Chapter 89 SHIFTING GROUND

Chapter 89 SHIFTING GROUND
Ava's POV

I stood in the doorway and looked at Adrian and he looked back at me and neither of us pretended the question was casual.

"She's a journalist," he said.

"You already said that," I said. "I'm asking who she is to you after one meeting that took twelve minutes and made you walk back into this suite looking like someone reset something in your head."

He was quiet for a moment and then said, "her name is Zara. She has information about Kade. That's all I know about her."

"What does she look like," I said, and I heard myself say it and recognised what it was and was mildly annoyed at myself for it.

"Does that matter," he said.

"Apparently," I said, and he looked at me for a second and something moved across his face that wasn't quite a smile but was adjacent to it, and I crossed my arms and said, "don't."

"I wasn't doing anything," he said.

"You were about to do the face," I said.

He looked away and I uncrossed my arms and leaned against the doorframe and said more honestly, "I'm not angry. I'm just noticing things I shouldn't be noticing and it's annoying."

He looked at me again and said, "I know the feeling."

We stood there for a moment and then Nadia appeared from the kitchen and looked at us and said absolutely nothing, which was more pointed than if she'd said something, and went back to her coffee.

I went to bed and Dominic was already half asleep and I lay next to him and stared at the ceiling and thought about the fact that I was bothered by a woman I'd never met who had spent twelve minutes with Adrian in a lobby café, and I thought about what that said about me and the arrangement and how messy feelings got when you stopped pretending they were simple.

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Morning came and Dominic was in meetings by eight and Elias was on calls and my mother had taken Maya to get breakfast somewhere that wasn't the hotel because my mother said four days of hotel food was enough for anyone, and the suite was quiet.

I changed into gym clothes and went down to the hotel gym because I needed to move and think at the same time and the gym was empty at that hour except for one person on the treadmill at the far end who I clocked when I walked in and then went straight to the weights and ignored.

I was on my second set when he came over.

"You're going to strain your shoulder with that grip," he said, and his voice was unhurried and easy and I looked up and he was maybe early thirties, dark hair, the kind of face that was just straightforwardly good to look at without being dramatic about it, and he was pointing at my wrist position.

"I've been doing this for years," I said.

"I know," he said, "and your left shoulder is probably tighter than your right because of it."

I paused and he was right and I was surprised that he was right and I adjusted my grip and he nodded and went back to his treadmill.

I watched him go and then went back to my set.

He came over again ten minutes later and asked if the bench next to me was being used and I said no and he started his own workout and we were quiet for a while and it was easy, not charged, just two people in the same space, and I noticed the ease of it because nothing in my life had felt easy in months.

His name was Luca. He offered it without me asking while we were both between sets and I gave him mine and he said, "Ava," and nodded once and didn't do anything with it and I appreciated that too.

We talked for a while, nothing heavy, he was in New York for a business conference, something about sustainable development, he was Italian but had been based in London for five years, and he asked about me and I gave him the version that was true but simple, New York, working in finance adjacent things, visiting the city.

He was attentive in a specific way, the kind where he actually listened rather than waiting for his turn to speak, and it had been so long since anyone had done that with me outside of the people I was currently in crisis with that I felt it like something physical.

We finished at the same time and walked toward the exit together and he held the door and when we got to the lobby he stopped and turned to me and said, "I don't know anything about your life and you don't know anything about mine and I think that might be exactly what you need right now."

I looked at him. "What makes you say that?"

"You came into that gym and worked out alone for forty minutes without looking at your phone once," he said, "and when I talked to you just now your whole face relaxed."

I didn't say anything.

He reached into his jacket pocket and held out a card and said, "if you ever want coffee with someone who doesn't know anything about your life, I'm here until Friday."

I took the card.

He smiled once and walked away and I stood there holding it and thought about putting it in my pocket and whether that was a thing I was doing and decided it was and put it in my pocket.

I got back to the suite and Dominic was still in meetings and I went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror and said nothing out loud but had a very detailed internal conversation about what I was and wasn't doing and what the card in my pocket was and wasn't.

Then I came out and sat on the bed and my phone buzzed and it was a message from Dominic saying his meeting was running long and he'd be back by six and I replied okay and put the phone down and sat there with the card still in my pocket and the gym still in my body and Luca's voice still very clear in my head.

"You don't know anything about my life."

That was the thing. He was right. And I hadn't realised how much I needed that until he said it.