air hockey table, and a pair of dart boards. A massive television was mounted on the far wall, and three couches made a horseshoe shape for viewing. He even had a small bar with an assortment of bottles almost as extensive as at work lining the shelf.
This room said party, while my home said spinster. All I needed was a bunch of cats to complete the look.
“Well?” I looked at Avro and realized I didn’t know what he’d been saying. I guess my blank, blinking stare told him I didn’t have a clue. “What do you think so far?”
“I think this is pretty incredible.” I walked over to stand near the tall bay windows and stared out at the water.
“Come on. I’ll give you the rest of the tour.”
From one room to the next, I followed him, amazed by his style and ability to maximize the space given. There wasn’t a single thing out of place. I was a total slob and always had been. Tossing my jacket and bag wherever and living out of a laundry basket was normal.
We made our way upstairs, and the wooden steps and glass railing were as impressive as everything else. There were very few images on the walls, and the ones Avro did have were either nature shots or photos of himself at different performances before his accident. They’d been blown up to poster size and framed.
I paused at a small image at the top of the stairs. It was a newspaper clipping announcing his acceptance as a headliner in the newest Las Vegas Cirque performance. The date on it was six years ago before he damaged his knee doing a difficult trick. It was so bad that he ended up backing out of the show. He had multiple surgeries to stabilize his knee, and the doctors told him he couldn’t go back to the extreme dancing and performances he’d been doing.
“You coming or what? This is the best room in the house,” Avro said as he stuck his head out of a door. My heart ached for what he’d lost. To work that hard, to dream that big, then to have it all ripped away in a blink was heartbreaking.
“Coming,” I said and tore myself away from the clipping. I was starting to realize just how cut off I’d been. Knowing it and understanding it were two different things.
I knew Avro had given up his dream, which was how he ended up at Eclipse. He would’ve found that transition difficult, but did I understand what he went through? The pain and rehabilitation of each surgery just so he could walk again, let alone do what he did four nights a week at the bar? Was he sore? Did the knee ever ache? Did he come home and stare at the wall of what could have been? I wanted to wrap him up in a hug and tell him I was sorry for never asking, and not being the kind of friend he deserved.
I walked up to the door Avro had disappeared into, and my mouth dropped open as I looked around the bedroom. It was massive, like he’d taken all the bedrooms on this side of the house and made himself one large space with a wall of glass facing the water. The bed was gigantic and took up almost half the room. He also fit a sitting area with a coffee machine right there for when you rolled out of bed. The balcony looked brand new, stretching the entire length of the bedroom, complete with tables and chairs.
“Avro, this is wow…just wow,” I said, stepping into the room.
