Regan held her gaze for a moment before saying, “Yeah, well, life is too fucking short, isn’t it?”
“Very true.”
Hadley came over from a trip to the bar. “Scooch,” she said, then slid into the booth next to Regan, forcing her closer to Ava until theirthighs touched. Ava felt Regan’s warmth almost immediately, thought briefly of shifting away a bit, then couldn’t seem to make herself.
Stupid rum.
“Whatcha doin’ over here?” Hadley asked, her words just the tiniest bit slurred as she propped her elbow on the table and her head in her hand. She blinked her big eyes at Regan, then at Ava, looking almost comically interested.
“We’re just chatting,” Regan said.
“I didn’t think you two did that,” Hadley said, smiling into her drink.
Ava squinted at her. “What do you mean? Did what?”
Hadley lifted a shoulder. “I mean, don’t you hate each other? That’s the rumor.”
“There’s a rumor?” Regan’s eyebrows shot up and she glanced at Ava before asking, “According to who?”
Another half shrug. “Lots of folks. What happened anyway? Didn’t she,” she pointed at Ava, “fire you?” She pointed at Regan, and something about the smirk on her face irritated the crap out of Ava.
Regan must’ve felt her tense up because she put a hand on her leg under the table, silently telling her to chill, and said to Hadley, “She didn’t fire me. We worked together, and I wasn’t holding up my part of the job, so my bosses let me go. It was the right call at the time. I’ve grown a lot since then.”
To say Ava was too stunned to speak was a colossal understatement. She sat there in shocked silence, hoping her eyes weren’t as wide as she felt they might be.
Meanwhile, Hadley looked a little bit like the wind had been taken out of her sails. “Oh. Well. Rumors can be wrong sometimes.”
“Yes, they can,” Regan said as Hadley slid back out of the booth, obviously disappointed, and headed back to the bar where three of the other assistants were hanging. Regan turned back to Ava. “That was odd.”
“Alcohol, man,” Ava said, then held up her own drink.
Regan laughed. “There was definitely some tipsiness happening there.”
“Definitely.” They sat in silence for a moment before Ava spoke again. “Thanks.”
“For?”
“For dismantling the rumor.” She said it with a grin.
“Nobody likes being fodder.”
“Nobody.”
“Anyway. You’re welcome.” Regan gave Ava’s leg a squeeze, and they both looked down, suddenly seeming to realize that Regan’s hand had been on Ava’s thigh the entire time. Regan smiled softly, met Ava’s gaze, and withdrew her hand. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be.” Ava sipped her cocktail, watching over the rim as a blush crept up Regan’s neck and settled into her cheeks. “You’re cute when you blush.”
Regan picked up her own drink and said before sipping, “Well, you’re hot when you flirt.”
Wow. Okay. We’re doing this now, are we?Ava wanted to be horrified, thought she probably should be—both by her own behavior as well as by Regan’s comment. But she wasn’t. At all. In fact, it made her feel warm. Unexpectedly. She was enjoying it and decided to keep playing. “Been a long time since I did it.”
“Flirted?”
Ava nodded.
“That’s a shame.”
“Yeah?”
