The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 158

Several days passed and Avery was starting to think Michael and his sister had decided not to take the house. It had been almost a week. She was considering calling him to inquire when he finally called.

She was just getting ready to leave the office when her phone rang.

"Hey, Avery." Came Michael’s friendly voice.

"I was starting to think you didn’t like the house." she laughed. "The adjustments you asked for–"

"There’s something else." Michael interrupted. "Do you mind meeting up for a cup of coffee to discuss it?"

She checked the time. It was Saturday, the day she liked to spend as much time as possible with Angel, which was why she was getting ready to leave the office at merely 12pm. In actual fact, she had only come to the office because she was making up for the time she’d been spending away from work lately.

It was a good thing Damon had dropped Angel off for a play date with Aubrey and he would be back in the afternoon. She had some time for coffee. "Sure. I’ll meet you at..." she trailed off for Michael to fill in where he wanted them to go.

"The Onyx. Can I pick you up?"

"It’s close to my office. I’ll just walk there." She replied.

She thought she heard what sounded like a disappointed sigh from Michael before he said okay but she must have over thought it. What was there for him to be disappointed about?

They would meet in half an hour, so she spent the next twenty minutes finishing up on some work before she finally left her office. The Onyx was on the opposite street and it didn’t take long to get there, but she was lightheaded and out of breath nonetheless. This time wasn’t going to be easy either, she thought.

When she had Angel, a woman who had just had her baby told her the first time was the hardest and next time it would be easier. She doubted that was true. Her pregnancy with Angel was difficult and she was starting to believe this was going to be just as hard.

Not that she was regretting it. She loved the baby nonetheless, and she knew it would be worth all the pain in several months. She would just have to contact a trainer to help her do some light exercise.

When she entered the restaurant, the hostess took her name and showed her to the table where Michael was already sitting. He stood when he saw her and pulled the opposite chair for her to sit.

"Thank you." She smiled and plopped down in the least ladylike manner. Who cared about elegance right now? She was tired and as odd as it sounded, she had worked up a huge appetite from that little walk from the office.

"I ordered us espressos. I hope that’s okay...I remember that’s what you liked before. And raspberry cookies."

"Oh. I still do." She let out a small wince. "Thanks for the gesture but I’d like to change my order to make mine decaf."

She saw Michael’s eyes drop down to her stomach. He didn’t say anything but she knew what he was thinking. Her bump was small enough to disappear beneath her clothes so she didn’t know if it was so obvious or it was just the first thing that came to people’s mind when a woman who loved coffee suddenly asked for decaf. Either way, she didn’t offer any explanation either.

Their coffee arrived and she sipped hers before finally taking out her notepad. The table was big enough for them to spread out their work and have coffee at the same time without risking any spillages. She took out a pen to take notes.

"You said there were issues with the house that you would like to talk about?"

He took his time sipping his iced coffee and settled his gaze on her. "Is it okay if we discuss it over lunch instead?"

Avery frowned slightly. "I’m having lunch with my family later. I’d like to get this done so I get started on whatever adjustments you require." at this point, she was starting to think she should have hired a realtor to handle selling the house. However, she was in no hurry to sell it so she didn’t think it was necessary at the time.

Michael took another sip of his drink. Noticing her discomfort, he said, "to be honest, there’s nothing wrong with the house. I saw the billiards room you added and that just made it perfect."

She frowned. "Then why did you say there was something wrong?"

"Because if I straight up asked you out for a cup of coffee, you would say no."

She let out a long sigh. "And you knew that would be because I’m in a relationship."

"Avery-"

She cut him off. "I think we are going to have a great collaboration, Michael. But that’s only if you respect my relationship." She shut the notepad she had opened to take notes and clicked her pen closed. When she stood, he stood too and grabbed her elbow.

"Look, I’m sorry. I just hope we can be friends."

She wasn’t sure what to make of that. Lying didn’t sound like a proper foundation for friendship and no matter what happened afterward, it wouldn’t change the fact that he had lied to get her to go out with him.

As if he was reading her mind, he added, "I won’t pull this kind of crap again, I promise."

She still wasn’t certain. Friendship couldn’t work if one person was attracted to the other. She was certain if anything happened between her and Damon, Michael would be quick to swoop in and ask her out again—unless he moved on before that. But again, she was realizing Damon was right about thinking Michael was checking her out during the open house.

So she said, "alright."

Well, she didn’t have to meet up with him anyway. She could let Mina or Damon meet him if there was anything to discuss. She held back a laugh. There was no way a meeting between Damon and Michael wouldn’t end up with one of them being driven to the emergency room and the other to the precinct. He could discuss with Gabe if anything arose. She didn’t have to talk to him again after the purchase was complete.

_____

"Hi, beautiful." Chloe placed the bags of grocery she had brought from the store on the kitchen counter. She then walked over to Mabella who was typing something at the kitchen table and kissed her cheek.

Mabella looked up with a goofy grin. "Is that a downgrade from gorgeous? I think I was ’gorgeous’ yesterday."

"Definitely not." Chloe used the chance to kiss her again. "What kind of magic are you creating today?" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Mabella had recently enrolled in an online class to finally complete her doctorate in counseling psychology. It had been one of her dreams that had to take a back seat when she had more things to worry about. She’d been spending most of her money taking care of her mother and half sister and didn’t have much left to pay for the program.

Chloe had been the one to urge her to go for it in the end, putting herself first before her family. It wasn’t like her family cared much about her, anyway. They were taking advantage of her and only ever called when they wanted to ask for more money. Sometimes they didn’t even ask how she was doing before they went on a rant about the needs that arose in their household.

She nudged her laptop aside and stood, pulling Chloe into her arms. "The only magic I’m making is this." She kissed her, losing herself in her girlfriend’s soft lips.

What started as a gentle kiss ended in making out in the kitchen like they’d not seen each other in years, when it hadn’t even been two hours since Chloe went grocery shopping.

Mabella flushed when she realized the rumors about Chloe’s skilled tongue had nothing to do with her ability to convince people with her words.

Afterwards, they put on aprons to cook lunch.

Chloe dug out her phone for the chicken breaths recipe Avery had sent her earlier. She found it a little strange that everything she tried to cook from downloaded recipes tasted like crap, while Avery’s recipes tasted good. Maybe the downloaded recipes were mostly about gaining popularity and had nothing to do with the food actually tasting good, or Avery’s were easier to follow. Either way, she was pleased by the creamy garlic chicken breasts and steamed rice she managed to cook. It didn’t look like anything out of a five-star restaurant but it tasted good and she and Mabella loved it.

"Five stars for the food." Mabella joked. Chloe liked asking her to rate what she cooked. Needless to say, there had been a period where she rated three stars so she wouldn’t hurt her girlfriend’s feelings by rating one star. But this time, she was not exaggerating. She kicked her lips and locked her eyes with Chloe as she added, "I’ll rate dessert once I have it."

Chloe smiled. "I need to ask you something."

Mabella paused with her fork halfway towards her mouth, not having expected the sudden change of topic. "Okay?"

Chloe fidgeted with her glass of juice in her hand. "Well...would you like to meet someone important to me? My family. Well, not exactly my biological family...but they’ve been with me through major steps of my life and I consider them family and..."

Mabella laughed and cut her off. "Of course I will."