But quickly, myughter stopped, and my humor disappeared. I remembered the reason that I had called my friend in the first ce. What if Ethan was waiting at Alexander’s door so that he could fight him?
Just the thought of something happening to Alexander made cold fear shoot down my spine. And to make matters worse, he could get hurt because of his involvement with me. I didn’t have any doubt that Alexander could hold his own against Ethan, but I knew my ex- husband. He never fought fair and wasn’t afraid to fight dirty. I wasn’t sure if he even knew the word honorable.
“Please, Ava, just find a way to get rid of Ethan by whatever means necessary,” I said and opened the cooler’s door and grabbed Alexander a water bottle. Then, I walked around the store and just put random stuff in my basket to exin my long absence. I wasn’t even looking at the things I was buying.
“I will,” my friend replied. “Don’t worry, Olivia. You can count on me.”
After we hung up, I bought my items. The total was a lot higher than I was expecting, but I handed over my credit card withoutint. Then, I walked back outside. Ethan was leaning against the side of the building with his hands in his pockets. I tried to act normal as I walked toward him, but the smile on my face felt forced.
Distracted, I handed Alexander the grocery bag so he could get his bottle of water. I didn’t even consider the fact that I had just put a bunch of random stuff in my basket. My mouth dropped open in shock when Alexander started to pull out my purchases. The first few things
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weren’t so bad. There was his bottle of water, a loaf of whole wheat bread, a bar of chocte, and a bag of chips.
But then, he pulled out a bottle of cheap whiskey and three boxes of jumbo–sized condoms.
I squeaked, and a hot blush spread throughout my whole body. How had I not noticed that I grabbed those things? Sure, I had been distracted on my call with Ava, but still. I couldn’t believe I did that.
Alexander’s face was unreadable when he held the boxes of condoms in his hands. “Care to exin?”
Frantically, I searched my mind for an exnation. “Um, well, I wanted a box of a certain type of candy, and I guess I just grabbed the Wrong box.”
Inwardly, I cringed. My excuse sounded weak even to my own ears.
“But you couldn’t have grabbed three boxes in a row by ident,” he pointed out. “Besides, the condoms and candy aren’t even in the same aisle.”
I blew out a long breath, and then my shoulders slumped in defeat. “Fine, I’d been distracted because I was on the phone in the store, and I was just grabbing things at random,” I admitted.
Realization sparked in Alexander’s eyes. “So, that’s why you offered to get my water from the store? It wasn’t because you wanted to thank me for dinner.
I bit my lip as guilt made my stomach churn. When he put it that way, it sounded way more deceitful than I thought it would be when I did it.
“So, who did you call that you needed to speak with alone? Why couldn’t you call this person around me?” Alexander asked.
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“Ava,” I answered, knowing that the truth was best in this situation.
I knew that he wasn’t too happy with me for talking behind his back. Tonight, back at his hotel, it felt like we had been the most honest that we had been with each other ever. But now that he caught me being secretive, it seemed like all the progress we had made had been wiped clean, and now we were back at square one.
We began to walk down the street again, and the mood between us was ice cold. I tried to think of a way to lighten things up again. I pulled out the bar of chocte from the bag and offered it to him.
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