Love In Between

The day had barely even started and Bruce was already worn out from the series of meetings he needed to attend to , his phone rang and he picked it up and almost hung up.

He knew quite well it wouldn’t go off well, his mother would make a big deal out of the situation —- given the fact that things were not going well between him and Nora, one would think Nora had his parents on some kind of deal something he couldn’t place his fingers on else, why would they insist on them getting married?

“Good day mom if you don’t mind I’ll call you I have this —-”

“Listen to me carefully Bruce, we need to talk,”

Bruce sighed”Okay then, I’ll come over to the house so we could discuss whatever it is you need to talk about,”

His mother’s laughter sounded over the phone, “And you think I’ll buy one of your excuses like I always do? Bruce I know you well enough to know you won’t come over to the house,”

“When was the last time you came to pay me and your father a visit?… Last year, two years ago I can’t even remember the last time my own son came to visit!” She added in her silvery voice

“Dad said not to come if I don’t do this bidding,” he added—- he missed going to the house and spending time with his parents, the smell of his mother’s chocolate pie after lunch and her steak grill recipe she promised not to tell anyone— it was her own secret to getting her family together.

“And you know why he did that,” she said in his father’s defense

The words of his mother were starting to get at him, he got up and paced around his office—- there was a long pause, none had anything to say for a while.

“What do you intend to do? Do you want to be at loggerheads with your Father over something so frivolous?” Bruce thought she asked too many questions at once he didn’t know which to respond to first.

“Bruce I need you to come to your senses and realize that things don’t always go as planned, they don’t and the sooner you realize that the faster it’ll be for you to come to terms with being with Nora forever,” she blurted out—-

Bruce could feel the irritation in her voice, there were possibilities that his father was acting strange and all because of him.

“Mother I told you before Dad knows too, my heart isn’t with Nora,” Bruce replied, angry that his mother had to call him because of Nora and actually not because she misses him back at home.

“You wouldn’t dare go against your father’s decision you should know better than that,” she hissed

“But that’s what I want, I’m a grown man now Mom not that kid in highschool you make decisions for I can—-”

“Then you have to get ready to leave the company, I called you to know your plans but it looks like you’re even worse than your Dad complain you are,”

His stomach flips at the words from his mother, maybe his Father was right maybe she was right too—- he was worse than they thought but even more cruel to Ava, he disappeared from her life just to please them and be that son they’ve always wanted, live the kind of life they had spent their entire young age building for him.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

And yet, they still think of him as a weakling, nothing ever made sense to them except their company—- “Well I really do think both you and father are the most selfish people to ever walk this earth…. I have to go now Mom,” he said and hung up before she could reply.

He slouched into the chair—life hasn’t been so fair to him, ever since Ava came into his life nothing worked in their favor maybe the clouds would one day fold in on them and take breath out of their life.

Bruce still thinks of Ava the way he did the first day he set eyes on her— beautiful and without blemish, no matter how much he tried to deceive himself he knew there was still love for her in his heart.

He could only hope she still loved him—- Although he wasn’t entirely sure he could only try, for the sake of his daughter and his heart.

Bruce made up his mind to talk with her when he goes to the house to visit his daughter, Ava had a thing for macdonald chips and grilled lamb steak so on the way to her house he took another route and stopped by the restaurant to get her favorite grills.

Chloe was at the porch with her mother and the nanny when Bruce drove into the house, she was elated to see him and ran towards him.

He walked towards Ava who was sitting at the porch doing office work, “Here I got this for you,” he said handing the takeout he bought for her.

Ava smiled at the warm gesture from Bruce, “oh thanks, I’ll enjoy this,”

They both stared into each other’s eyes, none of them strong enough to break it.

“I have to go now, thank you once again for this,” she said and went into the house to allow him and Chloe enough time to catch up.

After a while, Bruce knocks on Ava’s door, Ava replies, she keeps her laptop and her journal by the side of her bed when he walks in

“Ummm…. I didn’t mean to distract you from work… I just wanted to ummm—” he opened his mouth but the words didn’t come out to his surprise. Ava stood up and held his hands

“It’s fine I was almost rounding up,” she replied—- she had spent most of her time trying to forget him, she doubted even that ever happened, he was hot and confident, a lot more homely than Andrew is.

He pulled her face to face with him and leaned his face forward so their lips would touch, she quickly pulled away from him and asked for him to leave the house, she didn’t know how she’d have felt if the kiss had happened.