Why Not Now? (The Blue Vista Crew #2)

5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Ava

T he spot where Derek’s lips pressed against my cheek still burns two hours later as I drive to his house and park on the street. I’d finished up at Blue Vista and gone home to drop off my camera equipment and print out my schedule like he’d asked. I’d gotten Lacey dinner and dropped her off at gymnastics class. After, she’s going to go to a friend’s house to work on a group project. I normally don’t let her stay out on a school night, but since it’s for homework, I told her it’s fine.

I take a breath, grab the paper from my passenger seat, and head to Derek’s townhouse. I hesitate for a second before I finally knock, shifting from foot to foot while I wait.

“Hey,” he says with a smile when he opens the door.

My heart skips a beat because he’s wearing his glasses. He stopped wearing them when he started running track in high school and switched to contacts. But every so often, if his eyes are bugging him, he’ll wear them.

Or at least, that was true before. I wonder how much he wears them now.

I blink, realizing I’ve been staring, and hand him the paper.

“My schedule.”

He scans it as I step inside and remove my shoes and jacket.

“You have three jobs?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“But your house is paid for.”

I sigh. “Lacey’s gymnastics isn’t. Or the electricity, or the property taxes, or the groceries. My car has needed to go into the shop practically once a month for the last few months. Then there’s home insurance, cell phones, Internet.” I shake my head. “It is what it is.”

He looks at me, those warm brown eyes framed by dark glasses. “I ask this out of genuine concern. Ava. When do you sleep?”

I raise my chin. “I’m in bed by 11pm almost every night.”

“You’re going to burn yourself out. You work every single day. And two days a week you work two jobs. Unless there’s a wedding, then it’s three days a week.”

“Everything is under control.”

He opens his mouth, and I know he’s going to argue more. Then he takes a breath and closes his mouth again, nodding toward the kitchen. “Want a beer?”

He doesn’t wait for an answer, opening his fridge while still looking over my schedule.

“Sure,” I say, following.

“Choose whatever. There’s a few kinds in there.” He pulls one out for himself and opens a drawer, grabbing a pen. He makes a few marks on the paper, then takes out his phone to look at his notes app. I try to snoop over his shoulder at what he’s doing, but he turns the screen away, giving me a sly grin. “No peeking.”

He marks some things down on my schedule and I wait, opening a can of some local pale ale. Finally, he’s done, takes a picture, and hands it back to me. He leans against the counter as I check what he’s written, noting Out with Derek twice a week on Monday evenings and either Friday or Saturday, depending on when there’s a wedding.

“You’re not going to tell me what any of these are going to be?” I ask.

“Nope,” he says, taking a drink of his beer.

“I usually go out after work on Mondays and take pictures for my portfolio.”

He holds out his hand for the paper and I give it back to him. He checks his phone again and makes a few more marks on the page. When he returns it, he’s added the letter C to a few of the dates. “Bring your camera those days. You’ll get some good shots.”

I’m not sure what I’m going to say next because his front door opens without a knock and a group of people pile into his house, talking and laughing. My heart rate spikes as I remember I’m not just hanging out with Derek tonight. I’m hanging out with his friends. Who are my boss’ bosses.

What had I been thinking? This is a terrible idea.

Then I glance at Derek and remember how his offer to take me out to do fun things for Christmas had made me feel excited about something for the first time in almost nine years.

The first person to see me is the chef, Lis. She’s wearing a hoodie that’s way too big for her, blonde hair tied up in a long ponytail, the rainbow dye faded since the wedding. She grins at me, carrying a tray into the kitchen and shoving Derek aside to slide it into the oven, which he’s already preheated.

“Nice glasses,” she says to him. “Very distinguished.”

“Ava,” Spencer says as he follows Lis, opening the fridge to load in some more beer, keeping out one for himself. “I wondered if you would join us tonight.” He takes a wine glass from a cupboard without needing to search for it and pours a glass of white wine, handing it to Lis.

Derek straightens and pushes his glasses up on his nose, a gesture I remember from when we were young, and he was nervous. I wonder if it still means the same thing.

“Yeah,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve mentioned to the rest of you guys, Ava and I knew each other in high school.”

He says it with such nonchalance, as though our relationship had been little more than a friendship that had faded as we grew up instead of an all-consuming relationship that had exploded in anger, heartbreak, and loneliness.

