35 Kendall strikes in Silence

"Good morning, Ava." Liam said with a warm, overly enthusiastic smile to Ava who had her ears plugged with her airpods.

It was eleven minutes past 7 and their ride was yet to reach here. Liam stood about 4 feet behind her, scared of creeping her out given the way it ended last night.

While he stared at her with lust and emotion, a car pulled over and it was their ride. Maybe now, she'd notice him and they'd figure things out.

"Good morning." Ava said to Liam without giving much time to her eye contact to penetrate any part of his body.

That was cold, and Liam who replied with an awkward smile she didn't see understood that.

After settling their bags in the booth of the car, Liam walked to the car alongside the fairly young driver.

He sat by the left side of the car next to Ava whose eyes did not leave the screen of her phone as she wore no visible facial expressions either.

Liam was clueless, and his face couldn't hide it any worse.

"Uhmmm, so, about yesterday, I'm sorry about the way things went down. I would have loved to give you a thousand pleasures…" Liam thought to himself as he ran dialogues about what to say to Ava during the course of the trip.

"oh, shut up, you pervert. She's not mad about the sex. You fucking hid her in a wardrobe. What were you thinking?" Another voice inside Liam's head said in response to his first thought.

Liam kept entertaining these sporadic thoughts that invaded his headspace while he looked outside through the glass of the window.

"you certainly are being a cold bitch right now, and maybe I'm impressed, but you're losing him, you know?!" A voice in Ava's head spoke to her while she barely concentrated on the sad Instagram feed in front of her face.

"So, what am I supposed to do? Talk to him? He probably already sees me as some other nasty one night stand, and he'll most likely reply me out of pity." Ava replied the voice in her head in silence as she stole a glance of Liam's face which was turned away from her.

The both of them kept nursing these sad, teenage-worthy theatrical thoughts in silence till they were at the office.

"We've arrived." The driver said to them both as he looked at their not-so-friendly faces through his mirror.

The words the driver uttered were the only words that had escaped the silence that thrived within the car.

"Okay. Thank you." Liam said before attempting to open the door and alight.

"Aren't you coming down, too?" Liam said with calmness towards Ava who looked at his face for the first time all morning.

"Uhmmm, no. I will get home first. I'll be back soon." Ava said with an incongruent fluency that screamed the word 'awkward' in capital letters.

"Okay." Liam replied with a bit of disappointment in his face as he got down from the car and headed to the booth where he'd kept his bag.

Liam didn't know what to feel. It was clearer than daylight; she was avoiding him.

"oh, fuck!" Ava yelled in a mid-soprano accent that the driver couldn't but notice.

"Is everything okay, ma?" The driver asked with his face tilting towards the back slightly.

"Yeah, it's okay. I'm okay." Ava replied.

"You sure as hell aren't! What the fuck was that?" A stern voice in Ava's head screamed.

Ava was frustrated and mad at herself.

Why did she do that?

After a dozen cuss words hurled at her by the voice in her head, she let out a troubling sigh as she looked at her apartment which was just a few metres ahead.

******** ***************

"I'm having a shit day, Handsome." A message popped up on Liam's phone while he sat and stared sadly into empty space.

"Who is this?" Liam said to himself without much intentionality behind his curiosity as he replied the message with those exact words.

"The one your lips desire to smash. Kendall." This message came in, and immediately, a feeling of thrill and modest excitement gripped Liam.

He smiled, wondering how she got his number, but that didn't matter.

"Hey, Kendall. I'm having a shit day myself, how can I help?" Liam didn't hesitate to hit the send button after typing it.

"It's best if our lips decide that. Meet me at the club in an hour. I'll pick you up."

Liam burst into a lustful smile after reading her message.

Maybe his weekend didn't have to go to shit after all.

Liam wondered how he and Ava were supposed to get through their joint task together. Charlotte had amended the preparatory budget they'd made and that meant that they had to rectify every bit of it all over again and with only a week as a deadline.

How frustrating! Liam and Ava understood that after-work hours were necessary if they were to get this done.

It was a murder mission that could turn out even worse if they couldn't figure out a way to settle their differences.