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"She'll say no," I say confidently, hoping beyond hope she'd say no to someone like him

To anyone, really

The thought of her with someone else

Oliver shrugs his shoulders, takes another drag of his cigarette His lips turn upward in an evil grin "You're probably right I o back to him"

The snarl that comes out of my mouth surprises hten into firsts, feeling an uncanny need to punch Oliver I knohat he's doingtrying to goad , but I'm just not sure what

"What in the hell are you doing here?" I hear fro toward us, holding hands with an adorable little boy that is clearly her son, Thomas A tall man with a buzzed haircut follows behind

"Well, hello, Avery," I greet her mildly, no surprise over her snotty tone I shoot a quick smile to the little boy, who looks up atover him as he stares up at me from the bottom porch step "And who are you?"

He flashes rin and says, "I'm Thomas Who are you?"

"He's no one," Avery says as she walks up the steps with his hand still firripped in hers He stares atto look atas Avery opens the storm door

"That's rude, Av," Oliver chides as he flicks the cherry off the end of his cigarette into the surrounding darkness

Avery's husband walks up the steps, sticks his hand out to me "I'm Rob Nice to meet you"

"Hawke," I say as I shake his hand He doesn't seem to hold any animosity toward me

He nods, gives me a sympathetic smile, and moves past me to follow Avery into the house The door shuts quietly behind them

"Well, that could have been worse," I say as I lean back against the iron railing When Carly said she was having everyone over for dinner, I figured Avery would be baring her teeth atthat went down between us, and I know based upon my last conversation with her at The Fox and Hound that she's got to be feeling some major disappointment in me

The front door flies open again, and then Avery is barreling back outside Oliver steps hastily back to avoid getting hit by the storm door

"It's about to get worse," he mutters

Avery walks right up to e Better get it over with so we can move past this

"You're such an asshole," she hisses atasshole"

"Avery," Oliver says in warning, but she spins on him

"Shut it, Oliver He needs to hear this"

I try for nonchalant indifference, bec

ause I knoill piss her off even more I cross my arms over my chest, arch a skeptical eyebrow, and practically croon at her "Tell ure me to be an asshole?"

I know the answer to this, of course, but I' the need to do battle The truth is, I've been feeling guilty about the way things went down I have this undeniable feeling that I've uided, and for the life of ive ht, because about the only thing I know for sure is that Imuch and I don't see how to fix this

Avery takes a deep breath, a concerted effort on her part to stay rational in the face of her anger She lets it out in a quick huff and says, "Because you hold a double standard Because you won't accept responsibility for your own failures Because you want to blao when it's just as much your fault"

I give a short bark of ahter "That won't work on ht She toldfor not leaving that party with her, but she rong in not giving ht She didn't call ive o at this point It's not soet and frankly, that's on Vale's shoulders She should have given ive o a lot easier than I was"

"Not only are you an asshole but you're a moron as well," she sneers

"I'rit out "I was truthful with Vale I told heran asshole That's being honest"

Avery gives an a that honest spotlight on yourself for a minute, Hawke Have you ever once considered that none of this shit would have ever happened had you just returned her calls Or her fucking email, for God's sake Sheup with you, but she tried to rectify it, and you're the one that turned your back on her at that point It was so fucking childish for you to do that, I don't even see why Vale could just so easily forgive you for it and let it go herself She's definitely the bigger person"