Ava

I pressed the phone closer to my ear to hear what Patricia was saying. There was a lot of noise from her end, and I suspected the network in my area wasn't too good either. "What?"

"I said he was convicted." She said, a bit clearer this time. "This morning. Hayden and Robert gave their statements."

"Ah thank fuck." I breathed out, walking faster. 

"Congratulations, Ava. Take care."

A woman guided me to the conference hall. I'd flown to Florida yesterday for a very important merge, and I was accompanied by Keith and another person who I'd never really conversed with. The meeting went smooth, our teams agreed on some mutual points, and then we were off.

"Kira's moving to Dallas." Keith broke the silence when we were in the car. "I-I just thought you should know."

I looked at him. "I never meant for your relationship with her to be ruined because of business-"

"But it wasn't business." He gave a humourless chuckle. "She made it personal when she couldn't find another guy to sleep with." Then he looked at me with an urgency. "How could she sleep with the same man who slept with her mother?"

"Sometimes, people just surprise you." I said after a while. "And surprise is not always good."

I didn't know what else to say to him, because this was one of those situations where I couldn't put myself in his shoes. Kira's family having a history with Fred was something I couldn't have ever predicted. And I wouldn't have known if not for Keith.

She had called me yesterday when I was at the airport. Her voice had sounded like she'd been crying, and I tried finding some kind of sympathy in me, but I couldn't. I was loyal to my company, and she had done something unforgivable. She had lied, she had betrayed. 

She'd called to plead for an appreciation letter. The board had denied her, and that was out of the question. She requested me to give her an informal letter, drafted solely by me, signed by me. It wouldn't be much effective like the board's would, but I was still known in the business world, it would have a huge impact.

I didn't know why she expected me to comply. I didn't understand why she even thought I'd help her. She told me I was being too harsh, and that got me into thought. Was I? Was I really being too harsh? Should I have forgiven her for siding with the enemy and letting them have what was rightfully ours? If yes, so be it. Business was harsh. If she wasn't capable of handling it, she shouldn't have joined.

I'd tried to be polite, but I saw the face of Jason White at the back of my head, I remembered his pleading voice when he'd called me asking for the same thing. And that made me harder on her. She knowingly let him suffer for someone else's sins. He didn't deserve any of that, and karma came back to bite her in the ass.

The flight back to Vegas was at midnight. I bid farewell to my employees, changing my routes to go to my room. They asked me if I wanted to join them for drinks, and I politely declined. All I wanted right now was a shower, and a bed.

And Elias.

And maybe it was telepathy. Or maybe it was coincidence that my phone buzzed in my purse, signalling me a text. I miss you.

My fingers pressed his contact on their own, and seconds later his voice captured all my senses. "I wish you were here."

 I'd stepped out of the elevator, and was making my way over to my room. "Me too."

"I didn't call because I thought you would be busy."

"I'm never busy for you." I murmured, swiping my card on my door, shutting it behind me. Taking a deep breath, I removed the heels, then dropped down on the bed. "Never."

"That makes me happy." Even though I couldn't see him, I knew he was smiling. "Very happy."

"What are you doing? How was practice?"

"Good. Jamie returned, you know the guy I made you fight with."

"He did?" I asked. "And he seemed serious?"

"Pretty much. Changed a lot. Don't know how though. He told me he wanted to fight you again."

"Why? One ass whooping wasn't enough for him?" I chuckled.

He let out a small laugh. "Maybe not. Nothing's enough with you. I fly to Spain next week, by the way. Come with me?"

"Let me check my schedule, okay? Though I don't think I'm busy next week."

There was a pause. Then, "I miss you, Ava. More than I have ever missed you."

"I'll be back before you know it." I said. "I promise."

My heart was heavy when he hung up. I didn't sleep, not until Hayden called me to inform we had to leave. I didn't feel an ounce of sleep all the way to the flight. We waited at the airport, I didn't remember what I did the whole time. The flight wasn't that long, and once we landed back in Vegas, I pretty much realised I'd spent the past couple of hours doing absolutely nothing.

Elias came to pick me up. He hadn't told me he would, and I hadn't expected him to. But when I saw him outside, dressed in light grey sweatpants and a black tee, his face a little too fresh for this time, I froze. 

He'd smiled when he saw me, taking slow steps in my direction, meeting me halfway as I flung my arms around his neck and held my waist, picking me up. Everything disappeared. I could only see him, only feel him. And I felt the happiest I'd ever felt.

"I didn't want to wait for another half an hour to see you." He murmured in my ear.

"I missed you." I closed my eyes and tightened my arms. "So much."

I held on for a few more seconds, after which we let go of each other. He held my suitcase in one of his hands, holding mine with the other and intertwining our fingers as we walked out. 

Later that day as we lay on the bed, side by side, looking at each other, I asked him a question I'd been wanting to ask for a long time. "What did you do to Fred?"

If he was surprised I knew, he didn't show it. I didn't think he didn't know that I knew. "Nothing."

"What?"

"I realised I had to trust you enough to take care of your own problems. So I didn't hit him. Because that could've created more problems for you. I went to his house and told him to never come near you again. A little less politely than this."

