Intaglio: Dragons All The Way Down (14 page)

Ava put her
hands on her hips. 

“Well if you
don’t believe it, then what’s the problem?”  There was aggravation threaded
through her tone as much as persuasion.

“Last time was
just a little much,” Cole answered , his hands settling atop her shoulders as
he moved away from the window.

“But you don’t
believe it,” she grumbled, glaring at him.  “So why not?”

 “It’s just too
weird.”

“But Cole...”
Ava started, “if something’s changed, then I want to know what.  I want to know
how that happened!”

Cole tipped up her
chin so she looked at him.

“Yesterday was
big for me, Ava.  I finally told my Dad my side of things.”  He released a
heavy sigh before continuing, “I’ve been trying to do that for years.  It was
fucked-up and awful, but it happened.”

“I’m glad, but I
still think—”

“No,” Cole
interrupted.  “Look,” he said, “It’s probably just because of the things with
my dad, and the things your father told me about.  Mix it all together, my
dreams have changed.  Because things here…” he picked up her hand and placed it
against his chest, “...are changing.  So maybe my dreams are too.”

“Maybe,” Ava
muttered, narrowing her eyes like she didn’t quite believe him.

Cole’s mouth
twitched in amusement.

“Haven’t sold
you on a logical explanation yet?”

She rolled her
eyes.  Across the dark water, bands of gold and red light filled the sky,
making the dark bedroom less ominous.  She could see Cole’s face clearer now,
the anguish fading with the coming of day.

“I want Dad to
read your teacup before he leaves for Europe.”

“I’ll talk to
your Dad.  No problem,” Cole said.  “But I am not letting him read my teacup.”

Ava scowled
petulantly.

“Yet,” she
added.  Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper.

“What did you
say?”

She shrugged, a
hint of a smirk pulling up the corners of her mouth.

“Did you just
say, ‘yet’?” he asked, chuckling as he wrapped his arms around her.

“Maybe,” she
said, the admission muffled against his shoulder.  This time, the smirk was
definitely there.

Cole chuckled.

“Ava Brooks, you
might just be the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.”

“After you,” she
corrected.

Cole grinned,
twisting around to tickle her ribs.

“Oh, you’re
going to pay for that.”

With a shriek,
the two of them ran back to bed.

: : : : : : : :
: :

They woke to the
sound of persistent knocking.  It was late morning or very early afternoon,
warm yellow light outlining the heavy curtains.

“Fuck!” Ava
hissed.  “I’m not dressed!”

She pulled the
covers up to her chin so that only her face and the top of her head were
visible.  Cole stumbled out of bed.  He searched his duffel bag for a pair of
shorts.

“Hold on!” he
called over his shoulder.

A few more steps
and Cole pulled open the door.  He was expecting Nina, but to his surprise, it
was his father.

“Dad,” Cole
said, stepping back.

The older man
looked exhausted this morning, the lines around his eyes more deeply etched.

“Yes, uh...” he
said, clearing his throat.  “Nina’s feeling better this morning.  She’s making
a big breakfast for us all.  Sent me to get you both.”

He waited
awkwardly, not holding Cole’s eyes, just staring at the floor.  He was clearly
uncomfortable in the role of messenger.  Ava came to the rescue.

“Tell Nina we’ll
be right down,” she called from the bed.

“Right then,”
Frank muttered, “I’ll do that.”  Without a backward glance he made a hasty
retreat down the stairs.

Cole pushed the
door closed with a click, confusion colouring his features.  Usually he and
Frank just avoided each other after a fight; his father’s appearance this
morning had unsettled him.

“What the hell
was that about?” 

Ava grinned.

“I’d say that’s
your Dad making an effort.”

February flew by
even faster than its shortened calendar length would suggest.  It wasn’t long
before Cole and Ava left Oliver at the airport, the two of them driving back to
the city in the late-night lull of traffic.  Ava drove the truck while Cole
flipped through the radio stations.  Neither was really talking; exhaustion had
taken its toll.  Instead, they sifted through the fractured channels of
late-night talk radio, watching as the distant lights of the city began to
near. 

The green signs
announcing the different multi-lane overpasses began to glow in the truck’s
headlamps.  Catching sight of them, Ava aimed toward home.  Cole would be sleeping
in his dorm tonight; they had classes tomorrow morning, and they were both
exhausted. (Both of them knew what would happen if he stayed at her place.)
There was no rush now that her father was away on tour again, and both of them
knew Cole would be spending more nights at her apartment than ever.  For the
first time since her father had said goodbye an hour earlier, she smiled.  She
was going to miss Oliver terribly, of course, but she liked having the
apartment to herself.

Seeing the signs
for the main thoroughfare toward the Eastern side of the city's downtown core,
Ava moved to the far left lane.  Space between the streetlights shortened as
they neared the industrial area.  Her mind, as she drove, was on her father. 
Oliver never had read Cole’s teacup, though he’d offered twice.  True to his
word, Cole did talk about the dreams.  Her father’s take on the difference of
the ending was simply that things changed...
they were always changing
. 
Things from the present were just as likely to change the past as the other way
around.  Her father’s interpretation was that she and Cole’s connection now was
the deciding factor.  Ava liked that explanation, though she selfishly wished
that she’d been the one walking away with Cole, rather than his sister.

Cole might not
have agreed with him, but they discussed it at length.  (Ever the devil’s
advocate, Oliver argued that Cole’s refusal to have a teacup read meant he was
actually an agnostic, rather than atheist and Cole, undaunted, laughed it
off.)  Ava loved watching the two of them: Cole and her father had developed an
easy-going relationship built on respect.  The three of them had spent several
afternoons together in ‘their’ coffee shop, arguing about books they’d read,
ideas they had about life, and (of course) dreams.

