Ava

I woke up the next morning, rubbing the sleep away from my eyes and getting up. Pushing my hair up in a messy bun, I splashed water on my face, brushed, then went downstairs. Jett was looking through his phone and he gave me a smile when he saw me walk in. "There's pancakes for you on the table. Molly had to leave early so she already made breakfast."

"You had?"

"Yeah. I need to leave for office soon. Oh, by the way, I'm leaving for Cali day after tomorrow. Business trip."

"How long?" I asked him, cutting the pancake and pushing it in my mouth.

"A week or so probably."

I nodded. He went back to his phone, and I stared off into space. Jett and I had a bond most siblings did not, and I was grateful for that. I could talk to him about anything and he would never question me. That was our unspoken rule. No questions asked. We knew we would tell each other everything when we felt it was the right time. I sighed, looking his way. "Did you ever feel that Isabella and you won't work?"

He looked at me, surprised. He took a moment to answer that. "Yes, I did."

"What changed then?"

"Trying." He shrugged. "I didn't know if it would work or not. I thought it wouldn't, but that was just a possibility, Ava. You won't know for sure if you don't try."

"But-but did you never feel that you might get hurt in the process?"

"I would have gotten hurt nonetheless. Not being with her would have hurt me as well. And I would have regretted not trying later on in my life. Even if we wouldn't have worked, I would have been happy because I'd have known that I did everything to make it work, I wouldn't have any regrets."

I didn't say anything after that. That was exactly what Elias had said to me, and I'd made up my mind. We were trying. I regretted not doing it earlier, but better late than never. We'd take it slow, but we'll try.

"Why the serious convo in the morning?" Jett asked.

I shrugged. "Curious."

I thought about it in the shower as well. And my vivid imagination led me to to finger myself to ecstasy. I'd imagined it to be Elias of course. The experience was all the more pleasuring when he was in my mind. My nerves burned when I thought of him being in front of me instead of my mind. Yesterday was burning inside my memory.

Work was distracting. There was lots to do, and that away any thoughts about him. Kira and Keith were surprisingly very welcoming, they even bought me a welcoming gift. Brenda was already ready with my coffee the minute I arrived. At least some people liked me here. My boss had told me the Vegas department was too cautious regarding newbies. I'd expected all of them to be hostile.

Then another surprising thing happened to me. The door to my office opened when I was drafting a mail, and in came three men. They introduced themselves, gave me a heart warming speech and made me realise there were others who did actually like me. They were hesitant about the change of authority, but none questioned my expertise. 

"We're all trying, Miss Thompson." One had said. "We all respect you and deep down we know you're only here to help the Vegas dep. No one questions your motives. But with a new person comes in change. Mrs Collins had been our head for fifteen years. Everyone here is used to her ways. While we know you won't do anything wrong, change is scary sometimes."

"But change is necessary as well." I said. "Progress needs change. Development needs change. You can't expect to grow if you continue doing things the same way."

"True. Everyone will warm up to the idea. They just need some time."

 Well, that was all I needed. I was okay with time, but I needed the trust. No business worked without trust between the employees. That was the only reason why I introduced myself as a colleague. If they considered me to be their boss, they won't trust me like they did an ordinary employee. The Vegas department had rats. That's what my boss had told me. That's why it wasn't growing. Our strategies were always known to our competitors, and they were always a step ahead of us. The board had sent me here to be two steps ahead now. They needed someone observant, and I observed everything.

My job wasn't just heading. It also included snooping and firing. Snoop to find, fire to save. People were hostile to me because they knew there were loop holes I could easily find. They wanted to scare me away with their hostility and not do my job. But they didn't know the board had sent the most uncaring person to their city. Opinions of people who weren't important to me didn't matter. It was important for the job. More so for this one. 

Wrapping up for the day wasn't difficult. I didn't put myself in a position wherein I would have to spend extra time in cleaning up my office. I wasn't a clean freak, but I liked finding my things as soon as possible. I didn't have time to spare. I couldn't afford getting my office messy, then spending time to clean it.

My nerves were jittery when I parked my car outside the gym. The lady at the reception handed me a card, and said, "Your membership fee for the first month has already been paid off."

I'd walked into the gym expecting to see Elias. But I didn't, and that disappointed me. I went over to the changing room, washing my face and replacing my work clothes for the workout ones. When I opened the door to get out, my wrist was grabbed and I was dragged out. "Well, hello to you too."

Elias stopped in his tracks and turned around, grasping my jaw and crushing my mouth with his. My back hit the wall when he placed his palms on either side of my face, caging me in. He rested his weight on his arms, as I stood on my toes to grip his hair, pulling them back to make him arch his neck. He groaned lowly in his throat when I pressed a kiss to his neck, letting my teeth graze the spot. "Why did you pay for me?"

"Consider it a welcoming gift." He said.

"No." I said, clutching his shoulders and pushing him back an inch to look at his face. "You didn't do it as a gift. You did it because you're scared I wouldn't come back here."

"Well, can you blame me? You closed off yesterday. You run away every time we take a step further-"

"You think making me a member of a gym will prevent me from running away?" I asked him. "If I want, I'll run away even if you tie me down-"

"See that's not possible."

"-but I'm not. I won't. I mean it, Elias. We're trying, yeah? I want to try." I cupped his face. "I was overwhelmed, that's it. I'll take some time to get used to it. But that doesn't mean I'm running away, I promise."

I'd expected his eyes to soften, but they didn't. He clenched his jaw and looked away. "You promised me the last time as well."

"I did, and I was scared. Everything was moving too fast-"

"You think it'll move slow now? I'm not a very patient person, Ava. You know that better than anyone else. We've already fucked. I can't do slow. Not with you."

"I know." I said urgently. "I thought about it and I'm not scared this time."

"Why?"

"I'd taken you for granted." I replied, looking down. "I never realised that, but I knew you would always come back. However much we fought, whatever we did, you'd always come back. And the other day when you asked me to stop playing with your feelings, I knew you'd lost your patience. That scared me. I didn't want you to stop coming back. It's selfish, I'm sorry you had to fuck me to make realise we have something worth trying."

He stared at me for a few seconds, not saying anything. His face was expressionless and it was frustrating. I didn't know what he was feeling at the moment and I didn't like that. I sighed and looked down. He tilted my chin up, his eyes meeting mine. "You remember what you said to me four months back when you left?"

"We're opposite. We're like day and night. We need each other but-"

"There's a point in the sky when the sun almost sets, but it isn't dark like the night. There's no moon, but it isn't day either. It's a point where day and night mixes. They call it dusk." He stroked my cheek, his eyes penetrating in mine deeper than they ever had, and I felt my mouth part at how beautiful they looked. "And I promise to give you dusk every day, Ava."

-⍣-

It took me some time to write this chapter because it required a lot of emotions and I wanted to portray all of them at a single point of time. It wasn't easy, and I feel this could have come up a little better, but I wrote the most. 

Fun fact here, I'd initially named the book Day and Night. But then I felt the focusing point here was the time they meet, just like Ava and Elias meet sometime. Day and Night would have showed the opposite aspect, but Dusk shows their union. So I thought Dusk would suit the theme better.