Spencer turns to Derek, his grin fading a bit as he points to his eyes. Derek shakes his head. Neither man says a word, and Spencer follows Lis into the dining room.

Adalie comes into the kitchen next, her red hair held away from her face with a purple headband that matches her cute dress. She gives me a hug that I return with a bit of shock since we don’t know each other well. “It’s nice to see you again,” she says. Then she lets me go, grabs her own beer from the fridge, and turns to Derek, her head tilted to one side as she gives him an exasperated look.

He rolls his eyes. She laughs and hugs him before moving through the kitchen to the dining room where Lis and Spencer have already settled.

Last is Vic, who looks at Derek with concern.

“If you had a headache, you should have told us not to come,” she says.

He shakes his head. “I was tired. I didn’t sleep well last night. As soon as I took the contacts out, I felt better.”

She glares at him a moment, then points and says, “You’ll tell us when we’ve overstayed our welcome.”

He rolls his eyes again. “Everyone’s making a fuss. If I get tired, I’ll just go to bed. Now, get a beer. Go sit down.”

She turns her icy blue stare to me, expression softening. “Ava. It’s nice to see you.” She offers me a smile, grabs her own beer, and follows the rest of them into the dining room.

“Your friends are…” I begin.

“A lot. I know.” He grimaces. “I apologize in advance for anything they say, ask, or insinuate.”

“Should I not have come?” I twist the hem of my sweater around one finger.

“Of course you should have. They’re awesome. They’re just nosy as fuck.”

I find myself smiling at that. “Have you introduced girlfriends to them who have gotten scared off?” He gives me a funny look and I realize what I’ve said. “Not that I—I mean, I know we’re not—sugarsnaps.”

He snorts and turns me toward the dining room, his hands on my shoulders as he marches me in where everyone is already seated around his table, his black cat, Abyss, curled on Adalie’s lap.

Derek has a bunch of games stacked on the table and Lis is looking through them while Adalie tells a story about someone named Calista.

Derek takes a seat, and I sit between him and Spencer.

“Your sister causing you grief again?” he asks her.

I take a minute to scan the games. All are ones he and I used to play often when we were in high school.

“Yes. She’s given up on travel writing. For now, at least. Apparently, you can’t get people to pay for your trips if you don’t have a following. Who knew?” Adalie shakes her head. “So she’s decided to focus on Vancouver instead, since her sister can get her into such awesome parties.” She pitches her voice high for the last half of the sentence in what I’m sure is supposed to be an imitation of how Calista speaks. “She wants me to get her into one of our parties so she can show off that she can get into high-profile places.”

“Your parties?” I ask.

“Blue Vista hosts ticketed events sometimes,” Derek tells me. “We do a few in the summer for Pride. We’ve hosted one for Halloween two years in a row now, and we have a New Year’s Eve party coming up.”

“But,” Spencer cuts in, “the New Year’s one is exclusive this year. Super small. It’s been sold out for about a month already.”

“That’s what she wants the tickets to,” Adalie says. “And she doesn’t want to pay the cover charge. She says since I’m her sister, I should be able to get her in for free.”

Lis grimaces. “I guess I kind of did that, didn’t I?”

Adalie laughs. “Calista has no idea Daze and Sophie didn’t have to pay for their tickets. Don’t worry about that.”

Derek shrugs. “I didn’t exactly charge my sisters for their tickets, either.”

“Listen,” Vic says, and Adalie focuses on her. “If you want your sister to come to the party, you can give her a ticket. If you don’t, tell her I’m a bitch who won’t give out anymore. I said we’re at capacity. I’m happy to be the bad guy for you.”

Adalie smiles, her shoulders relaxing in relief. “Thanks, Vic. You’re the best.”

Lis shoves a small box toward Derek and says, “This one. I’ve never played it.”

I see she’s chosen Fluxx, a card game that starts simple with the rules of draw one card and play one card. As the game progresses, people change the rules, and the goal to win, until someone lucks out.

As he clears the other games from the table, Adalie says, “We should tell Ava the rules.”

“I know how to play Fluxx,” I say.

“Not the game,” Spencer says. “The night. We have rules for game night.”

Lis nods gravely and I start to feel nervous again.

“First,” Adalie starts. “No shop talk.”

