To Caress My Day

Shaky on whether or not she should believe Seth’s little hurtful rant to be true, Avery tilted her head at his much healthier state and asked him outright, not wanting to beat about the bush when it came to his statement of him having moved on from her. “Seth, are you saying all this to try and hurt my feelings?”

Seth scoffed and rolled his eyes at his ex-fiance. Of course she’d make this all about herself! This was Avery he was talking to, the most self-centered woman on the planet!

“Because if you are, it won’t work. One reason is because I, myself, am madly in love with someone new. I’ve moved on too.” Avery professed, watching the shock cross his face at the same time her own softened with remorse on how she had ended things between the two of them even after all this time. “The second reason would be that I know…I know I deserve your unkind words for what I did to you. If hatred is the way you wish to address me from here on out then I’d say I’ve very much earned it.”

Seth gaped at her, jaw dropped and mouth wide open. This was an unanticipated and very mature turn of events. The old Avery wouldn’t throw up the white flag and call for peace with an angelic smile to match! Hell no, she’d fight back, always countering accusations thrown her way with quick-witted blame aimed directly at him that used to leave him dumbfounded early on in their relationship.

Seeing she struck him speechless once again like old times, Avery smiled sweetly up at him. “Seth, I’m happy you found someone, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart! I am SO happy for you.”

And Avery truly meant it, Seth could tell. They’d been in a relationship for four years, of course he’d be able to tell if she was fibbing or not! His mouth opened and closed several times as he stood there like an idiot thinking of how he’s supposed to respond to this docile version of Avery. He just found this candor to be so odd and very un-Avery-like. “Uh…yeah. Thank you.”

Because Seth was still looking at her like she had two heads, Avery tried to make their meeting less awkward by playing a guessing game on who his new love interest was. “So, let me guess who this lucky lady is. Amanda Byes?”

“What!? No!” Seth exclaimed with a frown, not getting where that starlet came from so out of the blue. “Why the hell would you ever think I’d be dating her for?”

“Cameron Diaz?” Avery suggested, moving onto the next name on her long checklist.

Seth rolled his eyes at the next recognizable name. Now this one Avery didn’t just pull out of thin air! He’d heard the gossip going around Hollywood a hundred times before. “Who the hell was the idiot that started that stupid rumor anyway?”

Ignoring his question, Avery went on to the third list on her name. “Ashley Green?”

Shaking his head, Seth crossed his arms over his chest. “Nope, never been a fan of the tip of her nose. I don’t think I could get past it. Call me picky, if you want.”

Smirking playfully, Avery mentions a very familiar and treasured name. “Nicole Sullivan?”

The name brought up a beautiful petite blond woman that Seth greatly revered working alongside on the side of comedy. Closing his eyes, he tilted his head back to the ceiling and gushed. “Damnit, you know I love that woman, Avery! BUT never like that. She’s family so you can guess again.”

“Eliza Dushku?” Avery listed next, arching a curious brow at him.

“Okay, stop! This is getting out of hand. I shouldn’t have told you to guess again.” Seth finished, his hands going up to stop her from uttering another name off of her list of women. “Have you not seen her in that show Buffy? She’d kick my ass for asking for her number!”

“Fair enough.” Avery accepted, moving on. “Alexandra Breckenridge?”

Shaking his head because he wasn’t gonna cooperate in her guessing game anymore, Seth silently pretended to zip his mouth shut with a smile. If he continued to play along, Avery was gonna list every single starlet working in Hollywood at this very moment. That was a LONG list, and he didn’t have that kind of time right.

Laughing at his mime-like declaration of silence, Avery laments with a pout. “Why not, Seth? It’s because I was getting close, wasn’t I? I knew it!”

Refusing to let her walk away with that confidence, Seth unzipped his lips to reply. “Far from it.”

“Who is this mystery woman then?” Avery asked Seth, her hands planted on her hips as she patiently waited for him to identify the female. “Is it somebody I know?”

Seth shook his head, pondering on how much of Twigs he was allowed to mention when people asked him about his love life. Obviously not her full name. “No, she’s an ordinary woman like the people walking around us right now. But unlike them she possessed extraordinary beauty.”

Avery’s perfectly groomed brows shot upwards in surprise. Her ex-fiance had never dated an ordinary person, at least not after he hit it big in the industry. Before she went out with Seth, he had already dated a whole slew of Hollywood’s most beautiful divas. The media knew of his track record.

Naturally of course, Avery would have been on that list too had she not yearned to make something of herself other than being a simple model or actress in Hollywood. No, she wanted to rule a different kind of industry, make her own brand and such. It took a long time and some hard work, but eventually she made her dream a reality.

“Wow.” Avery mumbled softly to herself, nodding slowly as she tried to visualize Seth with an uninteresting woman.

“What? Why do you look like that?” Seth asked, frowning at her. She appeared astonished by the tiny little tidbit he dropped of his girlfriend who will remain an enigma even if it killed him!

“Nothing, nothing at all. I just…” Avery began before trailing off, unclear of how to say it without sounding impolite.

“You just what?” Seth prodded, wanting her to finish what she had to say.

“I just…” Avery attempted again, trailing off briefly before shoving herself off the edge. “I just never pegged you for dating a…plain person, that’s all.”

Avery’s choice of words made her sound like a blue-blooded member of some royal family. But that was the way she was since reaching the utmost achievement status in her career. She looked down on others now that weren’t on her superior level which always annoyed the hell out of Seth. To him, people were people to him whether they had millions or pennies in their pockets. He treated them all the same.

Shrugging his shoulders, Seth tried to change the subject. “It’s not a big deal, really. I’m not exactly the kind of scumbag preying solely on the young naive starlets of Hollywood like the media thinks I am.”

Avery scoffed, replying with one single drawn out word that imparted her distrust in him. “Riiiight.”

Frowning at her, Seth demanded. “Whoa, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, it means nothing.” Avery responded, averting her eyes as she began to backtrack. It wasn’t the right move for her to make in such a mistrustful tone, and yet she made it anyway. She was trying to handle her first conversation with Seth since their split better than she handled all the past ones when they were still together. And yet here she was making things worse. If she wasn’t careful, they’d fight, and then drudge up the past she was evading returning back to.

“Says the woman who dumped her fiance of four years on some bullshit lie!” Seth spitefully unearthed, finding her switch in attitude provoking the anger in him. It was deja vu all over again.

“Must we really go there right now?” Avery asked him, rolling her eyes at that reprehensible failings.

“You started it!” Seth grumbled childishly with a sneer.

Avery stared dejectedly at him, hating that this is where they were now. She wanted them to be better, but according to what she spotted over his shoulder, their time had run out to make such amends.