I let out a small chuckle, but didn't say anything. His arm around my waist tightened, and I felt his gaze at me. I looked at him, in his eyes, and stared. No words were spoken, his eyes told me everything I needed to know. 

I felt it in the atmosphere. I felt it in the way he held me and looked in my eyes. I felt it in those unspoken words between us. Love.

"Say it." He whispered, as if he read my mind. "Please, I want to hear you say it."

There was love. Maybe it had always been there and I'd been too stupid to realise it. Or maybe I'd realised but never admitted it to myself.  

"Do you?" I asked softly, softer than I even knew I could speak. The rest of the words were unspoken, but he understood. Do you love me?

"Yes, always. I have always-" I felt his throat close up. He shut his eyes, then blinked and opened them again.

My heart was beating wildly in my chest and I was trying hard not to show it on my face. His confession shocked me. It wasn't what I'd expected him to say. "Why didn't you- why did you not say anything?"

"I did. You didn't understand it."

Even though this conversation was so serious, I felt my lips turn up into a smile. "That can't be labelled as a confession."

"A confession's a confession in whatever language it is." He said, tracing his finger on my cheek, untangling a curl of my hair from behind my ear to wrap it around his finger. "I wanted to be selfish."

"How?"

"I kissed you first. I asked you out first. I initiated the first time we had sex. I asked you to be my girlfriend." He breathed out. "I wanted you to be the first one to say those words. I wanted to be the one on the receiving end once." 

"But you already said it."

"I couldn't keep it inside me any longer. I had to let it out. But you didn't know. So you don't know how it feels like to hear it. So technically, I can still be selfish. Let me be selfish, Ava. Please, just once."

I felt my heart about to burst from how emotional I felt that moment. Elias looked at me with an expression full of fierce adoration, and I knew he loved me. He didn't even have to say it. I would have known even if we hadn't had this conversation. He didn't need me to say those words to know if I loved him or not, he already knew the answer. But he needed to hear them for tranquillity. For his peace of mind.

"I love you." I whispered. "I didn't know until the night of the charity ball. But I think I loved you way before that. And I know you'll ask me to say it again because one time isn't enough. And I promise I'll make up for all these years I've hurt us both. I love you, Eli. I'll always love you."

He didn't react for a few seconds. I couldn't read his face, and even though I knew he'd say it back, I still clenched my fists in anticipation. He closed his eyes, tight enough that they crinkled, biting his bottom lip. When I raised my thumb to stroke his cheekbone, he very softly crept his head into my neck. A while later I felt his tears.

"I never thought I'd hear you say it." He sniffed. "I'd lost all hope. Everything. Then I saw you in the ring that night and I promised myself to give it one last chance. Give us a last chance. Because god knows how much I wanted to make it work, Ava. You can never, ever imagine how much I needed you. How much I still do."

"And you can never imagine how much I beat myself up everyday for hurting you so much. For running away from something so beautiful, something that had always been right in front of my eyes. Something I tried finding in other people but no one came anywhere close to this. I'm sorry, Elias. I'll say that everyday. I promise."

"I don't need that." He looked up, and my breath hitched when I saw his face. He was crying, and even though I knew the tears were that of happiness, I hated them in his eyes. I swore to myself from that moment I would do anything in my power to never see them again. "Just tell me you love me everyday. That's enough."

"It's always been you." I said, brushing my lips against his. I didn't care he hadn't said it back. I knew he loved me. "Somewhere inside me I always knew that. It scared me earlier. Now it's my biggest strength."

He grasped my chin and pushed my face away to get a better look at me. His eyes were still shining with unshed tears and I swiped my thumb over his cheek to wipe those which had fallen. "You mean that?"

"Yes."

He grinned, crushing his mouth over mine, my eyes fluttering close when his fingers tangled in my hair and tilted my head. "I love you." He said against my lips. "I have loved you for a long, long time, Ava. Maybe that's what gave me the strength and patience to not give up even when you gave up on us. Because deep down I knew we were meant to be."

"I love you." I said again. I'd said it for the first time, and I realised I loved saying it. I didn't want to stop.

"I love you, Ava." He murmured. "You're mine forever."

"Thank you for giving me dusk." I closed my eyes when he tightened his grip around my waist and pulled me closer. "Thank you for making me see it."

"Thank you for being the timer to my bomb. We only create chaos, isn't that what you said?" I felt him bump his nose against mine. "How's this for a chaos, amor?"

the end

-⍣-

I was close to tears when I wrote this chapter. This is one of my favourite chapters in this story. One because, they confessed OMG! Men showing emotions is one of my biggest weaknesses. Two because, this is it.

Thank you for sticking with me till the end. I appreciate your support more than anything in this world, and really hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I liked writing it. I've grown so much as a writer, and the fact that it is visible is heart whelming.

Before you take off, just a small request here on my part. If you liked the story but forgot to vote, please take a moment and vote on the chapters you liked. Votes really help writers by telling them people like their work and it also helps the story to grow.

I have left the story on a pretty open end, again because that gives me scope to plan something in the future. I assure you they were always supposed to have a happy ending, I hate sad endings. However I would have ended it, they would always get a happy end.

If you liked this one, go check out my other works, Catch You, and No Lies. I'll still say my writing's better in this one, but I'd appreciate any support nonetheless.

I love each one of you with all my heart. Always.