“We all work together,” Derek explains, opening the box and taking out the Fluxx cards, shuffling them. “So it’s easy to start talking about Blue Vista. If we do, the rule is we have to take a drink.” He nods at the beers everyone has in front of them except for Lis, who has her glass of wine. “However, we’ve made an amendment because Lis likes to talk about recipes she’s tried lately since she just loves cooking. And I propose we make another one for Ava. If she wants to ask questions about the business, she can, since she’s new. If any of us want to ask about her photography, we can, since she loves it about as much as Lis loves cooking.”

It warms me that he remembers how much I love photography. I could talk about it all day.

“Amendment passed,” Lis says, knocking her knuckle against the table like a gavel.

“Second,” Adalie says. “No questions are off limits. But beware: whatever you ask can be asked back to you.”

This rule makes me pause. What might they ask me? How truthful do I have to be?

Derek deals, setting the rule card in the middle of the table.

“Is that it?” I ask.

“Well, there’s one more,” Vic says, turning toward Lis and Spencer. “But it’s strictly for those two.”

Lis places her hands under her chin and flutters her eyelashes. “Who me?”

“What is it?” I ask.

Vic, Derek, and Adalie talk at the same time. “No making out.”

Spencer and Lis turn toward each other as though mention of the rule has suddenly made them want to do just that.

The look in Spencer’s eyes as he smiles at Lis. Oof. Only one person has ever looked at me that way before. I do not look at him now.

We all pick up our cards and start to play. Derek’s game is as chaotic as ever. He changes the rules every time he has a turn. What’s more, he seems to be working with Spencer to make the most chaos possible, until we’re forced to pick up five cards, play one card, but have a hand limit of two.

Amidst the bedlam, Vic asks me how long I’ve done photography.

“Off and on since high school,” I tell her.

“She started the photography club at our old school,” Derek says, playing a card that changes the rules again. I don’t pay attention since it was just my turn, and Spencer will probably change them before it gets back to me.

“Is that what you do full time?” Adalie asks.

“I wish. No. I just started with Cindy. She doesn’t have enough work for me to be able to quit my other jobs.”

“Jobs, plural,” Spencer notes.

“Yeah. She has three,” Derek says. I can tell he thinks I’m crazy. But I also can’t quit them. I want to, and maybe I’ll be able to soon, but not yet.

“You like wedding photography?” Vic asks.

“Some of it. It’s not what I wanted to go into, but my friend Bethany started working for Cindy and she needed a second assistant for the bigger weddings.” I shrug. “At least it’s photography.”

“What do you want to do?” Lis asks. She draws her cards and plays an action that resets the rules to the beginning, looking at Spencer with a sweet smile.

“Dream world?” I say. “I’d love to have a show of my work. But that kind of thing won’t pay the bills. I’d love to do marketing shots for businesses, see my work in magazines and on websites.”

“Do you have a portfolio?” Spencer asks as he takes his turn. He doesn’t change the rules on me, so when it’s my turn, I draw a card and play another.

“Yes. It’s hard to get it seen by the right people, though.” Especially when you don’t actually show it to anyone. But I don’t say that part.

Spencer looks across the table at Vic and a silent communication passes between them. “We know a few people we could show it to,” he says.

Vic nods. “I have a few companies in mind. James’ website needs some work.”

Spencer grins. “It’s awful. Your dad could use a better photographer for his stuff as well. Maybe talk to Tanner about it since your dad is...” he trails off, rolling his eyes.

“Yes. I know how my dad is,” Vic says. Then she grimaces. “I can talk to Tanner next week at dinner.”

“Really?” I ask. I can tell she doesn’t want to talk to whoever this Tanner guy is. “You haven’t even seen my portfolio yet.”

“We’ve seen your work,” Vic says. “We get to check out all Cindy’s photos to see if there are any we’d like to purchase for our website. And we’ve all seen the shots from Daze and Sophie’s wedding in September.”

“They had a viewing party last month,” Lis says. “There’s one of me and Spencer I loved. Cindy said you took that one.”

I remember the picture. They’d been looking at each other from across the room. “I’m glad it turned out well.”

“Send me the link to your portfolio,” Vic says. “I’ll take a look through and figure out who I think you might work well with.”

“Thank you.”

It’s Lis’ turn. She looks straight at me with a smile that makes me nervous. Then she plays a card changing the rules to Play All, meaning we need to play every card in our hand.

“Time to lay all our cards on the table,” she says. “Are you guys sleeping together?”