Ava’s eyes
flickered to Cole where he sat next to her on the bench seat, his fingers
tapping along to a remixed song on the radio, eyelids heavy.  She was glad that
he was here now.   It was always hard, but she’d never felt her father’s leaving
with as much poignancy as she did this time.  It could have been because
university was ending, and at some point, she would be making choices about the
next year.  Or it could have been because this had been an amazing visit. 
Either way it hurt.

She followed the
paths of the streets, heading back to the university and Cole’s dorm, finally
pulling into the lot.  He kissed her hard – leaving her body throbbing with
desire – and Ava reminded herself what a good idea it had been to drive him
straight home.  Neither one would have slept otherwise.  She needed to go to
the printing studio before class tomorrow to try to get ahead on the prints. 
She already had five of the ten completed – two dry point and three etchings –
but true to Giulia’s description of the project, the multi-print plates were
hard to work with.  There were several deeply-gouged lines from Ava’s first
inexperienced prints that had been fighting her attempts to remove them. 
Tomorrow she was going to switch to the mezzotint rocker and blacken the entire
plate.

Once Cole was
inside his dorm, (after a discussion of why he should be staying with her after
all), she drove home through silent streets.  It was after midnight; the
apartment building and the hallway leading up seemed particularly barren. 
Reaching the door to the apartment, Ava’s eyes drifted to the end of the hall
and the fire escape.  The gouged brick was sitting inside, door closed tight.

It made her sad.

She fought to
get the keys in the lock, finally pushing the door open with her hip and
stepping into the sunken foyer.  It felt lonely, as if her father had taken
‘home’ with him when he’d gone.  The decision to leave Cole behind at his dorm
nagged at her.  Sighing, Ava shrugged off her jacket and headed down the
stairs, pausing as a pulsing blue light caught her gaze.

There was a
single message flashing on her machine.

With an
unexplained feeling of dread, Ava pressed the button.  There was a high-pitched
beep and a voice echoed on the other end of the line.

: : : : : : : :
: :

Cole wasn’t sure
when he first noticed the difference, but sometime during the start of March,
Ava became quiet and withdrawn.  There were several times when he found her
staring out the window during class, gone to the world.  She jumped when he
touched her, bringing her back to the present.  He asked her about it, but she
claimed that she was overwhelmed with her classes.  Just had a lot on her mind,
and that she missed her dad.  Cole accepted that. 

It made sense in
the beginning.

It wasn’t big
things at first, just an ever-growing series of small alterations to her
schedule that added up to something bigger.   Cole was concerned in a way he
couldn’t explain.  Like how she never usually smoked pot, but now, she almost
always followed Chim out the back door of The Crown to toke up.  How she
claimed to be painting almost every night in her studio, but didn’t want to
share the images with him.  That he didn’t even know for sure that she was
painting at all... because sometimes he drove by and the lights of the studio
were all off. 

These were the
nights she wouldn’t answer her phone.  There were other things too.   Like the
way she rolled away from him after they made love, curling into a ball and
falling into restless slumber.

Those kind of
things.

It didn’t seem
to be school-related.  Besides the printing project that was driving both of
them crazy, Ava seemed to be doing fine.  Cole’s life had developed a stability
it hadn’t had in years. Nina’s continuing attempts to encourage Cole and Frank
to spend time together were paying off, and she and Ava had become close during
their weekends together.  Even the tension in the Thomas household didn’t
really seem to be much of an issue.  Frank and Cole had taken definite steps
toward reciprocation.  It was a very slow process and there had been another
blow up in the meantime.  But they were starting to talk.

It was just Ava.

: : : : : : : :
: :

He caught up to
her as she was hoisting an overnight bag into the passenger seat of her truck. 
She was dressed in nicer clothing than usual: black slacks and a grey sweater. 
Her hair was curled, and she wore a smudge of makeup, though her face was wan,
dark circles under reddened eyes.  It was the clothing that tipped him off: the
lack of jeans and leather jacket were a glaring red flag.  Cole scowled as he
approached, his hand closing the open door with a bang as he reached her
truck.  Ava jumped at the sound, blanching as she saw him.

“Is it Kip?” he
asked, face furious. 

There was no
preamble.  The two of them had danced around this long enough.  Her last-minute
cancellation of this weekend’s trip to Frank and Nina’s after doing exactly the
same thing the previous weekend had been the final clue.  Cole might be in
love, but he was not stupid, and he knew he’d seen her truck headed out to the
Coast the previous Saturday.

She was having
an affair.

“Wh-what?”  Ava
asked, stepping back slightly.   Cole followed, pressing into her space.

“You
cancelled... again.  I know what’s going on.  You’re screwing around behind my
back.”

She blinked,
eyes glancing to the side and then back to him, confused.

“I’m… I’m not,”
she said, voice breaking,  “I just... I had something to do.  I had a meeting
about the National Galle—”

Cole laughed
bitterly.

“That was the
excuse last weekend, Ava!  Get your fucking story straight!”

She gaped, her
mouth opening, then closing like a fish out of water. 

“There’s nothing
going on, Cole,” she gasped, voice barely controlled.

“You’re lying!”

She shook her
head wordlessly. He stepped forward, a disgusted sneer twisting his face into a
harder version of himself.  A
meaner
version...

“Tell me, Ava,”
he hissed.  “Do you think about him when we’re together?”

For a moment he
thought she was going to slap him, because her hand pulled back, but just as
quickly, she dropped it, holding it in a fist at her side.